Rated: R
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Year: 2008
Boobs: Zero
One Sentence: Not so grand.
The little poker movie that could. Or at least tired. All sorts of comics in a movie about poker. David Cross, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Farina, and the list goes on and on and on. It is a comedy about a poker tournament, shot much like any episode of the World Poker Tour except with a little more back story about each character. It was a blend of WPT and a mockumentary. So that sounds pretty good. But you have to be careful with the mockumentaries, they can get very stale, and I think the grand fell down that hole.
Perhaps I built it up in my head, with the cast that was listed on the poster and being about poker, I just felt it was going to be comedy gold. It just never lived up to the hype I put on it. The movie was funny in some parts, but it was more just a slow moving story line about poker players that had some funny parts, than a solid comedy. I am not sure if it was trying to just be more tame or the jokes were not that funny. It never delivered the solid hits I was looking for, well almost.
Werner Herzog was in the cast, he is a film maker with a thick German accent. He has made a few movies including Grizzly Man. Well he played "The German" and was hilarious. He fit the role perfectly and really delivered a quality funny performance, especially for a film maker/actor. Another great part was my Chris Parnell, who played a socially inept genius and delivered another funny part that helped keep the movie from being way too boring to bare. These 2 guys however could not keep this movie from being just an ok movie that I would not even recommend to rent. So I guess skip it.
