Lucky You
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Movie Reviews of Lucky You
Movie Review: OK
Summary: 3 Stars
if you play any cards what so ever then you wont like this movie. If you have so babe around your soldier and want to get in her pants, then this movie might workMovie Review: Poker Pro's
Summary: 3 Stars
The movie was saved by some FLEETING captures of my fellow Poker players!
(Outside of Duvall, Berrymore shined brightest.)
Movie Review: Good date movie, but not worth going to the theaters to see it.
Summary: 3 Stars
It was an okay film and good for that Friday night stay-in when you can eat popcorn and watch it with your girlfriend.Movie Review: Why poker and movies just don't mix
Summary: 2 Stars
**1/2
Only the most die-hard poker fans will find much to cheer about in "Lucky You," a Freudian drama set in the high-stakes world of the Vegas strip.
Eric Bana ("Munich") and Robert Duvall star as Huck and L.C. Cheever, two world-class poker players with many unresolved father/son issues between them. Huck resents the fact that he's had to live virtually all his adult life in the shadow of his famous father who, with his constant carousing, stealing and gambling, made life a living hell for Huck's mother virtually till the day she died. What Huck doesn`t realize - and this is where Doctor Freud comes in - is that he is pretty much following in his father`s footsteps both in his choice of profession and his relations with women. Meanwhile, L.C. hangs out around the casinos and coffee shops of the city trying to reconcile with his boy, while at the same time, doling out unasked-for advice about how the young man should be living his life both at and away from the poker table. Drew Barrymore completes the cast as Billie Offer, a young, morally upright ingenue from Bakersfield who has come to Sin City to begin her career as a singer and who winds up falling under the spell of the ethically-challenged Huck. Or could it be that the beatific Billie is really an angel of the Lord come to lead the iniquitous Huck out of this modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah?
The scenes between Bana and Barrymore are probably the best in the film and one wishes that more time would have been spent developing that relationship instead of sitting around the poker table. For whenever the story moves into the casino, the movie stops dead in its tracks, proving once again that poker, by its very nature, makes for one of the least compelling sports ever to be depicted on film. Anyone without a thorough working knowledge of the ins and outs of Texas Hold'em, in particular, is going to find himself lost in all the arcane trivia of the poker-playing scenes (which take up quite a large chunk of the movie's overall running time, I might add). Even worse is the fact that the father/son angle is so cliched and hackneyed at this point that even actors of the caliber of Bana and Duvall (and they are both excellent) can't be expected to really pull it off.
There are some quality elements in "Lucky You." Director Curtis Hanson, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth, proves yet again - as he did in "LA Confidential" and "8 Mile" - that he knows how to extract the essence of a locale to build atmosphere and mood. Moreover, the interactions between Huck and Billie are often flavorful and intriguing (which is more than can be said for those between Huck and his dad). The performances are uniformly impressive, with Barrymore, in particular, showing a bit more range here than she has in most of her previous roles.
Hanson has populated his film with a number of real life poker playing celebrities, which may be of interest to the aficionados but won't mean much to the rest of us. Sad to say, but the lackluster "Lucky You" is unlikely to appeal to anyone not already passionate about professional poker - and unlikely to garner the sport itself many new fans.
Movie Review: Flawed if not admirable attempt
Summary: 2 Stars
After the surprise critical and semi-commercial hit of L.A. Confidential, director Curtis Hanson followed it up with the equally critically-lauded Wonder Boys that, despite two separate theatrical releases, failed to connect with a mainstream audience. Even with the presence of Cameron Diaz, Hanson's In Her Shoes (Widescreen Edition) received a mixed critical reaction and lackluster box office. His latest film, Lucky You, was supposed to be released a year ago and the studio sat on it while they figured out how to market the film. The release date was pushed back on numerous occasions before it was unceremoniously released on the same weekend as Spider-Man 3 (2-Disc Special Edition). This is usually the sign that said film is a mess.
Lucky You tries hard to immerse us in the world of poker by throwing around authentic lingo and populating the film with cameos from real-life poker champs but it often feels forced and too slick unlike Robert Altman's California Split which is a much more successful, character-driven film with a less polished veneer. Ultimately, Hanson is a studio director who makes traditional genre films and Lucky You ends nice and neat with all of the conflicts cleanly resolved. This makes its lack of success even more baffling. Are audiences too jaded to accept this kind of movie or has the public's fascination with poker past its prime?
"The Players at the Table." According to Hanson, all of the poker players in the film are real, some famous and some not. For the director, it was important to do this in order to give the film an authenticity and to surround the actors with skilled players to make them look good.
"The Reel Deal - The Time and Place of Lucky You." Hanson did research in Vegas at the 2003 World Series of Poker and was inspired by the winner, a guy who was an Internet poker player. After that event, the game's profile grew immensely in popularity.
Finally, there are nine minutes of deleted scenes that include more of Billie singing. We also get to see what Suzanne does for a living and more of her relationship with Billie.