I apologize ahead of time, and I really don't revel in trashing an indie film. This documentary was made before the so-called "Black Friday" of online poker in 2011. But since it apparently didn't have distribution till after that time, they added footage and attempted to tag on Black Friday and make that be some thru line to the movie. It doesn't work.
Primarily because the story is a mess, and there's no thru line in the first place. All this film is, is bits and pieces about poker, with poker pros giving soundbites. It's nothing more than that. Yes, they explore the exponential growth of poker, and attribute it to several factors. But so what? That's not a reason to make a movie about poker. What was the point of this documentary, dear filmmakers? What were you trying to say with this film? Anything?
They also used a tremendous amount of footage that was archival footage. But much of it was incredibly blurry, due to horrible resolution. Of course, archival footage isn't going to be 1080p, but *some* of that footage should never have been used. I've never seen any production use archival footage that looked this bad. If it wasn't for the poker stars in this film, it would not have gotten onto Showtime.
There was one amusing aspect, I will say. Watching footage of some of these poker stars pre-Black Friday, and hearing what they say... when later it turned out they were crooks. For example, Howard Lederer says at one point (pre-Black Friday), "The heros of poker don't cheat." LOLOL. Well, Mr. Lederer, from someone still owed money by Full Tilt Poker, you are NO hero.
Primarily because the story is a mess, and there's no thru line in the first place. All this film is, is bits and pieces about poker, with poker pros giving soundbites. It's nothing more than that. Yes, they explore the exponential growth of poker, and attribute it to several factors. But so what? That's not a reason to make a movie about poker. What was the point of this documentary, dear filmmakers? What were you trying to say with this film? Anything?
They also used a tremendous amount of footage that was archival footage. But much of it was incredibly blurry, due to horrible resolution. Of course, archival footage isn't going to be 1080p, but *some* of that footage should never have been used. I've never seen any production use archival footage that looked this bad. If it wasn't for the poker stars in this film, it would not have gotten onto Showtime.
There was one amusing aspect, I will say. Watching footage of some of these poker stars pre-Black Friday, and hearing what they say... when later it turned out they were crooks. For example, Howard Lederer says at one point (pre-Black Friday), "The heros of poker don't cheat." LOLOL. Well, Mr. Lederer, from someone still owed money by Full Tilt Poker, you are NO hero.