THE BIG BLIND Movie

[BassMasterK]

Well after watching the movie, I went back to look at Phil Hellmuth's and Mike Caro's quotes about the movie (if you read my last post you saw that I questioned how they could say it is this really authentic poker movie while everyone else says it sucks), and I noticed that in fact they never said the movie was GOOD, they just said it reflected the life of poker players. Their comments were positive and so I took it as a "thumbs up" when in fact their statements could be true, while the movie could still not be that good.

FIRST: On the positive side, this is quite a feat for one person to take on as a pet project. I'm in the music scene and it is very common to hear a band with potential that self produces a CD and the first thing that musicians who have been around the block will say is "It could really use the caring hands of a producer, in the right hands, this thing would be great." A producer knows what the public expects, he knows what sells, and he knows how to take a raw product and make it shine. He isn't so close to the project that he has interest other than making the product commercially viable. As an artist, it is a tough pill to swallow. You feel like this outside person is going to change your vision, what you want to project to your audience. You are so close to your work that it is hard to step back and take any input on what would make it better because after all, you wrote the songs like you WANTED the songs to be presented, which are perfect in your opinion, just the way they are. If you wanted any changes you would have already written them in. This attitude can often sink projects that could have been more commercially viable. On the other hand, I have seen bands who's self produced CD was better than the big label CD turned out after they were signed. This is rare however.

I feel this movie could have really benifited from the loving hands of the right producer. I respect the indie quality and the dedication this must have taken, but there are actors who had no business being in the movie, and writing that could have been drastically improved and thats coming from a musician and not an actor! [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] I read in Poker Player that they "elected" not to release it to a major studio and in stead decided to release it on their own for financial reasons. I believe they will make more money off of it this way because no major studio would touch this for a nation wide release.

PLOT: Basically it's just a peek into the lives of several people who for one reason or another spend a lot of time at this poker room. Their lives all seem to be headed for changes at the very same time, coincidently coming to a head on the very same day for all of them! What are the odds of that? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Some of the stories were interesting, others were offensive and poorly written. Writing was not the strong suit of this movie with a few exceptions.

ACTING: There were at least two actors who couldn't have been cast for speaking rolls in anything better than a porno and that is not an exaggeration. Total inability to put believable emotion into their roll. Then there were the majority who actually could get some work possibly in commercials. A few who I could even see in soap operas or B movies (which I would classify this as). Lastly there were maybe two to three who could actually act. Queen Momma stole the show and had me cracking up out loud for the short minutes she was on the screen.

SOUNDTRACK: For being an indie movie, I was impressed. Isn't going to win any grammy's, but it wasn't a porno track either. Had a nice early 90's guitar oriented soundtrack feel.

POKER ACTION: Forget it. Rounders, Cincinatte Kid, Kaleidascope, ect, had more poker action. Sure you see an occational hand now and then, but the movie isn't around poker, it's about the personal stories the movie follows. It could have just as easily been about pool, bridge, or any gambling game where people are hanging out.

RATING: I'd give it a 1.5 out of 5. Just because of the poker theme it could swing close to a 2, but....allright 1.75 the extra .25 because of poker chips actually being in the film. I was disappointed. I actually turned it off part way through and went for a run and then came back to finish watching it. I'm hoping for much more out of High Roller. With the awards it has won on the indie film circuit I am hoping it will be much more the kind of poker movie I am looking for.

My $.02