vbnautilus 48 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 Last week I was fortunate to win two free tickets to see The Grand from FCP’s promotion. I convinced my fiancée to come with me last night, and we headed down to Santa Monica, to the only theatre in L.A. that is playing the movie (as far as I can tell). However, when we got there I was told our vouchers would not be accepted as they no longer had a business arrangement with the company that issued them. I’m not sure if I messed this up or if FCP did, but it was not good since my impending marriage is based on the prestige that comes with getting free stuff and I could tell that my fiancée was looking at me differently after I had to shell out twenty real dollars to see this thing. I had expected a red carpet and VIP treatment, but at least I will have a juicy lawsuit to press against FCP if my marriage is ruined by this incident. Anyways, what follows are my impressions of the poker comedy, The Grand, written by Zak Penn & Matt Bierman. OverviewI was expecting to like this movie. The trailer I thought was funny, and I am a big fan of the mockumentary style; I loved all the Christopher Guest movies, and given the poker theme of this one it was going to have to be really really bad for me not to like it. To make a long story short, it was really really bad and I didn’t like it. StoryThe movie follows seven characters as they play “The Grand,” a winner-take-all poker tournament in the style of the WSOP main event. Woody Harrelson plays a drugged out heir to the Rabbit’s Foot casino who needs to win the tournament to keep the casino. Cheryl Hines is the token female player who is married to an emasculated Ray Romano. ( I thought Romano was one of the funnier characters and had some of the better lines in the film ). Her brother, played by David Cross, is the standard a-hole, Chris Parnell is numbers geek with some kind of autism, Dennis Farina is an old-style vegas guy who barely appears in the movie after his introduction, Werner Herzog is a creepy German weirdo, and Richard Kind is an internet amateur. I would say at this point that I was not going to write any spoilers, but honestly there is nothing to spoil. The movie had pretty much no story. There was some backstory which fills the first half of the movie or so, and bored the hell out of me to the point where I could not wait for the poker tournament to start. Unfortunately, nothing really happened when the tournament started either. They show a few hands which were just excuses for cameos, and eventually we get to the final table with all of our known characters. If the rest of the movie were left on the editing room floor this might have been a funny little short with just the final table. As it is, it is not nearly funny or interesting enough to sustain its complete lack of story for 104 minutes. The ending is anti-climactic and strange, and I left feeling that a great opportunity with this idea and this cast had been missed. CharactersWithout a story what this movie is really banking on is its characters, or should I say caricatures. The problem is, while the idea of each of these characters is kind of funny, watching them for an hour and half really doesn’t add anything. I think that’s why I liked the trailer but not the movie. I also think that the improvisational style works best when you can get some kind of unexpected interaction to happen between the characters. This was minimized by the fact that much of the time they are talking to the camera alone in mock interviews. The humor seemed forced and not natural, and it made me appreciate even more the genius of Christopher Guest. He obviously knows something that these guys don’t. Poker contentA poker movie should be easy in one respect - the game itself has a built-in drama. Drama comes from value-laden choices and that's what poker is all about. Somehow, these filmmakers managed to completely drop the ball on this aspect of the movie. It’s as if they got so caught up in the characters and the nonsense surrounding the tournament that they forgot the actual magic that brought them to the table. All of the poker action consists of someone moving all in on the flop, a call, and then either a suckout or hold. Not a single interesting or dramatic hand in the movie. No sweating out a tough decision for one’s tournament life. No balls-out bluffs. Is that better than Casino Royale's uber-fictional full house vs better full house vs straight flush vs royal flush? At least there was some suspense in Bond's extended slowroll. This movie sacrifices drama for a boring kind of realism, and that's just not necessary with poker. Yeah, it’s a comedy, but comedies need more than just jokes to be successful and poker in this movie was like piñata left dangling in front of the audience’s face without even a single swing to bust it open. Other thoughts:Phil Gordon plays an announcer whose cohost is so bizarre that Phil cannot believe what he is dealing with. This will be annoying to anyone who knows that Phil is actually the goon. I’m sure some people will like this movie, and perhaps with more than four people in the theatre waves of laughter would have caught on and changed my perception, but I just wasn’t feeling it. Link to post Share on other sites
HubDub04 0 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 davidmovie.comYou can watch it for free.Anyways, terrible movie.I did like the ending though. Kinda redeemed itself but from a poker player myself, it was so cliche. Link to post Share on other sites
CodyHartman 0 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 thats too bad u didnt like it.wasnt going to see it in the theaters anyways, but may not rent it now. Link to post Share on other sites
TB17 0 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 as long as the ending doesnt have the main character mucking the nuts so his good buddy can win it can't be THAT bad. Lucky You and Deal put me on so much tilt Link to post Share on other sites
HubDub04 0 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 as long as the ending doesnt have the main character mucking the nuts so his good buddy can win it can't be THAT bad. Lucky You and Deal put me on so much tiltLOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLlYou'll know what I mean after u watch it. Link to post Share on other sites
vbnautilus 48 Posted March 31, 2008 Author Share Posted March 31, 2008 as long as the ending doesnt have the main character mucking the nuts so his good buddy can win it can't be THAT bad. Lucky You and Deal put me on so much tiltIt's a totally new kind of bad. Link to post Share on other sites
Vtlaxer09 4 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 davidmovie.comYou can watch it for free.Anyways, terrible movie.I did like the ending though. Kinda redeemed itself but from a poker player myself, it was so cliche.link? i searched for it on there and got nothing..im just confuddled noww. Link to post Share on other sites
MyPlayIsRAB 0 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 link? i searched for it on there and got nothing..im just confuddled noww.same Link to post Share on other sites
fitzinabox 0 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 Nice review vbna Link to post Share on other sites
Tehtoe 3 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 I wasn't going to see it anyways, but I'm intrigued by how bad this ending actually is. Someone PM me and explain it? Link to post Share on other sites
vbnautilus 48 Posted March 31, 2008 Author Share Posted March 31, 2008 I wasn't going to see it anyways, but I'm intrigued by how bad this ending actually is. Someone PM me and explain it?There's honestly nothing special about the ending. I heard in a couple interviews that they actually played out the final table rather than scripting it, so I think they were prepared with a storyline for whoever won the tournament. I think that's why it feels tacked-on. Link to post Share on other sites
Balloon guy 158 Posted March 31, 2008 Share Posted March 31, 2008 It was doomed from the start because ALL sports mockumentaries must star Will Ferrell to be funny. It's science Link to post Share on other sites
four10 lkc 0 Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 It was doomed from the start because ALL sports mockumentaries must star Will Ferrell to be funny. It's scienceamen... no wonder why everyone likes you Link to post Share on other sites
ThePhoenix88 0 Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 Hub Dub 04 (11:05:50 PM): i dont have a link to the grand, just dealHub Dub 04 (11:05:54 PM): on davidmovie.comshamirtheindian (11:06:05 PM): butshamirtheindian (11:06:12 PM): u posted saying its on thereHub Dub 04 (11:06:17 PM): i knowHub Dub 04 (11:06:23 PM): i mixed up deal and grandshamirtheindian (11:06:27 PM): niceee Link to post Share on other sites
bigcoled 1 Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 With a great movie like Rounders out there, how can all other poker movies I 've seen proceeding it be so horrible? Link to post Share on other sites
finztotheleft 0 Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 That's disappointing Link to post Share on other sites
dinho_style 0 Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 i liked it .... just that it was more like a documentary rather than a movie Link to post Share on other sites
timwakefield 68 Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Nice review vb, weird that they couldn't make a good movie with that cast. Link to post Share on other sites
FCP Matt 0 Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 VB -Not sure what happened there. It was my understanding that the passes were accepted at any theater in the surrounding NY or LA area. I'm also very sorry for making you look bad in front of the future Mrs. vbnautilus. Please PM me your current mailing address and shirt sizes. I'll send some FCP goods to the both of you which will hopefully help calm the storm and stop the constant berating of this so called forum that you spend all this time on that sends out fake movie passes.Matt Last week I was fortunate to win two free tickets to see The Grand from FCP’s promotion. I convinced my fiancée to come with me last night, and we headed down to Santa Monica, to the only theatre in L.A. that is playing the movie (as far as I can tell). However, when we got there I was told our vouchers would not be accepted as they no longer had a business arrangement with the company that issued them. I’m not sure if I messed this up or if FCP did, but it was not good since my impending marriage is based on the prestige that comes with getting free stuff and I could tell that my fiancée was looking at me differently after I had to shell out twenty real dollars to see this thing. I had expected a red carpet and VIP treatment, but at least I will have a juicy lawsuit to press against FCP if my marriage is ruined by this incident. Anyways, what follows are my impressions of the poker comedy, The Grand, written by Zak Penn & Matt Bierman. OverviewI was expecting to like this movie. The trailer I thought was funny, and I am a big fan of the mockumentary style; I loved all the Christopher Guest movies, and given the poker theme of this one it was going to have to be really really bad for me not to like it. To make a long story short, it was really really bad and I didn’t like it. StoryThe movie follows seven characters as they play “The Grand,” a winner-take-all poker tournament in the style of the WSOP main event. Woody Harrelson plays a drugged out heir to the Rabbit’s Foot casino who needs to win the tournament to keep the casino. Cheryl Hines is the token female player who is married to an emasculated Ray Romano. ( I thought Romano was one of the funnier characters and had some of the better lines in the film ). Her brother, played by David Cross, is the standard a-hole, Chris Parnell is numbers geek with some kind of autism, Dennis Farina is an old-style vegas guy who barely appears in the movie after his introduction, Werner Herzog is a creepy German weirdo, and Richard Kind is an internet amateur. I would say at this point that I was not going to write any spoilers, but honestly there is nothing to spoil. The movie had pretty much no story. There was some backstory which fills the first half of the movie or so, and bored the hell out of me to the point where I could not wait for the poker tournament to start. Unfortunately, nothing really happened when the tournament started either. They show a few hands which were just excuses for cameos, and eventually we get to the final table with all of our known characters. If the rest of the movie were left on the editing room floor this might have been a funny little short with just the final table. As it is, it is not nearly funny or interesting enough to sustain its complete lack of story for 104 minutes. The ending is anti-climactic and strange, and I left feeling that a great opportunity with this idea and this cast had been missed. CharactersWithout a story what this movie is really banking on is its characters, or should I say caricatures. The problem is, while the idea of each of these characters is kind of funny, watching them for an hour and half really doesn’t add anything. I think that’s why I liked the trailer but not the movie. I also think that the improvisational style works best when you can get some kind of unexpected interaction to happen between the characters. This was minimized by the fact that much of the time they are talking to the camera alone in mock interviews. The humor seemed forced and not natural, and it made me appreciate even more the genius of Christopher Guest. He obviously knows something that these guys don’t. Poker contentA poker movie should be easy in one respect - the game itself has a built-in drama. Drama comes from value-laden choices and that's what poker is all about. Somehow, these filmmakers managed to completely drop the ball on this aspect of the movie. It’s as if they got so caught up in the characters and the nonsense surrounding the tournament that they forgot the actual magic that brought them to the table. All of the poker action consists of someone moving all in on the flop, a call, and then either a suckout or hold. Not a single interesting or dramatic hand in the movie. No sweating out a tough decision for one’s tournament life. No balls-out bluffs. Is that better than Casino Royale's uber-fictional full house vs better full house vs straight flush vs royal flush? At least there was some suspense in Bond's extended slowroll. This movie sacrifices drama for a boring kind of realism, and that's just not necessary with poker. Yeah, it’s a comedy, but comedies need more than just jokes to be successful and poker in this movie was like piñata left dangling in front of the audience’s face without even a single swing to bust it open. Other thoughts:Phil Gordon plays an announcer whose cohost is so bizarre that Phil cannot believe what he is dealing with. This will be annoying to anyone who knows that Phil is actually the goon. I’m sure some people will like this movie, and perhaps with more than four people in the theatre waves of laughter would have caught on and changed my perception, but I just wasn’t feeling it. Link to post Share on other sites
vervius 0 Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 I'll send some FCP goods to the both of you which will hopefully help calm the stormgood show ol' boy, makin' it right when you didn't have to. top notch Link to post Share on other sites
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