With a top drawer cast such as Burt Reynolds, Bret Harrison and Shannon Elizabeth the poker film 'Deal' was initially tipped for great things on both sides of the Atlantic.
However the film now in its third week of showing has failed to impress critics and it's been called a total flop by some American film magazines.
In its first weekend at the cinema in late April the film grossed a paltry $31,000 in the States and since then it’s attracted even fewer movie goers.
The highly respected website thedeadbolt.com wrote before the movie was released “One of the most cliché-ridden and generally misguided films of not just the year, but the decade so far, hits theaters this week with the awful Deal, a movie that, along with 21 and The Grand (two bad movies that still out-achieve this flick), proves that Hollywood has NO grasp of what makes gambling interesting any more.
“Cards have been used to cinematic advantage for decades, but the modern Vegas-World Poker Tour phenomenon seems to have befuddled the movie industry.”
In the film Bret Harrison plays Alex Stillman, a young man who excels at online poker. He wins his way into a televised tournament where he makes a big mistake and crashes out of the tournament, but he catches the eye of veteran poker player Tommy Vinson (Burt Reynolds). Vinson tracks down Stillman and makes him an offer - he'll stake the money, they'll split the profits.
Tommy used to be one of the best, but gambling problems nearly destroyed his marriage and he had to pick his wife over the Queen of Hearts. Tommy stopped betting on poker himself decades ago, but now he can teach Alex everything he knows and live vicariously through his winnings.
What secrets does Tommy have to pass down to Alex? Almost nothing. The extent of the lessons Tommy teaches Alex wouldn't amount to five minutes of an online poker training video - don't forget to bluff, learn your opponent's tells, and, of course, 'it's the players, not the cards' (the most overused and tired cliché in the poker movie genre).
Meanwhile, Alex struggles against his dad's desire to have him follow in his footsteps and keeps his very lucrative new habit secret, while Tommy does the same with his wife, who has threatened to leave him if he even sits at a poker table again.
And on the film rumbles until the teacher plays the student. Thoroughly disappointing, it seems portraying poker accurately on screen is still a bridge too far for Hollywood’s elite.
