Customer Reviews

Poolhall Junkies

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Gregory Mars Martin (Callahan), aka Mars Callahan, has given us a chunk of his heart, and great waves of youthful enthusiasm. Callahan, an accomplished pool player, and his hustler buddy Chris Corso, wrote this screenplay. It was shopped around for over ten years, and now it has emerged as a sterling Indie; something to aspire to. It was filmed in Salt Lake City, but little was made of that. It could have been any large city.

His directorial style is sideswipe close to that of Edward Burns; urban, hip, gritty, and intelligent. Hopefully Callahan has some other ideas, and he will follow up with new projects.
Callahan obviously loves movies, and he has given himself the lead part; Johnny Doyle. As it turns out, he is a gifted actor. Roger Ebert called him," McQueen cool.". Another critic, a cretin, called him," Vince Vaughn lite.". Ebert wrote further,
" This is a young man's film, humming with the joy of making it.".

One can't help but to notice when Callahan makes his first appearance on the screen that he does have a tall lanky hip young Christopher Walken persona. Brilliantly for the film, Walken himself was cast in the movie. In an early scene, when he and Walken share the frame, Walken said," I noticed you right away; the hair. Are we related ? " The movie is laden with other movie-lover's moments; tongue-in-cheek and over the top.

If a person likes to shoot pool, this film will be smoky eye candy. The cons, the chatter, the grifts, and the trick shots; all slip by smoothly. You can hear the echo in the pool room, and smell the chalk, the felt on the tables, and the cigar smoke. You hear those ceramic balls crash together in a macho symphony of staccato clanks; and what a lovely sound it is. Callahan in voice over in the preface, speaks of Johnny Doyle,
" The cue was part of his arm, and the balls had eyes. And he really believed that he couldn't miss.".

With Callahan in the lead, speaking his own written dialogue, one senses more immediacy, more reality in the pool hall scenes. As a director, he scored well, landing four heavy hitters in the casting; Walken as uncle Mike the millionaire, Chazz Palminteri as Joe the hustler, Rod Steiger as Nick the owner of the pool hall, and Rick Schroder as Brad the shark. Alison Eastwood was fine, as well, as Johnny's ladyfriend, Tara. This modest little film has all the grit, the validity, and the sting of THE HUSTLER, and in some subtle ways it scores higher than the Scorsese opus THE COLOR OF MONEY.

The plot, far from original ( a young man becomes a pool hustler, but learns to hate the con and yearns for the validation of turning professional), never the less is engaging in Callahan's capable hands. We can not help but care about Johnny Doyle. We want him to get his girlfriend back, and get revenge on the vicious hustler that ruined his life, working him like a pool whore, and then nearly breaking his left wrist in reprisal; and we want him to beat the daylights out of the stoic stud pro-ringer pool shark; and we want him to renew the faith that the pool hall owner has always had in him; and we want him to get his younger brother out of jail (Michael Rosenbaum), who got himself deep into a jam while trying to emulate Johnny.

Christopher Walken simply in a few brief scenes dominates the screen. He is more relaxed, more dynamic, and more focused in this role than he has been in years. He delivered one classic soliloquy that started with," Do you ever watch the Nature Channel ?". This speech will be a highlight for film buffs to review for the next millennium. He is one of a handful of actors, like Harvey Keitel, Tim Robbins, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, and Gary Oldman, that supports the notion that film truly is Art, and that Independent Films are the breath of life. For movie actors it used to be that only appearing on stage, doing live theatre in front of an audience, could produce that kick, that adrenilin rush. But now, it seems, that same high can be achieved when a star works cheap and takes chances in the celluloid world of the Indies.

Roger Ebert also wrote that this film was," enjoyably overwrought, and exuberantly stylish."; praise from Caesar. It certainly is worth a look. For me it ranks high in the short lexicon of billiard epics.

The story of how this movie got made is almost as entertaining as the result. A talented pool player, Mars Callahan, wrote the script and sold it, much like Quentin Tarrantino and True Romance, but the script languished on the shelf for ten years. At this point, Callahan decided to take personal control and get the movie made. Somehow, he persuaded noted stars like Rod Steiger, Chazz Palminteri, Christopher Walken, etc. to appear in it, while he would assume the role of author, star, and director. How he accomplished this feat would be an excellent subject for a documentary film (like Overnight, but this time with a heroic principle character).

Mars Callahan has remarkable swagger and presence for a relative newcomer, especially in the company of such a distinguished cast. His personality and appearance remind me of a young Christopher Walken, and their scenes together are riveting.

Regardless of the history, the resulting movie is a bit uneven but overall very entertaining. The roles are cleverly written (possibly why noted actors were willing to play them) and very well portrayed. The pool shooting is first rate. Indeed, they accomplish the difficult task of making the pool games dramatic, original, and suspenseful. There is a lot of humor, very little violence (by today's standards), and no skin/sex. Instead, the movie relies on a generally excellent script and skillful characterization to thoroughly entertain rather than shock, nauseate, or deafen....an accomplishment that is becoming increasingly rare.

The weakness, in my opinion, is that the younger brother (Michael Rosenbaum) and his three pool-playing buddies are a little juvenile, with banter and antics reminiscent of American Graffiti or American Pie. This is out of character with the generally sophisticated overall tone, but was probably included to broaden the appeal of the movie to include a younger audience. It does not really damage the film, but simply dilutes it a bit....at least for me. A younger viewer may feel the opposite is true.

The bottom line: this is an amazing piece of work. Amazing for the fact that it ever got made....amazing for who appeared in it....and amazing for its overall quality. Even if you are not a great fan of pool, you will be knocked out by the superb dialog, plot, and performances of Mars, Rod, Christopher (an absolute genius), Chazz, and the gang. This is a gem !!!!

A street-wise talented pool player missed his opportunity to play in the big time as his mentor decided that he's better off husting money from the downtrodden. So, the movie fast-forwarded to 15 years later when he's no better off despite that he's got a well-to-do paralegal beautiful girlfriend, a poolhall owner who treated him like his own son in the shape of the late Rod Steiger, a loving brother with a bunch of friends who aspired to be like him. By chance, he discovered that all these years, his mentor betrayed him by witholding the truth from him. The relationships soured & they went separate ways. As fate had it, his brother got tangled up with his ex-mentor & he had to play pool for the one last time to save his brother & his honour. The movie happily chugged along & Christopher Walken played the mysterious chap who backed the talented player & helped him to believe in his own self. The message that this movie tried to say is simply: life is what you made it to be. If you keep thinking that you are a loser, you are bound to end up with losers like yourself whilst if you believe that you are a winner, you can escape from the vicious cycle & be someone truly great. Definitely a feel good movie with no pretension. Highly recommended.

I initially heard about this movie in a pool league newsletter I get, however, I could never find it, and it never came around to Atlanta. I accidently found it the other day, and after watching it last night, I must say I like it the most of the few pool-based movies I've seen. It's a well produced/edited film, but doesn't have the glitzy commercial feel of a mega blockbuster.

I liked the lead role played by Gregory Mars Martin (Callahan). I think it allowed me to focus a little more on the movie than on some mega star (read Cruise in Color of Money.. hated that one). Granted, his character didn't seem as deep as some of the others in the movie, I didn't think it detracted from the movie at all.

As for Rick Schroder, I agree with some of the other reviewers in saying he played the part of a cold, calculating (and quiet) hustler very well. He's made great in-roads into drama from his beginnings and hope to see more serious roles from him.

The other actors also helped move this movie along. Walken is in his typical supporting role (a little more of him would have been nice, though, given the sometimes dark mood of the movie).

Being an avid pool player myself, I enjoyed the scenes of the hustling (verbal and table play), and the trick shots. However, there was footage of some shots re-used a few times throughout the movie. And I didn't like the way it portrayed everyone as needing to drill every shot (minor nitpick).

In the end, I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a good pool/hustler movie.

If you dig the whole interaction of a well oiled machine-like crew of witty, bantering guys too young to yet be jaded but playing in grownup world then this is for you. I LOVED the back and forth in the dialogue between the buddies. And they're just the backdrop material. The conversations between everyone were just gutter poetry. Chazz and Christopher are right on the money with everything about themselves that I like to see in a movie. The lead character is in control even when he's OUT of control. There is a smooth flow to this flick that makes me think of the perfect Seven and Seven. Goes down easy and you're glad you ordered it. Had a nice seedy feel to it whenever the action was in the poolhalls. This film makes you wish you could hang out with these characters for just one night.

This is great movie about pool hustlers and scumbags. I liked it. I think you will like it. If you like this one, check out Double Down. There are a lot of the same characters, and actually that is the better of the two movies.

Ive played pool for a long time. Ive watched hustlers, ive learned some of their tricks. Callahan is a real life hustler. Alot of people dont know this, but he was trying to hustle co-author, Chris Corso, who in turn was trying to hustle him. Thats how they first met, and they became friends shortly afterwords, wrote pool hall junkies, and rushed it out. Their rush on the script does show. Theres no real thrilling plot, its just more of an inside look at a hustlers life. Not only are famous actors in it, but the man who played St. Louis Louie is Mike Massey. True pool fanatics allready know who he is, and thoose who dont know might be interested in looking him up. Most of the shots were either made by him or Callahan. Christopher Walken made that shot 100% by himself. In fact it was a just a rehearsal for that shot, but he told them to have the cameras ready just in case. Thats the amount of effort that all of the actors put into this movie, and that shows too. It is an excellent move for its budget, but for thoose of you who dont much care for pool, I wouldnt touch this movie, you wont appreciate it. For thoose of you who love playing pool, or just like to hustle people, this movie is as good as The Hustler. If anything, at least rent it to watch Walkens speech in the bathroom about how sometimes, when it seems people have forgotten, you have to show everyone that you are known as the best for a good reason. This movie made me jump, yell, laugh, and grit my teeth. My advice is, watch it during the beginning of the day, and get everything ready to shoot pool afterwards, because this movie is so energetic that you will have to play pool, no matter what your skill level is.

i remember when i first watched this film...... it made me want to go down to my bar and shoot pool. the people who gave bad reviews for this film must be kids who just failed out their first "intro to film class" and are bitter that quentin tarantino, david lynch, or john waters wasn't mentioned, or people that take pool way to seriously and spend every waking moment at their pool hall. remember kids its just a game. regardless of all the technical aspects of the film, if you enjoy just chasing around that little black ball around for a night, check this movie out. you're not gonna see any crazy explosions or ultra violence, but its just entertaining. sometimes people get way too involved with stealing a movies credibility and ripping it to shreds only because the director should haved panned left when he panned right. its a fun movie, and if you get past trying to be "Johnny Film Expert", or "Johnny Pool Shot" you wont have regreted watching it.

I wasn't really sure, when I bought this movie, what to expect. As I started to watch it I liked what I saw for its entertainment value. I've played pool and I've won money doing it so I have a small clue about what's involved in it. Movies are all about creating drama. When you see people shooting continuous 5 rail shots to win $80K, it's only for the heightened emotional effect. For those of you looking for "real life" in a movie, stick to the documentary genre. The shots are pretty and that's the hook/point. The acting is what you would expect given the names involved, though I still like the movie regardless of it. The scene in the bathroom between Walken and Callahan is a great one. Walkens monolog, done in one shot, shows why he continues to be ranked highly among wanted screen actors. Also Rod Steiger makes a last appearance in this film before his death.

The one thing I felt let down about was listening to the Directors Audio Commentary. Mars Callahan does the majority of commentary having directed and co-wrote the movie. After listening to portions of his diatribe and egomania concerning his acting, I lost the measure of respect I had gained for him from the film. Whether you do or not is dependent on your own outlook. Overall I would watch the film, but if you liked it and found it to be entertaining as I did, skip the commentary.

This is by far the best movie ever amazon made it easy for me to order and shipped it super fast