Customer Reviews

Tough Luck

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a good suspense film with many twists. The carnival life depicted is close to reality. The film starts slowly but at the halfway point it picks up quickly. Not as easy to guess the outcome as most of this genre.

R

Tough Luck is one of those movies that nobody seems to have seen but is really worth watching. I picked it up several years ago in the bargain bin at Blockbuster and had the pleasure of introducing it to friends at a movie night. We all were amazed by the fact that it was so good. Recently while consolidating my movie collection I had the chance to come across this gem again and remembered just how much I enjoyed it.

Tough Luck centers on a grifter, a girl, a carnival, and a lot of money. It is a heist/scam movie, but the way that it is presented is while not entirely distinct and original - very intriguing. The movie jumps around a bit and uses heavy dream like sequences to tell the story, but instead of being trying these just heighten the drama of the film. It also fits well with the fact that this movie centers around a carnival, a place we often associate with the fantastic.

Archie (our grifter) is hired to work for the carnival and while pocketing as much money as he can forms a friendship with Ike (the owner) who seems utterly at a loss of what to do about his violent wife who is trying desperately to kill him. Divana is a sensual snake woman with a temper, and Archie falls into a position of being hired to kill a woman he is coming to love and lust after quite extensively. Without revealing the plot in its entirety, this is a movie with some very sudden and unexpected twists.

I highly recommend this movie to those who enjoy dramatic films. There's very little violence to this film (though there is some) but it has a very mature plot and doesn't pander to the audience as it follows the ups and downs of Archie's life after coming to work at the carnival. Everyone does a fantastic job with their acting, both together and apart. The movie has a very organic feel to it, and like a memory or a dream we are left waiting until the end to understand what is real and what is not, who is good and who is bad. Perhaps the best part of Tough Luck is the fact that none of the characters are intrinsically of one camp or the other.

I've seeing Norman Reedus on other movies, his a great actor. And on this movie his no different. When you think you got it there's a twist and turn and you think you've finally got it, only to find out there's more to it. Nice movie I enjoyed it very much.

I did not intend or expect to like this film, anything connected with any circus gives me the shivers, so it is a testament to this film that not only did I make it through the whole thing I found it to be a strikingly original and very clever piece of film making. How a film is constructed, its editing, camera angles, character development, use of music and dialogue tends to jump out at me and my dislike for circuses became a non-issue for the whole concept of this little thriller is as tight as a drum; every aspect accomplished. Perhaps the best part were the leads, Assante and his two co-stars. It was such a well integrated effort by all three one would think they had spent years working together. Each had a few surprises for the viewer which I will not divulge here. Get this film, it is atmospheric, gritty, at turns coarse and tender, and the lead character held the whole thing together. I was seriously impressed.

I only watched this film to see Norman Reedus, because I'm now a fan of his thanks to The Walking Dead. Personally, I like realistic movies. I'm also fairly young (20s) and spoiled with great movies, so I might not appreciate as much as it deserves. If your like me then you'll bang your head into the wall a few times during the movie if you watch this. Last note, I didn't even bother to finish watching the whole movie.

This was a B movie but I enjoyed it. I really like Norman Reedus, so I will collect his movies even when they aren't Oscar material.