Product Details

• Actors: David Krumholtz, Tory Kittles, Nicholas Turturro, Jennifer Morrison (II), Zachary Levi
• Directors: Ernest R. Dickerson
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: December 17, 2002
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00006AUJN
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #54,258 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Based on actual events, Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie plays like a frat-house blend of Casino and Goodfellas. Originally broadcast on FX, it's got the sanitized veneer of a TV movie, but it's an honest, R-rated appraisal of Bennie Silman, a Brooklyn-born student at Arizona State University who reaped--and lost--a fortune in 1994 by fixing basketball games with the help of star player Stevin "Hedake" Smith. Perfectly cast as Silman, the always-interesting David Krumholtz ("Bernard" from the Santa Clause movies) speaks to the camera, inviting us into his first-person account of money, girls, and the Mafia. It's a party animal's fantasy until the bloody-nosed climax, directed with edgy energy, but not enough substance, by Ernest R. Dickerson (who fared marginally better with his Showtime film Our America). Krumholtz and Tory Kittles (as Smith) make this a compelling enterprise, however, and the real Bennie Silman appears in a coda that roots the movie in harsh, cautionary reality. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description
When Benny Silman left Brooklyn for Arizona State University, he felt like he was stepping into a Coppertone commercial. The Sun, the beautiful girls?life was good. Once he discovered the bright lights of Vegas and the adrenaline rush of gambling, things got even better. Soon he was the "campus bookie" making good cash and having a blast with his buddies. It wasn't until he began to fix basketball games that his high stakes life began to spin out of control. This is the real-life story of the 1994 Arizona State University point-shaving scandal that rocked the NCAA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really good flick, February 15, 2004

By	K. Stuckey "kateling" (Port Huron, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This movie, based on a true story is interesting and Ernest Dickerson's direction is superb - I like the 'shaky' camera effects. David Krumholtz is awesome as Benny Silman! He starts out as a naive freshman, moving across the country to go to college, but the freedoms get the best of him. He starts gambling, then works for a bookie, then goes out on his own. He ends up hooking up with a b-baller to assure the house wins everytime, but the wrong people find out about his scheme and it gets complicated.

The subplot with Callie is cute, especially when she mocks him. This movie is great, even after repeated viewings.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars edited subsequent to price drop; still 4 stars, December 30, 2002

By A Customer

originally i said this was a very good movie to buy if you could stomach the then-high price, which i could. i went to ASU around the time the hedake smith story was reaching full media realization. this is an interesting take on the whole mess.

the DVD's best extra, of the real benny silman explaining what happened, is a raw take on the situation from a guy who genuinely seems to understand he did wrong. (note that, as best i could tell, no footage was added or subtracted from the TV version of the actual movie, in case you hoped to see callie nude or witness benny brutally unloading a machine gun on big red and his posse.)

flaws: the video transfer, though generally glossy and praiseworthy, is a little messy in a couple spots (most noticeably when benny is selling suits). and the spanish subtitles consistently refer to ASU as the university of arizona - an obvious sore spot for any ASU alum!

anyway, i watched it twice the first day i bought it, and this was a movie i'd already seen once on TV.

highly recommended. thanks for releasing this, FX.