Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I never answer requests with a positive, June 26, 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
When Zak Penn is not writing movies about the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk and Captain America, he does some quirky little indie movies.
And the follow-up to "Incident at Loch Ness" is a far steadier animal -- a sort of mockumentary about a professional poker competition, and the wide range of weirdos connected to it. It starts off rather slowly, but Penn quickly hits his stride -- the resulting movie has all of Vegas' flashy glitz, and the quirk factor of a long-lost Christopher Guest mockumentary.
Jack Faro (Woody Harrelson) inherited the Lucky Rabbit's Foot casino from his grandfather, but the casino has fallen on hard times -- primarily because Jack is addicted to everything he can snort, inject or drink, and he's been married seventy-four times. As the movie opens, he's been living in rehab for two years straight.
Now a casino mogul (a gloriously cutthroat Michael McKean) is going to raze the Rabbit's Foot unless Jack can produce the money. His only hope is to win The Grand, a professional poker competition against some of the greatest poker players in the world -- including frustrated housewife, her obnoxious brother, a vitriol-tongued savant, a cutthroat veteran, a psychopathic German and a teacher from the Frostbite Amputation Capital of the World.
So despite sponsoring the Grand, Faro joins it. But to save the Rabbit's Foot, he's not only going to have to survive the first rounds -- he'll have to use luck and skill to deal with the most cutthroat and/or talented poker players in the world. Tensions rise as the players work towards the final round -- but who will win ten million dollars?
When one of the characters intently tells the camera that he recites the Mentat oath "before I drink my brain juice," you know that Penn has hit comedic gold. The first ten minutes of "The Grand" are rather tedious, since Penn is only introducing the idea of the Grand and Faro's situation. But once he starts introducing the characters and bringing them together, the mockumentary really gets moving.
It follows the basic mockumentary formula -- a camera follows the characters around, and they talk seriously about bizarre things. Animal murder, Star Trek, pyromania ("I got this blowtorch as a wedding present..."), addictions and winning the competition ("I want to see the others crushed and disappear and crumble," the German says with the calm of a true psychopath). Even the poker commentators get in on the weirdness ("And it's easy, with the patented Mike Werbe flash cards!").
And along the way, the characters do some pretty weird stuff too, such as Jack hitting on a pretty new employee only to find that she's one of his countless ex-wives. Since the characters spend a great deal of time sitting down, Penn has to compensate with lots of amusing dialogue ("... also, you have corn in your teeth") and he's good at making things just slightly too surreal.
Despite all the quirk, it would be easy for "The Grand" to lapse into tedium because it's basically about people playing a card game, albeit for high stakes. But Penn's hilariously mocking writing ("Where are you from, your country? Is everyone as miserable as you?") and quickly shifting visions of the Strip and casinos keep things interesting. Lots of light, flash and sparkle.
Harrelson does a nice solid job as a much-married Vegas heir, who seems to be perpetually stoned and laid-back even when being ejected from his own casino. But you can see a little desperation in the scene with Michael McKean, who is utterly hilarious as the evil, weird Steve Lavisch (he wears a hard hat when he looks at his construction models).
And the other actors are also great -- Cheryl Hines is excellent as a wife who supports her family because of her hubby's fantasy football obsession, while Dennis Farina is deliciously nasty, Chris Parnell is unspeakably rude and weird ("Your bet on the river was as transparent as a cloaked Romulan bird of prey!"), and David Cross is bombastically horrific as Hines' "identical twin" brother.
And Werner Herzog deserves a special shout-out for playing The German. Yes, that is the character's name. The great director does a wonderful, straight-faced job as a clearly insane poker-player who likes to kill small animals, and at one point informs Melvin, "I will SQUISH you." He's awesome.
"The Grand" happily lampoons the wonderful world of pro poker, and it entertains a great deal along the way. Definitely one to check out, if the works of Christopher Guest have also been in the cards.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Mediocre at best, again, July 3, 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
It comes close to being a waste of resources. A lot of plastic was used unnecessarily to do this movie. Slow and boring are a bit understated but I know of no words that sound worse or more informative. The acting was stiff and almost unnatural. It is a shame that some folks are going to think that this is the way to play polka. Perhaps this is the way to dance the polka but certainly not the way to play it. This was a movie that you did not push the pause button. You simply went to the fridge to get your icecream and come back when you were ready but hoping that the movie would be over and low and behold - it was not.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Grand, June 28, 2008
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
The Grand is a docu-comedy that covers a faux poker tournament. The Grand is the oldest & most prestigious poker tournament in the world. If you feel like you're watching a tv show on cable tv covering one of the many poker tournaments, then you get the idea of what you're about to see. Throw in a major portion of Reno 911 & you get the idea. The whole story is told through interviews, background stories, the actual tournament & a few scenes that actually seem like it could be a movie. There are even a couple of talking head anchors that do a play by play of the tournament.
You might actually like this movie if you're into the cable tv poker tournament type thing. There are a few funny moments in the movie but not enough to warrant watching it more than once. Personally, I've never been interested in this subject as it's shown on tv so I might not be the best judge of this sort of thing. I definitely felt like I was watching a tv show & not a movie.
There are some bonus features including an alternate ending, deleted scenes & audio commentaries. If you like those cable tv poker tournamnets that have a reality feel &, yet, throw in a large dose of Reno 911 then this is for you.
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