In the world of high-stakes poker, Huck Cheever (Eric Bana) is a blaster—a player who goes all out, all the time. But in his personal relationships, Huck plays it tight, expertly avoiding emotional commitments and long-term expectations. When Huck sets out to win the main event of the 2003 World Series of Poker—and the affections of Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore), a young singer from Bakersfield—there is one significant obstacle in his path: his anger toward his father, L.C. Cheever (Robert Duvall), the poker legend who abandoned Huck's mother years ago. As these two rivals progress toward a final showdown at the poker table, Huck learns that to win in the games of life and poker, he must try to play cards the way he has been living his life and live his life the way he has been playing cards.
I'm sure that this movie would have been a lot better if I was interested in poker in any way, shape or form. However, since I'm not this movie pretty much circled the drain most of the time with long, drawn out scenes of playing poker. The other thing that was a bit annoying was that they repeatedly showed you how impulsive Eric Bana's character was. As if the fact that the movie was totally formula just from reading the above synopsis, they could have simply told us that he can't hold on to his money but instead decided to show us over and over and over . . . . . . and over how fast he could lose his World Series Of Poker entrance fee. By the fourth or fifth time I was ready to turn the movie off. It was a pretty disappointing outing from Eric Bana, Robert Duvall and Drew Barrymore.
I wouldn't recommend anyone (outside of the most avid of poker players) checking this one out. Wait for it on cable.
