Poker Night (2014)

After reading a few reviews I had a preconception, expecting to see a combination of the best ingredients of highly rated thriller defining films such as Se7en, Usual Suspects, Fight Club and Saw. A lot of the reviews here seem to suggest that this film is an allusion to the above.However, after watching it, there's too much seasoning and mix and matching - which is a shame because it had the potential to really be great. Of the films listed above I'd say its worse than all of them save for saw, where we have a tie (then again when Saw was released it had a certain novelty).The pros: Great central theme Great cinematography and style -Fast paced Unpredictable Something New Borrows/Improves on Ideas from other great filmsNeutral: -Its not a horror movie, but pushes some pretty unpleasant pscho-sociopathic ideas forward that I would assume would make the majority of viewers squirm at least a little. -Really would've loved a Mullholland Drive twist (and it would fit too :) ).From 8 stars to 6 immediately: Too many distractions from the main story that claim to be relevant to the main story - this disgruntled me immensely. The point of poker night is that older cops get together and help rookies learn from the mistakes of their older experienced peers. As I would prefer this review to be spoiler free, I'll leave it at: in my humble opinion many of these stories do nothing to help our protagonist.Other Cons: -Script is a bit lackluster at times -These are movie cops, so they act a bit like teenagers in horror films. I.E. Whats that noise? let me check it out nude without any weapons or backup, the worst that could happen is free pizza.Conclusively, there are so many good twists and moments where I had to double take (perhaps it doesn't help that I'm not particularly clever). I loved the ending and that's what brought it back to low 7 out of 10. I think if you interpret the ending in your own way and for you it makes sense that's all that matters. The ending here is executed to perfection. There are multiple interpretations and I like that. There is nothing worse than a thriller with a typical "it was all a dream cliché" or equivalent. With higher production value, some script revision this would've been something different and special pushing it up past 7.5. Give it a go :).

I found this film very entertaining. It seems to take various styles of 90's films and roll them up into one, it feels old school but at the same time it remains original and fresh. The blend of genres, its fast moving pace, the surreal flashbacks and the way it's narrated make it feel like it could be based on a graphic novel/comic book.The acting is top notch by everyone and the directing/editing was flawless.63pc is a good score on here but i would personally say it's a 6.9 verging into the early 7's. The RT and Metacritic scores are definitely too low.Watch it, it is fun and at the same time oddly quite disturbing!I'll be keeping an eye out for more of Greg Francis' stuff for sure.

overall a good concept with the whole poker night idea, although it is very unrealistic and stupid.A highly respected and successful veteran detective is fooled by a cute puppy taken hostage then later given a loaded gun and pushed into a room where he freezes for a moment instead of turning around and shooting the bad guy.. he gets shot and dies.Later even more stupidity another top notch detective comes to the rescue captures the bad guy and handcuffs him to the wall.. shame the dude just happens to have a set of handcuff keys on him and frees himself then blows the detectives brains out. oh almost forgot my favourite part of the movie was when the bad guy (can't even remember if he had a name) got shot during the time he was almost captured.. but then freed himself and patched himself up by putting a bandage over the top of his suit? don't know who's idea that was or what sort of message it was trying to portray but i thought it was ridiculous lolalmost turned it off a couple times but I was curious how it would end, to conclude the movie had a lot of potential but was ruined by its stupidity.

Thanks to the other reviewers - that's the only reason I watched this.Not a great film, but it becomes fascinating as it roller-coasts along.First up, a lame voice over - verbose, flat, abstract. Followed by a sequence of heroic cop tales using the conceit of a poker game where each veteran has a lesson to teach the rookie. Interwoven with this is the main plot, in which the rookie is kidnapped by a serial killer and imprisoned in his lair.The tales are uneven. The point is that each cop has to discard the system and do what he thinks is right, which results in a couple of shoot-first-ask-questions-later murders. Entertaining, but the self justification had zero irony.The dialogue (like the VO) is not as good as it thinks it is, and there's a lot of "we're laughing because the script says LAUGHTER". Baaad writing.But then ... we get weird humour. The serial killer explains his back story, and there are some surreal little scenes of the serial killer community. Then the rookie explains his back story, and suddenly this thing turns into an unexpected puzzle.I thought all the cops at the poker table were already dead, reminiscing in purgatory. But no - it's a sort of Mulholland Drive trick, and the story powers on to a clear resolution.Hectic, all over the place, but worth watching.