'The Grand' - DVD Review

News Type: Event — Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:20 PM EDT

entertainment, movies, film, review, dvd, poker, cinemas, dvds, woody-harrelson, the-grand

The Grand is an amusing improvisational comedy that should appeal to people who like poker on television and mockumentaries like Best of Show.

The story follows One Eyed Jack Faro (Woody Harrelson) as he tries to win enough money in a big poker tournament to buy back a casino in Las Vegas that his grandfather once owned. The laugh-out-loud moments happen at the poker tables. If you have spent any time watching poker on television then you will recognize the people being satirized. You will recognize the brother and sister professional poker playing siblings, the bad boy of poker, the amateur who won an online tournament and the old timer. Additionally the character of One Eyed Jack Faro reminds me a little bit of the late, great Stu Unger. Several real-life poker pros make cameos including Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth.

However like a lot of improvisational movies this one has times when it just lags. And these times are most often when Gabe Kaplan is on the screen. He plays the father of the poker playing siblings and their time away from the poker tables is agonizing and so not funny. The sole joke is that all their lives ~~Mr. Kotter~~ Gabe Kaplan has favored his daughter over his son and the scene at a restaurant just seems to last forever.

Over-all though The Grand is an entertaing little movie that I am glad I rented.

- - - - -

The Grand at Amazon.

6.2 / 10 at IMDb .

2 Votes
Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.

Published to:

Michael Sautter's Column, All of Newsvine
Groups: Entertainment Gateway, Movies, Etc., The Review Cafe
Regions: none

What's this?

Who's leading the conversation?

This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.

1.5

{"commentId":2548125,"authorDomain":"michaelsautter"}

Michael Sautter

Was this released in the theaters? I don't remember it being released.

{"commentId":2548125,"threadId":"337667","contentId":"1774874","authorDomain":"michaelsautter"}

1 vote

#1 - Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:21 PM EDT

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"337667","isPrivate":false}

MICHAEL SAUTTER

Backyard

'The Grand' - DVD Review

Published to:

FUN STUFF:

COMPANY STUFF:

LEGAL STUFF: