Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Tetrady not as good as all the hype

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Desertman84 I have just recently read an article about Poker genre films.It was stated in that article that after Rounders was shown,a few movies of the similar genre came along such as Lucky You and Deal.Sad to say,they did not live up to the greatness of the Matt Damon film.Then I got into Walgreens.I was looking for DVD's.I came upon the movie,Deal and it was on sale.Since it was affordable,I decided to buy it.Upon reaching the cashier,it was delighted to find out that I got a cash reward for being a Walgreens card member and got more discount.Overall,I got the movie for just 99 cents.Not expecting much from it,I got home and began watching with this on my mind,"What's the deal with the Deal?" and how bad was it compared to Rounders?The Deal stars Burt Reynolds,a well-known icon together with Bret Harrison, and Shannon Elizabeth. World Poker Tour commentators Mike Sexton, Vince Van Patten and Courtney Friel play themselves. A number of other professional poker players and poker-playing celebrities, including Elizabeth, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak, Antonio Esfandiari, Greg Raymer, Chris Moneymaker and Isabelle Mercier.Deal tells the story of a former poker player who tutors a younger player.Alex Stillman is a Yale senior with a knack for Texas Hold 'Em. But while Alex dreams of the day he'll be able to dominate the tables out in Las Vegas, he hasn't mastered the art of the cards just yet. Alex's luck begins to change, however, after a chance encounter with legendary poker player Tommy Vinson,who gave up gambling 20 years ago in hopes that he could save his family. Alex agrees to become Tommy's protégé, and together the pair wins every tournament they enter. But Alex's attraction to beautiful Michelle has caused his attention shift away from the tables, and that distraction has opened up a deep chasm between the emerging talent and the undisputed master which led them to call off their partnership.At the conclusion, they find themselves on opposite sides of the table at the fictional World Poker Tour championship.So going back to my question,"What's the deal with the Deal?".First of all,the plot simply was a rip off of Color Of Money particularly the teacher-protégé relationship. Instead of pool,we have it in the poker setting.Too bad that we don't have the great performances of Tom Cruise and the late Paul Newman in it but the uninspired and wooden acting of Reynolds and Harrison.Also,we didn't have the interesting characters of the Scorcese film.It seems that the people were just going to the motions.What's worse,the relationship between Alex and Michelle lack clarity until the film's end.It even bothers me why her character was even placed into the story and after a few scenes will just be written off?Overall,the movie just less inventive and totally uncreative considering that it employed multiple cinematic clichés which makes it predictable and the viewer is probably just saying,"Haven't I seen that in another movie before?".At the conclusion,we also find it similar to Lucky You wherein the protégé throws a winning hand for his teacher to win.I found it somewhat saying,"What??" I thought that Alex and Tommy had a falling out?Why the sudden change of heart in Alex's heart?That is one question left answered by the movie.Let's admit that the film is a second rate.But to its credit,it at least manages to cast well-known poker players.But it will definitely not generate more interest in the game unlike Rounders.

Roland E. Zwick "Deal" is the oldie about the retired card shark - who's sworn off the game for love of a good woman - who serruptitiously takes a promising young whippersnapper under his wing to train him in the fine art of high-stakes poker. Burt Reynolds is the leathery old pro and Bret Harrision his green, but cocky pupil who together head to Vegas and New Orleans for an intense session of training and instruction. But will Tommy be able to resist the lure of the tables and not mount a comeback of his own? And will we finally wind up with the card shark and the neophyte squaring off in a televised multi-million-dollar tournament to determine the very best poker player in the whole wide world? I'll see you and raise you on that bet.As a subject for film, poker is already one of the least compelling forms of competition there is, and "Deal" does little to rectify that situation. Moreover, the characters and plot lines are so hopelessly hackneyed and uninspired that we spend most of our time just waiting for the scenes to play themselves out. Harrison lacks charisma as the upstart newbie, but Reynolds brings a degree of gravitas to his overly-familiar role of a has-been trying to achieve the victory and personal glory he missed out on the first time around.But you'll wind up feeling as enervated as the players long before the final hand is played.

I M Buggy Very poorly developed, the movie simply jumps into poker and fails to ever develop its characters or any interest in them.If you're a poker fan you'll probably enjoy watching this fictional version of World Tournament of Poker et al. But again, it's fictional, and apparently an opportunity for several big-name washed-out actors (Burt Reynolds, Jennifer Tilly) to get a job. But since it's fictional and the characters are simply pretend, there's nothing in this movie that causes your empathy or excitement to root for them, unfortunately.What a bum-deal.

MVronsky I was actually very eager to see this, because somewhere I got the idea that this was going to be the next Rounders (=King of poker movies). I have never been this disappointed. I mean, I'm writing this comment during the Final poker scene because I'm just sooo bored.First of all as a movie, this is really bad. Horrible acting, editing, acting and acting. I mean Burt is Burt but who the #### is this other dude. He just hangs around. I mean aren't there any starving actors in Hollywood anymore.As a poker movie this sucks too. As mentioned the editing is horrible and this concerns the poker scenes especially. Its full of so many clichés that I am not going to even try to list them. Don't get me wrong, I love poker movies and poker too but this just hurts to watch.I can understand why the big players like (Esfandiari and Laak) agreed to do this, they get a lot of publicity and no one is going to judge their acting skills. But I don't know why Shannon Elizabeth saw as her duty to be part of this movie. Did she have some gambling debts? And also I think the casting department didn't see that she was just too beautiful for this part. I'm in love...If you want to see a good poker movie, watch Rounders or Cincinnati Kid. If you like movies, avoid this. If you like poker, really avoid this.