The film, on the other hand, did.
I feel like I've seen this exact story before, I'd even guess the film I'm thinking of was based on the same book, but I can't seem to remember the name of the film. It might have been a made for TV thing just shown in Canada. Ah, I finally found it on IMDB. The Last Casino. It did have virtually the same plot. And was a made for TV Canadian movie.
But my point... is the overall plot didn't fascinate me. And I had trouble with the motivation for the Kevin Spacey character, and perhaps the Larry Fishburne one, too, and the so-called romantic sub-plot was extremely poorly developed. Why even freaking bother?
The other thing was I just couldn't stop thinking about the entire card-counting phenomenon and this idea that people who do it get beaten up. Okay, I am fully aware that I am completely ignorant of how things work in Vegas, and I am not completely ignorant of the fact that organized crime is or at least has been involved in Vegas... But I also know that the gaming commission or whatever they are called are fairly strict... And not all the cops in Vegas can be corrupt. So that's where I take issue with these stories. Card counting isn't against the law. It isn't even cheating. It's just playing the game of blackjack extremely well, at a level most of us could never hope to. (And at a level where the player has an advantage over the casino.) So... if someone gets beaten for counting cards... wouldn't they just go to the cops? They didn't do anything wrong. The people who assaulted them did. It just doesn't make sense to me.
And even Jim Sturgess' eyelashes couldn't distract me from this.
Speaking of eyelashes... I'm in the middle of watching tonight's episode of LOST (have the DVR on pause) and looking at the actor who plays Ben, I am so glad I'm a girl. Why you ask? Because I can wear mascara and eyeliner to help disguise the fact I have transparent eyelashes. He can't. Too bad. He might look less freaky with eyelashes, and stronger eyebrows, too. But I guess while playing this Ben character, freaky is kind of the point.
6 comments:
Great review, Maureen. I always love your take on the movies.
My friend wants to drag me to Baby Mama *cringe*. I like Tina and Amy on SNL, but the trailers for that movie are ridiculously unfunny. I hope I'm wrong! (I so often am)
Ben is a wicked creepy isn't he? I'm trying to suppress my excitement that he, too, can time travel. Whee!
The book it is based on is quite good- but I could tell from the trailers that they added a whole bunch of things. I hate that. Book sullying. pfft.
Ben's no-eyelash thing is pretty freaky - but effective.
But the other thing that I always notice is the very visible eyeliner use on the guy who worked for Ben (can't remember his name but he was the one who wooed Juliet to come to the island).
You'd think he could share some of his eye enhancing tricks with his leader...
Good review Maureen. You are so funny. I'll catch it on video. Love his eyelashes though.
Would you be open to looking over my book outlines for plots that do or don't work? I think you'd be excellent at it!
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