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Films have often used the tension and suspense of high-stakes poker to portray the danger and urgency of a situation. And in the poker thriller Dead Money, a poker pro finds himself in a game that could be a matter of life and death.
Dead Money finds professional poker player Andy (Emile Hirsch) in a risky situation after a home poker game is robbed. Andy is deep in debt—and losing his winnings could put him in serious trouble. But when Andy discovers that the robbery was an inside job—and he manages to walk away with the money—he uses it to fund an epic winning streak. But while Andy is winning a fortune at a high-stakes game, his girlfriend, Chloe (India Eisley), ends up in the hands of some dangerous men who are desperate to get their money back.
It seems as though Andy just can’t stop winning—whether he’s betting on the next hand or his ability to hit a golf ball. For once, everything is going his way—and he just has to ride this run for as long as he can. It’s all one wild and crazy ride—and if the film were just about Andy’s epic winning streak, it could have been an outrageous poker comedy. But, of course, while Andy may be oblivious to what’s going on in his home, viewers know better.
The film weaves the two stories together: Andy’s run through one game after another, as he collects more and more winnings, and Chloe’s fight to survive after she’s taken by a couple of guys who want their money back. It’s a pretty tense thriller, but there’s really not much here to set it apart from other high stakes gambling thrillers. The characters are generally rather flat (apart from Jackie Earle Haley, who’s always entertaining as his own kind of backwoods henchman), and the story lacks surprises. It offers just a hint of something quirky and over-the-top in Peter Facinelli’s irreverent poker-playing cop LT—but, instead of adding interest to this otherwise run-of-the-mill crime thriller, the character just seems to have accidentally walked onto the wrong set.
While some of the characters here seem to hint that the filmmakers wanted the film to be crazier and more outrageous, most of Dead Money feels like a typical poker thriller. It has some entertaining moments, but, in the end, it’s generally just forgettable.
You can deal yourself in for Dead Money when it arrives in select theaters and on demand on September 13, 2024.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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