What makes it different from others?

Best movie of this year hands down!

Best movie ever!

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

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.

saw this film the other day on Sky movies. Being a BR fan, thought I would give it a look. First off, it's a shame to see BR looking so rough these days.He has had so much bad plastic surgery these days that he looks pretty dreadful. Why he couldn't have just gotten older gracefully, i will never know. I'm quite certain his rotten looks have reduced his chances of getting decent roles. So this is what plastic Burt has to star in these days, some poorly made Color of Money rip-off.Personally, I don't like or understand Poker, so the card scenes held little interest. Burt's performance was reasonable - he is always capable of turning in a performance in any junk. To be honest, this is not worth the time. If you are interested in watching any Burt Reynolds movies, stick to the seventies, early 80's (and of course Boogie Nights).The obvious movies are deliverance,Smokey,CannonBall but Hustle,The End,Semi-tough,starting over,sharkey's machine,best friends are great examples of why Burt is a legend.

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.

I decided to check this out mainly because Burt and poker sounded appealing. This is basically "The COlor of Money", only poker....and it's nowhere near the quality of that work. However, "Deal" is not a terrible film either... it is like a less inventive and less entertaining "PoolHall Junkies"... to compare it to a film with a similar, constrained budget.My big beef comes with Shannon Elizabeth's character. I'll try not to give away anything here..but upon finishing the film you have to ask why did they introduce her character... don't get me wrong she did a fine job... but the viewer is really left in the dark with the relationship... it almost seems like they just decided to write her out of the movie... it really makes this an incomplete film...hurried if you will.Reynolds is likable, and for poker fans, this may be above average.. my opinion is that this is 'B' movie city and an average one at that. Felt like a TV movie... no style... fair performances. Editing and overall production was clearly low budget... that under consideration I'm going with 5.... or 51/100 won't be recommending it to anyone, but then again, I didn't reach to turn it off either.