Review of The Gambler (2014) by Movieguys — 28 Dec 2014

The Gambler is one depressing, worthless movie. It takes the original 70's James Caan version and spits it out like wood from a wood chipper. mark Wahlberg talked about how this was the "role of his life" and he actually lost 61 pounds for it. Now I don't' know what Marky Mark saw in this movie, but I can tell you that there are no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Any message trying to poke through in this movie is squandered by bad screenplay, a clumsy script, and a depressing atmosphere. Some people hate these types of movies, but here's the thing: I usually don't. When they're this bad though, I don't see how anyone could find anything wholesome about them.

Here's how the movie goes (no spoilers, but no one should see it anyway): lit professor Jim Bennett (played by Wahlberg) takes out gambling loans from people you don't want to screw with, blows it all in one night, can't pay it back, and gets beat up for it. The thing is, he is suicidal and doesn't even care if he lives or dies. This happens over and over again, without variation. The only reason at all that I'm giving this movie a 4/10 instead of a 0 is because of the performances, with were the reason I sat through it until the end in the first place. Marky Mark plays his usual "guy angry at something all the time" role, and John Goodman stoically sits on a pool bench with fat hanging off of him like President Taft in a bathtub, threatening to kill Mark if he doesn't pay back his money.