Review of The Grand (2007) by Erno K — 27 Aug 2008

I love poker movies and I love good dialogue movies. No surprise then, that when a movie combines those, I love that too.

My understanding of the movie is that much of the dialogue (and even poker) was improvised by the actors. I don't know if that's true, but this is certainly a funny movie. The selection of actors is also weird. There are real pros, movie directors, celebrities and genuine actors. But weirdly enough it works. There are crazy characters, like my favorite, The German, who has to kill something every day to feel alive but carries around his baby bunny, Munchkin. Even Brett Ratner gets to act briefly.

Most of the humor comes from the interaction between the characters, which is usually pretty hilarious. The poker actually plays quite a marginal role in the grand scheme of things (pun, baby!). I like these kind of movies, where a bunch of actors are just unleashed to do their thing. The result is an excellent comedy, with a huge amount of cameos.