NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

michaeljhuman I can see where this movie would polarize people.I think people will like this the most who - a) Have a dry sense of humor b) Like "quirky" movies c) Have played and more importantly, watched enough poker on TV to recognize some of the people being parodiedIf you have only (a) and (b) going for you, you will perhaps find some scene funny, but not as funny as you would if you meet (c)For example here's some things to look for - * Gabe Kaplan is a REAL poker player, so it's nice to see him in a poker movie * Larry is somewhat of a composite guy, but definitely seems to be parodying Phil Helmuth (one of his quotes is lifted from an infamous Helmuth quote) * Larry and Laney (sp?) are bother and sister, with the sister usually coming out on top - there's two famous players who are brother and sister, and Annie the sister beat her brother Howard in a number of big events(Just to name a few references)Anyway, at times the dialog is awkward. But if you give it a chance, and can laugh at some of the awkward moments, you may enjoy it.Props to Parnell, Kaplan, Harreson, the female who played Laney (sp?), Phil Gordon and the person who played the "amateur" from Wisconsin for some pretty funny performances.

jfmvp The first three-quarters of Zak Penn's "The Grand" are hilarious, especially for avid fans of No Limit Texas Hold 'Em -- you know, the types of fans who understand whom the characters satirize: Lainie Schwartzman is Annie Duke, Larry Schwartzman is Phil Hellmuth (though the brother/sister storyline mirrors that of Duke and Howard Lederer),and Mike "The Bike" Heslov and his "Crew" represent all of those annoying groups of friends that enter the World Series of Poker as partners, and then root each other on while spewing their own brand of Hold 'Em lingo. In this case, a "BBFC" -- Boom Boom Fold Cock. That's one of the films shortest, and yet most entertaining scenes.David Cross (as Larry Schwartzman), Chris Parnell (as Harold Melvin), and acclaimed director Werner Herzog (as The German) are the stars of this show. All three are funny and memorable for their own reasons, and the casting was spot on for that particular trio of characters. Dennis Farina (Deuce Fairbanks), Richard Kind (Andy Andrews), Ray Romano (Fred Marsh), and Gabe Kaplan (the Schwartzmans' dad) also put in fine work.Woody Harrelson was annoying in the lead as Jack Faro, though he had his moments, especially when discussing his drug and alcohol addictions. Cheryl Hines gives the most uneven and disappointing performance of this mockumentary, finding no consistency and little-to-no laughs.While the first 3/4 of "The Grand" are high in entertainment value and originality, the last quarter falls totally flat. The would-be high tension final table hands are horribly played, and no true fan of Hold 'Em could believe that these players are of the world-class variety. In the real world, they'd all be donkeys.Nonetheless, "The Grand" was a pleasant surprise when I stumbled upon it on one of the Showtime channels. This is on par with Christopher Guest's mockumentaries -- better than some, and worse than others. Ultimately, it's worth seeing for poker fans with a specific sense of humor.

jeff whitefield for some reason the cover of this movie had me worried it was corny and awful, but with actors like David cross, werner herzog, and cheryl hines, i really wanted to give it a chance. what i ended up watching was hours of horrible snl style skits, done over and over again, with no punch-line, no intelligent thought, and terrible film-making/acting. how all these actors got together and decided to do this is beyond me, unless they were already going to be in town to play poker anyways or something. don't waste your time seeing this movie, its seriously the worst thing I've seen in a long time. it tries to be a "David guest" style mocu-mentary, but fails horribly, and ends up giving whoever watches it a headache and a horrible impression of who people like werner herzog and David cross are, don't judge them by the fact that they are in this movie, they are both talented individuals.

Joseph Sylvers Great cast Chris Parnell, David Cross, Jason Alexander, Werner Herzog, Cheryl Hines(of Curb Your Enthusiasm), among others all in an improv comedy about the world of poker. All actors are at the top of their game here, but by the end of the movie almost everything has gone flat. The final game in the movie was apparently a real game where the character who won, won the movie, which though novel and interesting in theory, makes the actors in their final scene all but abandon the characters they'd been developing and try to really play (with a minimum of interaction), which unless your interested in poker isn't very fun to watch. The first half of the film where we are introduced to the characters is all funny enough, but there's no follow through here. If you like Christopher Guest movies, and improv comedy, or else love poker, this is for you.