Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

lukeinsandiego-1 Not only is this one of the best attempts at drama HBO has ever produced, the finished product has a quality and sheen rarely achieved in this venue. This cast is beyond belief with an interaction I have never seen before. Hoffman, Ortiz and Nolte make the simplest gestures memorable. The writing is so mesmerizing it seems to be over before it's barely begun. The other less-obvious fact no one gets is that this effort has the potential of cult status which many thought John from Cincinati aspired to but did not fulfill, trailing off instead to mediocrity. It would be very simple for the brilliant writers to create (with long-shots, archival footage and slow-mo} a finished product which relies mainly on clever writing and (God forbid I say it) Artistic Action Sequences. This wonderful attempt should not be scrapped--it should be re-thought.

inframan Far too many red herrings & endlessly meandering story threads, very thin ones at that which became too hard to follow & were so undeveloped that it would take someone with multiple personalities to keep track of everything going on. If they had just stuck to the strong suits, the plot points anchored by the great acting of Hoffman & Nolte & Kind & Dunn, Luck could have been a classic, a real masterpiece. But they kept throwing in fodder for the soap fans, like the whiny Irish sex kitten jockey or the pointless Joan Allen cameo (I was hoping she was taking Ace for a ride) or the really dumb "domestication" of Turo. Oof. Some of the writing was brilliant, very lyrical like a blend of Runyon & Shakespeare, especially among the gambler gang & seemingly all of Richard Kind's lines. But then a lot of it was also hard to decipher & overly ornate. Too bad. Luck had a whole lot of style & promise.

savannahkhan Although the first episode of this series was painful to get through, each episode thereafter gets better and better. After an inaudible beginning "Luck" just might careers and an industry.As a horse lover and long time fan of Nick Nolte, I wanted to like this show but the first episode was loaded with track jargon, slang, broken English, low quality sound, and heavy accents. There also wasn't much seen of Nolte in the first episode. Fortunately I had the first 3 episodes programmed on the DVR so I had a vested interest in at least watching these recorded episodes. By the third episode I enabled closed caption so that I could follow better. I wish I had not deleted the first episode because I would have re-watched it in closed caption. This first episode is chock-full of information and innuendos, probably why it was so difficult to get through.This is unfortunate because the series gets better with each episode and I'm sure the lack of clarity in the beginning has meant the series has lost viewers. Viewers should know, however, that Nolte and Dustin Hoffman are not in this series for nothing. Nolte, whose notorious good looks is now replaced with grey hair and lots of character is a nostalgic owner/trainer brokenhearted over the past with a keen sense of a good race horse. Hoffman starts out stiff and almost out of place, but then his character is out of place due to a series of previous events.Integrity and love is really what this series is about. The four gamblers, you find, after a few episodes, really love each other. The jockeys love to ride, Nolte loves horses, and Hoffman loves his right hand man. What seems evident is that some day soon, all of these characters will come together in an as yet unknown common experience.The sound quality of this series is perhaps the only flaw and it's a big flaw. This seems to be common in today's movies and series. You understood every word Bogart said in Casablanca. It is called "projection." Old school directors and actors knew about this. I don't know what happened or why contemporary films ignores the need for people to hear and understand what characters are saying. It's almost as if they think this some type of technique but it isn't and is surely the reason, perhaps the only reason that this show may not get the viewers it deserves. Despite this,I rate this series high which says just how good this series could be.If you love horses, racing, Nolte, Hoffman or Farina, I highly recommend this series, despite the audio issues which I hope, given a second season, they fix. If you love a good race, which there seems to be one in almost every episode, this series is also for you. "Luck," given the chance, may revive the horse racing industry. It reminds you of just why this sport is the "sport of kings." Hope they will fix the audio, first time I can remember sound being such a "handicap."

sagei In the casting at least.Actors you would have thought had long been put out to pasture.But these are aging heavyweights. They have class that guys in Twilight can only dream of.They come together to provide an intriguing look at the underbelly of horse racing.The language is ugly but natural. Characters speaking instead of actors abusing on cue.No inexplicably nude women.No spoon feeding either. Characters don't take the time to explain insider terms. You will have to educate yourself if you care enough to follow the show.No shock and awe opening which is then strung out into interminable episodes. Start is discouraging. Story seems aimless. Show looks like a dead end. But as you sit bemused, it sneaks up on you. By the end of the pilot you will know if you are hooked or not.Cgi was obvious but injury to horse was still ghastly.Mainstream is pathetically shallow. So anything different is often blindly credited with depth it does not possess.Was this the tip of the iceberg ? Will there actually be hidden depths ? Only time will tell. Or this review, if it is updated.Definitely watching.Wish them well.Thank you.Cancelled due to 3 horses dying during shooting.