Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Keira Brennan The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

liquidcelluloid-1 Network: ESPN; Genre: Drama, Crime; Content Rating: TV-14 (language, strong sexual content, brutal violence); Available: DVD; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4); Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season) Following in the footsteps of their first drama series, the controversial "Playmakers", ESPN's "Tilt" takes an unflattering look at the world of high stakes Las Vegas poker. "Playmakers" was an admirable failure, riddle with as many accomplishments as clichés. "Tilt" takes advantage of the national surge in interest for Texas Hold'Em, then turns around and bites the hand that fed it that opportunity. How dare the public not have recognized a game that has been around since the old west until now. There was some cynical fun in "Playmakers" take on football, but "Tilt" is an angry, bitter, relentlessly soul-sucking experience that is so single-minded in its attempt to demonize Vegas that the city could consider a defamation suit.When family man and cop Lee (Chris Bauer, "The Wire") sits down at the high stakes table he gets cleaned out by Don "The Matador" Everest. It turns out that Don is not only a legend in the poker world, but a strong arm of the casino sent to make sure that the house wins at all costs. If Lee wasn't enough of a pit bull bent on bringing down Everest, three pro poker players (Eddie Cibrian, Kristin Lehman, and Todd Williams), who were also at one time ruined by The Matador, team up to bring him down during the national poker championships.The poker action is as exciting as poker action gets. But creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien don't trust that poker will hold the narrative (a more talented team could have made it work), so they fill the stories with mobster, FBI agents, scam artists and a little murder mystery. Their Vegas is a full-on sadistic nightmare of a city, more "The Sopranos" than "Las Vegas", that sucks people in and eats them alive like a big neon monster. If the casino owners aren't crooked enough, the cops and judges are. Every few minutes somebody is being brutally beaten, casually murdered or tortured all set to trashing rock music. Nothing wrong with being loud, except when it is used as a transparent attempt to cover up a thread-bare nonsensical story.None of the characters are the slightest bit likable. Everybody growls and snarls either out of revenge or detachment or sheer black-and-white evil for the sake of evil. B-movie staple Michael "pardon me while I never clear my throat" Madsen is the worst as Everest. This unconvincing tough guy has 2 purposes: threatening in a gruff voice and beating while yelling in a gruff voice.The show is filled with monologues relating poker to life while saying nothing at all. On paper, on HBO or FX, this might not be a recipe for disaster, but Koppelman and Levien have a Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay sense of subtlety and ESPN doesn't have the experience or sense of quality control to rein them in. Under their eye a simple poker revenge drama becomes a loud, tacky, empty-headed, testosterone-fueled piece of punishment. "Tilt" is cheesy, B-movie stuff – and not the fun kind either.* / 4

ZCT I've just seen the final episode of Tilt and have to say enjoyed the series. It was by no means perfect, some of it was a shade predictable, some of the acting and dialogue was a little below par. But overall if you're the kind of person that likes watching poker and enjoyed the movie Rounders you're probably going to enjoy this offering from ESPN.My only complaint was the horrible scheduling of ESPN. If it wasn't for DVR I never would have seen every episode, which sucks as the storyline is sequential from one episode to the next. Even with DVR you'd have run into problems since three weeks running ESPN were over 30 minutes late showing an episode because of some ball game. Then they decided to move the finale to an entirely different day. It was almost like they were trying to kill the ratings. If ESPN want to make another season or indeed another series like this they need to schedule it properly or sell it to another network.If you can actually see all the episodes in order, and you're a poker fan, I think you'll enjoy. If you are a 'poker is not a sport' kind of person who doesn't think mental games of skill are interesting, stay clear. Oh and it has some adult themes, if you dislike such things don't watch.

slandrumlhs This show is awful. While its depiction of the technicalities of the play of poker is accurate, the actual situations that develop and the representation of poker in general is awful. There are no characters to root for in the show, all of the people are really bad people. Some have reasons for why they are less than acceptable specimens of the human race, but they should all be disposed of. The writing is rife with clichés and stereotypes, and all of the worst kind. It's actually painful to watch.I was initially interested in the show because I do play poker and am familiar with the poker world and the professional players. I also know some of the people involved in the show, so I really wanted to like it.I'm sorry to say this show does a complete disservice to poker, to television and to the audience. There are some less than reputable characters in the poker world, but this show makes it seem like the game is filled with nothing but con men, hustlers, cheats and worse. It's interesting that they chose this take on poker, as right now poker is more popular than it has ever been in history, and poker shows are among the most popular on ESPN, as well as other channels.

wtbe7560 May contain spoilers!ESPN takes another foray into the entertainment portion of the sports arena with "Tilt", a new series focusing on the world of high stakes poker. Michael Madsen plays "The Matador", the world's best poker player, and a hustler."The Matador" is in league with seemingly everyone - the owners of the casino, the police, other players, and is using his influence to fleece the unsuspecting opponents he faces. He is opposed on two sides, first by the county sheriff brother of a man who tried to expose the Matador's cheating, and also by a trio of young players whom the Matador had cleaned out in the past by cheating. The young players are being staked by a mysterious older man who also has a grudge against the Matador.Unlike other poker series out there (Lucky comes to mind), this show seems fluid and well written. Madsen convincingly plays an amoral scumbag and the supporting cast is excellent. Those of you familiar with the poker world will notice the similarities between the character of the Matador and with real life poker icon Doyle Brunson. Most of the script seems to based on real life accusations made against the poker great by people like Russ Georgiev, who claims to have actively cheated at poker with many of the greats of the game. More on this can be seen at Georgiev's website. It is an interesting view into both this series and the seedly underbelly of pro poker.All in all - an excellent show.