Lucky You Review – Full overview of the poker movie

The film follows Huck’s path, who learns to manage his relationships, while shedding the world of competitive high stakes poker. In the following paragraphs we will make a review of “Lucky You”, translated into Italy with “The rules of the game”, with a detailed overview of the plot. If you haven’t seen the movie, Be careful, this page contains spoiler! Our review will go into the key topics of the film, with a critical approach and an analysis of how poker is presented by the director. Let’s start, with a tasting of the film, here is the trailer of “Lucky You – The rules of the game”.

Detailed synopsis – ATTENTION, ALERT spoiler!

“The rules of the game” is a film set in Las Vegas in the 2003 World Series of Poker. Huck Chever commits the wedding ring of his mother with reluctance, and then heads to the poker table of the Bellagio casino. Later he goes to a party, and here he meets Billie (Drew Barrymore), an aspiring singer of Bakersfield, who is his sister of his friend of him Suzanne (Debra Messing). Although Suzanne warns Billie on Bad fame of Huck, Blilled and intrigued.

Huck returns to the casino, where his father L.C. Cheer, who had abandoned his mother, participates in the big game. Using his latest money, Huck bets the mother’s money money. Huck feels a deep anger and resentment towards his father, who stole the marriage ring from his mother before abandoning his family. Huck’s emotions clinging to him, and L.C. He wins his hand.

After the protagonist tries without success to be lent the money by his friend Jack (Robert Downey Jr), he goes to Suzanne, hoping that she will lend them to them. On the contrary, he meets Billie, who he discovered he had a engagement to the Dino’s Lounge. Huck suggests to celebrating her, and heads to the casino with the girl’s travel check. The protagonist teaches her the Poker rulesnull L.C. He arrives, brandishing the ring he won from his son.

During dinner with the singer, Huck reveals her complicated relationship with her father. Billie and the boy then spend the night together. Huck woke up and steals $ 1,200 from Billie’s handbag, and returns to the casino. L.C. appears and gives him back the wedding ring. After winning, and intending to leave, Huck continues to play the big game, Losing Billie’s money.

The protagonist plays a super satellite tournament, trying to win to enter the poker main event. It seems that he is about to win, but A missdeal makes him lose access to the tournament. Having lost everything, Huck borrows $ 10,000 from a usurer, Roy, with whom he makes an agreement to divide any prize pool at 70/30, and to return the 1,200 to Billie. Huck apologizes to the singer, telling her she hears something special with each other, and gives her back the sum of her. Afterwards, the couple comes across L.C. Inside a coffee, where Huck quickly loses all his money in a head of head poker.

Huck accepts a bet from Ready Eddie, who focuses $ 10,000 on the fact He Huck cannot run 5 miles and close the 18 holes of a golf course in 78 shots or not, all in 3 hours. Billie holds the stopwatch and declares Huck loser, since completed the challenge in 3 hours and 2 secondsnull Huck and Billie quarrel, since she refuses to cheat to allow him to win, and decides to return to Bakersfield. Roy’s henchmen threaten Huck, telling him that he is 24 hours to get a place in the tournament, and return his money.

As a last resource, Huck sells his mother’s ring to L.C. For $ 500, and play poker all night to reach $ 10,000 needed to participate in the tournament. He travels to see Billie, and try to make peace with her. The WSOP main event begins, with Huck and L.C. both reach the final table. In the bathroom, L.C. explains that the protagonist’s mother had returned the wedding ring, and he had forgiven him for stealing him and abandoning her and son. She expresses the desire to win her third wsop, so that her legend continues. Billie looks at everything from the stands, while Huck and L.C. They have the final showdown at the poker table. Huck has a winning hand, but deliberately leaves, and is eliminated as a third classified. A few minutes later L.C. It is eliminated, with Jason Keyes who wins 2.3 million dollars. Keyes had entered the main event thanks to poker online, like the winner of the 2003 WSOP, Chris Moneymaker.

L.C. He knows that Huck allowed him to win. In the end they return to play for a few cents, as they did when Huck was a child. The protagonist goes to look for Billie, with his winnings of $ 4.37 in his pocket. She tells Huck that she knows that he threw the victory to win her father, and The couple reconciles.

Brief critical overview of the film

Because of the wonderful films such as L.A. Confidential and 8 Mile directed by Curtis Hanson, I had great hopes for Lucky You. Unfortunately, the film did not go to expectations. Although categorized as romantic drama, the love story between Huck and Billie lacks conviction. There is little chemistry in the couple. There relationship between father and son is the main story, while the love story seems to exist only as a catalyst for the reconciliation between Huck and L.C. This slow drama has the development of the character as its center, even if it is the poker game that took the center of attention. In fact, it is the latter that returns to memory, after the film is over.

The film has strengths. They turned it mostly in Las Vegas, which creates some Visually stunning scenes. There are many scenes of the sparkling Las Vegas, with the bright lights of the Aways on the last page., which capture the authentic thrill of the city of sin. There is an accepting scene of the famous fountains of Bellagio, which are the backdrop to the couple’s first kiss. But the sparkling of Las Vegas is not the only thing you see, there are also restaurants, shops, and the neighborhoods where people live away from modern tourist attractions.

The world of poker high stakes of Las Vegas is represented with a Watch attentive to precisionnull And above all, the many poker scenes are interesting and full of drama. All poker games are shown by the perspective of Huck, a move, by Hanson and cinema Peter Dement, made to help the viewer identify himself in Huck, and to allow the development of the game to be dramatic and captivating.

Lucky You’s soundtrack – The rules of the game is another strong point of the film, and helps capture the atmosphere and emotions of the storynull This includes legends of American music such as Bruce Springsteen, Ryan Adams and George James. Bob Dylan wrote a song called “Huck’s Tune”, which completes the soundtrack of the film well. Barrymore also makes a cover of George Jones’ song, The Cold Hard Truth.

How much is Lucky You poker realistically represented?

The film “Lucky You – The rules of the game” is one of the first to be set against the drama of the increasingly popular world poker phenomenon. The builders wanted to carefully portray the world of high-stakes poker in Las Vegas around 2003 and made everything to make the film authentic and as faithful as possible to real life.

To make the poker poker even more realistic, the professional poker player Doyle Brunson He was hired as a consultant. He spent months with Bana and Duvall, teaching them how to play as professionals. Doyle supervised all the poker hands seen in the film, based on real hands that took place in tournaments and cash games. He gave advice on cards and episodes, suggesting changes to make everything more authentic. Matt Sagay, director of the tournament for some of the largest poker events has been hired as a consultant on the tournament. Also the professional pokerist Jason Lester (who ended fourth in the 2003 WSOP main event) supervised the main event scenes. Bruson, Savage and Lester also made cameos in the film.

To try to make the film even more realistic for spectators who watch poker on TV, some of the most recognizable professional poker players appear on stage. Jennifer Harman, John Hennigan, and David Oppenheim also interpret fantasy roles. Over 20 of the best Poker Pro have made an apparition, including those who arrived at the final table in the real Main Event Wsop 2003. Here is a list of pokerists who played themselves in the film:

• then joy
• chau gIang
• barry greensteIn
• jason Thester
• Ted Forrest
• mInh ly
• John Murphy
• erIck lIndgren
• danIel negreanu
• doyThe brunson
• Johnny Chan
• hoyt corkIns
• antonIo esfandIarI
• chrIs ferguson
• and harrIngton
• phIl hellmuth
• karIna jett
• John Juanda
• mIke matusow
• erIk seIdel
• mImI tran
• Marsha Waggoner
• robert wIllIamson III
• cyndy vIolet

The producers wanted to film in the poker room of Bellagio. However, the room was restored in 2003, the year in which the film is set. Therefore, one was built Exact replica of the poker room of Bellagio in 2003, in a set of California. The moment was fortuitous, since Bellagio was selling furniture and furnishings of the original room at auction. The team has passed all the other offers and was able to build a reproduction of the original poker room. The scenographers also meticulously recreated Benny’s Bullpen, the room on the top of Bione’s Horseshoe above, where the main event of the 2003 WSOP took place.

Gambling portrait in the film

Although poker is central in the film, it is not the only variant of the gambling you see. At the beginning of the film, we are introduced to us a giIngollico opal, Ready Eddie (Horatio Sanz), who is placing a bet on a volleyball match. While Huck can be a compulsive poker player, Eddie is apparently willing to bet on anything, The more extravagant the bet is, the betternull In the desperate attempt to raise the registration fee for the poker championship, Huck accepts an elaborate bet by Eddie. He bets that Huck cannot end 18 golf holes in 78 shots or not and run 5 miles, all in 3 hours or less, with $ 10,000 on the bet. Huck loses the bet for 2 seconds.

The comic line is injected into the film through Ready Eddie’s Gambling. He also committed herself in a bet with a character named Lester, bet that he cannot pass a whole month only in the bathroom of the Aladdin hotel. Lester himself is not a parvenue of unusual bets, having done himself plant fake breasts after someone had challenged him to do it for $ 50,000. The reference is clearly to the crazy bet made by Brian Zmbic. In a nice scene after the credits, Eddie and Lester discuss on how many days there are in a month, which quickly turns into an episode for doubling.

Gambling is omnipresent in “Lucky You – The rules of the game”. Huck is a compulsive bettor who repeatedly commits common errors of the world of bets. Point money that cannot afford to lose, wants to recover the losses, also comes to steal to find money to bet. The film does not directly criticize Huck’s problems with bets, even if the basic message is that these habits have brought many difficulties in the lives of Huck and L.C.

Conclusions – Poker is Lucky You’s Star

“Lucky You – The rules of the game” received rather negative criticism from experts and spectators, and received a rating of the 28 % Lottent Mato Picture Snull If you are looking for a credible love story, Lucky You will disappoint you. But there is no doubt that the film He will like poker spectators, pokerists and lovers of Las Vegasnull The attentive eye for details, accurate in everything, from the settings of a real casino to the numerous cameos of famous poker professionals, offers an authentic vision of the world of poker high stakes in 2003. It is a real shame that the drama at the tables from Poker is much more fun and engaging than the little brilliant romantic plot. If you like poker, I recommend you try this movie. I would also advise you to take a look at the other reviews of the best films, on Gambling, present in this blog, such as that of California Split.

FAQ

We close the review of the film Lucky You with a small selection of more frequent questionsnull You can know some extra details on the production of the film or get some information on the cast of characters. We will also tell you where you can watch this excellent movie online and more.