billryan
billryan
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April 25th, 2020 at 11:56:30 PM permalink
I'd never heard of this movie, but I found the DVD in a box I bought at some sale. Kim Bassinger as a gambling addict married to an unsuspecting Ray Loitta, Danny Devito as a washed up magician/con man, Forest Whitaker as a gambler in over his head to Jay Mohr and Tim Roth. Nick Cannon is drawn into the web, as is Kelsy Grammar as a crooked cop. Technology seems to be set around 2008, but I'm not sure when it was actually made. A number of plot twists kept me guessing just how everyone would wind up.
In the end it posed an interesting question. Do casinos create dreams for people or do they rob them of them?
The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction is supposed to make sense.
JohnnyQ
JohnnyQ 
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April 27th, 2020 at 5:31:29 PM permalink
So what's your bottom-line review ?

Rottentomatoes:

24 % / 29 %

"Even Money is so obsessed with portraying the ills of gambling it forgets to develop compelling or likable characters".
There's emptiness behind their eyes There's dust in all their hearts They just want to steal us all and take us all apart
billryan
billryan
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April 27th, 2020 at 7:27:51 PM permalink
Its an unusual movie as there are several distinct plot lines going throughout the movie and you want everyone to lose. Tim Roth is compelling and you want him to lose, except that means the other guys win and they all suck. Danny Devito you can almost feel for, but then he shows himself to be a con man. Nick Cannon might have been the most sympathetic character, but it's Nick Cannon so you just want him to fail. Even when Roth, goes against character and tries to do the right thing, he ends up screwing everyone anyway.
i don't think it points out the ills of gambling as much as it shows how sick most gamblers are.
The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction is supposed to make sense.
BedWetterBetter
BedWetterBetter
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April 27th, 2020 at 9:37:04 PM permalink
I saw this just after seeing Requiem for a Dream and found many parallels in the two.

Although artistically and visually, Requiem is significantly better, it tells the stories of several addicts going from high to low and the depraved acts they'll commit to feed the addiction.

In the case of Even Money, you see the damage done to family members, which is one of the major focal points missed out in other movies dealing with compulsive gambling.
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