Lucky You is not a good movie. It should have been a good movie, one of the writers is Eric Roth who has writing credits such as Munich, The Good Shepherd, Forest Gump, and The Insider. The director (also given writing credit here) wrote L.A. Confidential and directed 8 Mile. So it wasn’t like this was hack city. Why then is this such a steaming pile of crap? I blame Eric Bana, and that’s what we’re going to get into with this review. Sorry Eric.
The story of Bana is that he’s a small time pro poker player. He’s a hustler, he tries to find the weak fish at the table so he can clean them out. He’s presented as a masterful poker player, he’s got this Ghost Rider “stare of death” thing he does to people when he needs to figure out if they’re bluffing. And yet he’s broke. Why? We’re told he’s a “blaster.”. This means he’s too aggressive, and it’s presented as the root of all his problems. The idea that he’s a masterful poker player who also does idiotic things (pretty routinely) is the first thing they ask you to gulp down.
Enter Drew Barrymore as the gal. Damn it, I just realized that to prove to you how silly this movie is I’ve got to use spoilers at the end. If you’re never going to see this flick then stick around. If you are going to see it then tune out once I tell you to. Anyway, Drew is the love interest and of course she’s presented as the cure for everything that ails him.
Back to Eric Bana. This guy is given some leaden scenes but he does a great job at butchering them all on his own too. When he and Drew are flirting / fighting / making up it’s like your first fourth grade dance. They might as well be passing notes that say “check yes or no.” At least that would have been funny. But no, we’re told that these fools are in love after about 30 seconds, yet Bana is a jerk-off, and then they’ve got to figure it all out. There’s gulp two of the movie, this idea that characters and words don’t matter. Bana comes off poorly, I can’t recall a single scene I enjoyed him in.
The poker is the most fun part of the movie, but even that’s pretty silly. I’ve played a fair amount of Hold Em’ and I’m sad to say that while they’ve almost made the game accessible to outsiders they’ve sacrificed all semblance of reality. And when I say “almost” I mean it, some of the poker scenes I can’t imagine those who haven’t played understanding, but those who have played will think those same parts are stupid. The perfect balance!
And that’s it. It’s a bad movie, predictable, annoying, confounding. Bana is bad, Barrymore tries to sing (Twice!!), and the lines are cheesy. Don’t go see it, that’s my advice to you. Now, if you really want the spoiler highlight the text below and enjoy yourself. Otherwise I bid you good day. I said good day!
So check this out. Bana and Barrymore meet. He plays cards with her money, and he makes money. Cool, no problem. They hook up. Okay, sure, that happens in real life. And then, in the middle of the night he STEALS a thousand dollars from her and blows it gambling. What the hell? Would you ever forgive someone who banged you and then robbed you? What is wrong with Barrymore? I know some people are into abuse but you’d figure those same people aren’t in to getting robbed too. Sheesh. He pays her back later and she accepts the apology. Whatever.
