"Even Money"

I have another review for a movie that was recently released on DVD called “Even Money.” Reviews I read from other sites were not too favorable towards this film, but with the cast of actors in this one I simply had to give it a shot.

Director Mark Rydell managed to pull a few mothballs out of the fleet for this dark story. Kim Basinger seems to be making a late career comeback with this film and with The Sentinel, which I thought was a pretty good film. In this movie Kim plays an addicted gambling addict named Carol Carver. Once a prominent author, Carol has hit the writers block wall, and every day she tells her husband she is going out to the local coffee shops to work on her latest novel, but of course ends up at the local casino working the one armed bandits instead, losing her families entire savings, and kids college money. Walter (played by Danny De Vito) is a washed up Vegas Magician who stalks the local casino folks performing tricks for tips. They pair meet up and try to formulate a plan for both of them to get rich quick.

Forest Whitaker plays a local fix it man (Clyde Snow) who is also hooked on gambling, but his particular taste is betting on sports through the local bookies. His case is interesting because his younger brother is an up and coming college basketball star (Godfrey Snow), and of course his older brother Clyde trying to “break even” talks his brother in point shaving in his basketball games.

There are other plots, and people in this film, but the end all of it is gambling, and the effects it has on people, and the lengths to which each person will go just to try and break even. There is plenty of bad acting in this below average script, but I must admit, there were a few bright spots. Basinger, several times makes a believer out of me with her scatterbrained twitchy character Carol Carver. And a few times I found myself truly feeling pity for Danny De Vito’s character as he sadly pretends to be this great magician with a dream of hitting the big time, all the while knowing, he will die lonely and penniless.

There was also some decent acting done by Ray Liotta who plays Carol Carvers husband, Tom. He is pretty sure his wife is not working on the book but instead having an affair behind his back. It’s not until he finds bank account print outs that he realizes what has happened. There is one scene in particular during a storm while the house is dark and he is just sitting alone with his thoughts that I felt was very provoking. I will not even go into Kelsey Grammer’s Role as detective Brunner. His make up, and acting were both ridiculously bad.

Even with this all star cast of actors, this script could not be saved into anything more then a B movie at best. While the sickness that is a gambling addiction is very loudly brought to light, there is no happy ending in the movie, or in real life. Gambling, is in some cases worse then drugs as far as the addiction goes, and it is a hard habit to beat. Even though I have talked down about this movie, I still think it's worth checking out. As I said, there are a few little jewels here and there.

My rating for this movie is 6.5 out of 10.00