SPRINGSTEEN : DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE : Tuesday 28th October 2025

I saw the M Rated 'SPRINGSTEEN : DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE' this week, and this American biographical musical drama film is Written for the screen, Co-Produced and Directed by Scott Cooper who made his Directorial debut with the critically acclaimed 'Crazy Heart' in 2009 and would go on to Direct 'Out of the Furnace' in 2013, 'Black Mass' in 2015, 'Hostiles' in 2017, 'Antlers' in 2021 and 'The Pale Blue Eye' in 2022. This film is based on the 2023 book 'Deliver Me from Nowhere' by Warren Zanes. The film saw its World Premiere showcasing at the Telluride Film Festival at the end of August with its US and Australian release last week. It has received mixed reviews from critics, and has so far grossed US$18M from a production budget of US$55M.

The film opens in 1957 with a young Bruce Springsteen (Matthew Anthony Pellicano) driving in his family car with his mother Adele (Gaby Hoffman) to a local bar, where Bruce is told to go inside and get his father Douglas (Stephen Graham) to come home. He gingerly taps his father, sitting at the bar, on his back and tells him its time to come home. Douglas turns around and tells him to go and wait outside. Fast forward to 1981 and Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) reaches the end of his latest sold-out concert tour. Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong), his manager and record producer, rents a house for Bruce to lay low from his growing fame, near Freehold, New Jersey where he grew up. 

Bruce's friend and mechanic Matt Delia (Harrison Gilbertson) drives him to the house in Colts Neck, New Jersey and Bruce buys his first new car - a Chevrolet Camaro Z28. Playing with local bands at the Stone Pony (a live music venue in Asbury Park, New Jersey), he meets Faye Romano (Odessa Young), an old classmate's younger sister. On the heels of his first top-ten song, 'Hungry Heart', his record label has high expectations of another hit album, and Bruce suggests trimming studio costs, which he had hitherto funded largely himself, by preparing a demo himself. 

Locked away in his retreat at Colts Neck he reads the works of Flannery O'Connor (an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist), Bruce catches the 1973 Terrence Malick Directed film 'Badlands' on TV with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, and is drawn to research the crime spree of Charles Starkweather who killed eleven people in Nebraska and Wyoming between late 1957 and early 1958. Inspired, he writes a song in the killer's own voice, and later takes Faye on a first date to Asbury Park.

At the house, Bruce enlists the support of his guitar technician Mike Batlan (Paul Walter Hauser) to turn the bedroom into a makeshift studio, with a four-track recorder to arrange the demo themselves. As Bruce's relationship with Faye grows, he writes a collection of stark, somber songs with a blue-collar viewpoint, influenced by his childhood memories, especially of his father with whom he had a complicated and less that ideal relationship. Jon informs Bruce of other opportunities piling up, including a possible movie role written by Paul Schrader and set to star Robert De Niro called 'Born in the U.S.A.' but Bruce is committed to his new music. Recording his new tracks unaccompanied, he makes the risky choice to embrace an imperfect, unvarnished sound quality.

Later, Mike personally delivers to Jon the only copy of the completed demo, a single cassette tape, and Jon confides in his wife about the unexpectedly darker and very personal sounding songs. Now living in California, Adele calls Bruce for help with an increasingly erratic Douglas, who has been fired from his job and is off his medications. After visiting his father, Bruce arrives in New York City to record the new album, reuniting with the E Street Band. They lay down several successful tracks, including 'Born in the U.S.A.' which he wrote for the soundtrack to his abandoned movie offer, but Bruce is unhappy with the overall full-band studio sound of the record.

Following another two weeks of recording and Bruce is still not satisfied with his acoustic vision for the album. Abandoning Faye, he insists on shelving the potential hits ('Born in the U.S.A.', 'Glory Days' and 'I'm On Fire') until he is satisfied. Jon agrees to use Bruce's raw demo, unchanged, as the new record, suspecting Bruce fears losing himself in the face of success. Using older equipment to recreate the demo tape as a vinyl master recording, Bruce's original sound is successfully preserved for the new album, 'Nebraska'.

Columbia Record Executive Al Teller (David Krumholtz) is dismayed by this new stylistic approach, and the absence of any prospective hit singles, but Jon defends Bruce's artistic vision and decision to let the album speak for itself, with no singles, tours, or press appearances, not even his face on the cover to promote the album. Bruce tells Faye that he is moving to California alone, and that he has purchased a house in Los Angeles. She tearfully accuses him of refusing to face his fears. He suffers a mental breakdown as Matt drives him across the country, but they reach his new home in LA. Thinking about suicide, Bruce reaches out to Jon, who urges him to seek professional help, and Bruce visits a therapist and breaks down emotionally.

Ten months later, Bruce is back on tour with Jon's support, and is visited by his proud parents. Douglas asks the 32-year-old Bruce to sit on his lap for the first time, reconnecting with his son and acknowledging that he had not always been a good father but that he is very proud of his son. The pair embrace. An epilogue reveals that 'Nebraska' reached number three on the Billboard charts, while the hits included on Bruce's following album 'Born in the U.S.A.' launched him to global superstardom, as he continued to suffer bouts of depression, but now always with help and hope. 

Make no mistake, this is Jeremy Allen White's film in the way he embodies Bruce Springsteen's mannerisms, his emotions, his working class roots and his raw energy when he's belting out those songs on stage, or in the quieter moments when he's writing his songs and laying them down himself on his four-track recorder in his bedroom. Whilst this film is sure to please the Springsteen fans among us, for me concentrating purely on the recording of one of his least commercially successful albums (despite going to #3 on the album chart), was perhaps a misstep, and I would have preferred to see a little more of his later years, and his rise to legendary status. That said, 'Springsteen : Deliver Me From Nowhere' is worthy of your attention, although you can wait to catch it on your favoured streaming service in due course, but be warned, this is no 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or 'Rocket Man' or 'Elvis'.

'Springsteen : Deliver Me From Nowhere' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE GENTLEMEN : Tuesday 7th January 2020.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE GENTLEMEN' this week from British Director, Producer and Screenwriter Guy Ritchie. He is no stranger to the British crime drama often tinged with a hint of tongue firmly planted in cheek comedy, a la 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels', 'Snatch', 'Revolver' and 'RocknRolla' which have helped propel its emerging stars into mainstream success - including Jason Statham, Tom Hardy, Idris Elba and Vinnie Jones. Here Guy Ritchie, is going back to his London gangland genre roots with his latest crime comedy offering that he Directs, Co-Produces, wrote the Screenplay for and also came up with the story with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. The film was released in the UK last week too, and not in the US until the back end of January, and has so far taken US$8M at the Box Office, and judging by the packed cinema theatre I attended this week, it looks like this is a winner!

Our film opens up with American expat Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) alighting from his chauffeur driven car and walking into a London pub, in what looks like pre-opening time, and orders from the barman a pint of London's finest Gritchie (get it!) ale and a pickled egg. He sits down at a table in the empty pub and calls his wife, saying that's its steak night, dinner later that evening at The River Cafe at 9:00pm, at which point an unknown gunman enters the room unheard, and shoots at Mickey. Cut to the red crimson stuff plastering the table and the pint glass in front of him. Roll the title credits and you could easily be mistaken for thinking that you are watching the latest James Bond offering, as Ritchie here has copied to good effect from the Bond play book.

We then enter the home of Raymond (Charlie Hunnam), Mickey's consigliere and right hand man, and as Raymond prepares to settle in for the night, his peace is disturbed by Fletcher (Hugh Grant) lurking in the shadows in wait. Fletcher is a sleazy tabloid newspaper investigative journalist who has been doing a lot of digging into Mickey's history, his business exploits and his connections and its through an extended interview with Raymond that we learn of Mickey's business empire. Fletcher works for Big Dave (Eddie Marsan), the Editor at the newspaper, who has an axe to grind with Mickey for disrespecting him at a lavish gathering in front of various movers, shakers and high powered associates of his.

And so Fletcher begins to recount everything he knows of Mickey's exploits as though he's prepping a movie script, and in fact he has written one based on what he has come to know of Mickey. And so we learn that Mickey hailed from a dead end family in the US, but despite his less than humble upbringing he gained a scholarship to Oxford University. There he quickly learned that there was a demand amongst the student population for weed, skank, sweet Mary Jane, ganga - marijuana. As his university business began to flourish, so he broadened his horizons and ultimately grew his business but not without getting blood on his hands and taking out those who would oppose him, stand in his way, or try to muscle in on his action. And now after thirty years at the top of England's marijuana supply game, Mickey has decided it's time to retire. Fletcher thinks he's been incredibly cunning and thorough in his investigations and unfurls all of his collected intelligence to Raymond, seeking £20M to keep quiet and ride off into the sunset never to be heard from again. Needless to say Raymond is fiercely loyal to Mickey, and sits intently listening to what Fletcher has to say, occasionally chipping in to neither confirm nor deny the allegations being made, but asking for clarification or responding to a direct line of questioning.

Wanting therefore to liquidate his weed farm empire which is concealed very cleverly within twelve stately homes of the well off and not so well off landed British gentry, spread across the length and breadth of the land, there are two very interested parties circling. Those interested parties are specifically Jewish American billionaire Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong) and young pretender Chinese mobster 'Dry-Eye' (Henry Golding).

Mickey is in favour of selling his business to Matthew and has no time for the Chinese upstart Dry Eye, and so he takes Matthew on a tour of one of his weed facilities buried somewhere in the remote English countryside under the grounds of a stately residence for which Mickey pays the owner of the property £1M annually. Mickey announces to Matthew that he is looking to sell his business for £400M in total including his network of European connections, his distribution channels and the whole caboodle. Matthew doesn't baulk at that figure, when Mickey tells him that ten years from now the business will be worth half a trillion!

Later Dry-Eye pays an uninvited visit on Mickey and states in no uncertain terms that he wishes to buy the business and taps out an undisclosed sum on his smart phone. To which Mickey retorts that his business is not for sale, the sum quoted is an insult anyway, and he should leave as he's busy. Dry Eye persists saying that its a very good offer as Mickey grows increasingly impatient, and is ultimately shown the door, through which Dry Eye exits with one of his henchmen, none too pleased at the dismissal.

One evening under cover of darkness, Mickey's farm that he had previously shown to Matthew is raided by five beefed up tracksuit wearing youths who do their very best to beat up and overpower several of Mickey's more sturdy, yet older workers, and rob Mickey of many of his marijuana plants. The lads in question all record this and live stream it over the Internet, and in no time, Mickey, Raymond and Mickey's wife Rosalind (Michelle Dockery) are witnesses to the robbery and the beatings unfolding before their very eyes from the comfort of a sofa far away. Outraged Mickey and Raymond go on the hunt for the perpetrators, and who could have revealed the location of his underground marijuana bunker.

Enter Coach (Colin Farrell) who runs a boxing gym for disadvantaged youths and to get the youngsters off the streets and away from a life of crime. It just so happens that the gang who raided Mickey's premises, are a group of lads under Coach's mentorship. When Coach finds out that it was his lads who were at the centre of the robbery, he is none too pleased, having heard of Mickey's reputation with those who dare cross him. Coach tracks down Raymond, seeks his forgiveness and says that he will do whatever it takes to make amends for his boys misdeeds, as long as Mickey agrees not to take revenge on them. Raymond says he'll consider it, if Coach can uncover who ordered the robbery.

In no time at all, Coach has the robbery organiser Phuc (Jason Wong) bound and gagged in the boot of his car, and delivered to Raymond. Phuc is manhandled out of the boot, and quickly makes a run for it, jumps over a high wall and lands several metres below straddling a railway track, only to be promptly run over by a speeding intercity express train, with Coach and Raymond looking on from above.

By now, Matthew is getting agitated over the recent incident at one of Mickey's farms and is starting to show signs of cold feet. Meanwhile, Mickey has visited another of his farms and learned that the property owners drug addled pop star teenage daughter is shacked up somewhere doing hard drugs with a bunch of no hopers. Mickey offers to help find the daughter Laura Pressfield (Eliot Sumner), and tasks Raymond with tracking her down, which he is reluctant to do. Needless to say, Raymond is successful with two of his henchmen in tracking down the group and Laura to a tenement block, but in an ensuing scuffle a Russian lad who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time gets thrown out of the window several storey's up and crashes to the ground stone dead. All this is filmed on smart phones by a group of local likely lads hassling Raymond's driver in the street below. The men give chase through the estate to retrieve the smart phones and the potentially damning evidence against them, eventually catching up with the youths and 'persuading' them to part company with their phones. We learn that the Russian lads father is a former high ranking official from the KGB, now resident in England, where his son attended private school. Laura is returned safe to her family.

Fletcher is still laying out all these facts that he has witnessed and has photographs of to Raymond to further reinforce his case for his £20M hush money. Dry Eye is still putting pressure on Mickey, and so Mickey and Raymond pay a visit to his ageing Uncle who runs a cocaine and heroin pushing business at arms length so that there is no comeback on him. Mickey threatens the uncle with exposure and further less subtle repercussions if Dry Eye doesn't get off his back. When the uncle speaks with Dry Eye and tells him to ease off, Dry Eye shoots uncle in the back, dead.

Fletcher reveals one last video clip of Matthew sat next to Dry Eye at a football game in which they are seen and heard to be collaborating together to drive down Mickey's asking price to rock bottom. When he is done with his story telling to Raymond, he gives him 72 hours to come up with the £20M, and leaves. Over the course of the next couple of days, Mickey is heard speaking with Rosalind over the phone from the office of her all female very upmarket auto repair shop, in which Dry Eye is present with the intention of kidnapping her to put pressure on Mickey to comply. Mickey senses something is not right, and here we go back to the very opening scene where the blood is spattered all over Mickey's pint and pickled egg. The man who pulled the gun on Mickey is a Russian who was shot in the back of the head by Raymond who arrived just in the nick of time.

Mickey is involved in a head on collision with a truck en route, from which he scrambles out of the upturned car and races to the auto shop, only to find that Rosalind has shot two of Dry Eye's henchmen in the forehead with a small gifted twin chamber hand gun. Dry Eye is furious and he fights with Rosalind gaining the upper hand and has her pinned down on a desk when Mickey arrives and shoots him dead.

Later Mickey is in conversation with Matthew at one of his refrigerated distribution outlets discussing the deal. Matthew states that Mickey's business is now worth £120M and not the £400M as originally discussed because of the events that have unfolded since the raid, that all twelve of his farms are impacted by this, and that it will take three years for the business to re-establish itself. Mickey turns the tables on Matthew showing him the footage of him conversing with Dry Eye at the football game, and says that he knows it was him who turned over the location of the farm that got raided. Mickey also reveals the now hanging and frozen body of Dry Eye behind a pile of boxes in a freezer container, and says that Matthew has one hour to transfer £100M into his bank account and to give up a pound of his flesh for all the hurt he has caused his business, which is no longer for sale.

When Mickey gets into his car and is driving off, it is revealed that it's not his usual driver behind the wheel but two smiling Russians, one pointing a pistol directly at Mickey. In the meantime, Fletcher has returned to Raymond's place after 72 hours expecting to collect on his £20M, only for the pair to be greeted by two more Russian henchmen wielding guns. Fletcher runs off. The two Russians are taken out by Coach, who by now has more than made good on his commitment to Raymond. Coach's track suited boys meanwhile, follow Mickey's car in a minivan before it leaves the premises, overtake the car, and open fire from the back all guns blazing killing outright the pair of Russians seated in the front, so allowing Mickey to escape out the back unharmed.

Fletcher is last seen pitching his movie script to a Producer at Miramax Studios in London. The Producer ask what happens to Mickey, to which Fletcher responds, 'that's for the sequel'. Fletcher excuses himself as he has an appointment in LA with another Studio and must catch a flight. As he gets into a London cab, Raymond reveals himself to be the driver. Mickey and Rosalind settle down for a cozy night at home.

With 'The Gentlemen' Guy Ritchie has returned to form following an averagely received but nonetheless US$1B+ live action remake of Disney's 'Aladdin', the disastrous 'King Arthur : The Legend of the Sword' and the lacklustre 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E'. The film features stand out performances from the principle cast especially Hugh Grant channelling Michael Caine, has fast paced wise cracking razor sharp foul mouthed dialogue, tangled plots, twists aplenty, snappy editing, racial insults that come thick and fast, faux English gentry, good crims and bad crims and those of just about every nationality and cultural background, some real laugh out loud moments, and just enough deaths and beatings and tongue in cheek humour to satisfy any fan of the genre and Ritchie's much earlier works. It's witty, a lot of fun, very entertaining, contains many of Ritchie's touchstones and well worth the price of your cinema ticket.

'The Gentlemen' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MOLLY'S GAME : Tuesday 6th February 2018.

'MOLLY'S GAME' which I saw on Tuesday evening this week is Written and Directed, in his fimmmkaing debut, by Aaron Sorkin, who has here based his first film on the memoir 'Molly's Game: From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker' by Molly Bloom. The Molly Bloom in question here is a former American poker entrepreneur who in April 2013 was charged with running a high-stakes poker game that originated in the Viper Room in Los Angeles and attracted wealthy individuals and business tycoons, sports figures, Hollywood celebrities including Tobey Maguire, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio and Macauley Caulkin amongst others, and the Russian Mob. She was cleared of many charges and sentenced in 2014 to one year of probation, a $1,000 fine, and 200 hours of community service. The film Premiered at TIFF back in early September last year, and went on release in the US on Christmas Day 2017 and has received much critical acclaim for Sorkin's screenplay and the performances of its principal cast. Costing US$30M to make, the film has so far grossed US$50M, has received much positive press, and has garnered so far three wins and 33 other nominations, some which are still at the decision pending stage including the Academy Award and BAFTA nod for Best Adapted Screenplay. Aaron Sorkin's other big screen writing credits include 'A Few Good Men', 'The American President', 'Charlie Wilson's War', 'The Social Network' (for which he won an Academy Award), 'Moneyball' and 'Steve Jobs', as well a television's highly successful 'The West Wing' series amongst others.

And so based on a true story, this crime drama stars Jessica Chastain as Molly Bloom, a world class moguls skier who while qualifying for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games suffers a serious injury so ending her Olympic aspirations. Licking her rounds and instead of moving to law school as was her original plan, she moves to Los Angeles and gets a job as a bottle service waitress at a night club. She's making an OK wage plus tips, and in time meets Dean (Jeremy Strong) who runs an unsuccessful real estate business by day, but a hugely successful underground poker game by night. At first Molly becomes his office manager and Girl Friday, running chores and needless errands, but soon he gets her involved in running his poker games, all in secret and not to tell a soul. Going in she is clueless about the game, but quickly learns the language, the hands, the stakes and the personalities involved in Dean's games which include the rich and famous, movie stars, sports players, music personalities, wealthy businessmen from whom she starts to earn big tips.

As Molly begins to ingratiate herself to the regular players so the tips become from more frequent and more sizeable. She is good at what she does and keeps everything above board, maintaining meticulous records and strong (strictly business) relationships, all the while learning the intricacies of the game and the players. The most successful of whom is Player X (Michael Cera) playing a composite of some high profile Hollywood A-List Actor types. Molly aims to keep on the right side of Player X, for he has the pulling power to attract more high wealth players to Dean's games. In time however, Dean observes that Molly is becoming more independent at managing and running the games and is making plenty of money in tips - a fact that he is secretly jealous with. And so Dean delivers Molly an ultimatum, which is not to her liking, and so Dean fires her.

Molly has made a substantial sum in tips over the years, and so is hardly destitute. Musing over her new unemployed status, she decides that she is good enough at running such poker games, has a network of players who would gladly follow her, and has the credibility to make a real go of it. And so she rents a penthouse in a hotel, hires the tables and the staff to run the games, organises the catering and a well stocked bar and begins to secretly spread the word about her high stakes poker games. Player X, along with those others from Dean's games, defect over to Molly's game, and she becomes increasingly successful amassing more money from tips. All is good, until she learns that Player X has covertly been covering the losses of an initially conservative but increasingly compulsive poker player who has lost up big in recent weeks, ultimately costing him his marriage. Molly is none too pleased with Player X's unethical behaviour and the two fall out. Player X returns to Dean's game, taking all the other players with him. Overnight, Molly has gone from hero to zero!

Molly decides upon a change of scenery and heads to New York to begin a new underground poker game with a new bunch of high net worth individuals. Again, Molly proves successful, amassing enough players to be able run multiple games every week. However, in time things begin to take their toll. Despite her apparent success Molly is unable to cover her losses, when players lose and cannot afford to pay up. Her dealer convinces her to begin taking a percentage of large pots so as to be able to recover her potential losses - a fact that she is at first reluctant to undertake, but sees the sense in it and agrees.

One of her players is arrested and convicted for running a Ponzi Scheme which in turn leads to an investigation into Molly's poker games and who the other players involved were/are. At about this time, the pressure is mounting and Molly takes to drugs and alcohol to settle her nerves and ease the stress. Another player, Douglas Downey (Chris O'Dowd) who is infatuated with Molly, introduces wealthy individuals from the Russian Mafia to her game, although Molly is unaware of their mob connections. At the same time Molly is approached by the Italian Mafia who offer to coerce money from players who have racked up debts with Molly, but she politely declines. A few days later at the start of the two week Christmas break period, Molly is attacked in her apartment where she is held at gunpoint, badly beaten, robbed of her cash and jewels and her mother threatened with her life.

Having nursed her wounds and remained holed up in her apartment for two weeks over the Christmas break gradually healing, Molly is ready to return to her poker games. A phone call comes through from Downey in a panic warning her that the FBI is about to descend upon her, as a result of his informing on her. All of her assets are seized and she returns home to live with her mother Charlene (Claire Rankin).

Two years later, and Molly has published her book recounting her story, her rise, her downfall and naming a number of names associated with her games. In the meantime, Molly is arrested by the FBI together with thirty or so others as part of a money laundering scheme and illegal sports gambling operation in cahoots with the Mafia. She seeks out the support of Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba) a high profile and very expensive New York lawyer who is reluctant at first to take her case. He however, agrees to help her after learning that she has over US$2M in unclaimed gambling debts and after reading her book which indicates to him that there is insufficient evidence pointing to criminal activity or wrongdoing to warrant a prison sentence.

While this is going on and the trial is awaited, Molly's estranged father Larry (Kevin Costner) who is a noted clinical psychologist, seeks out Molly having read about, and heard about her case in the news, in an attempt to reconcile with his only daughter. He admits that he was over bearing, domineering and demanding of her as a child, but that it was out of love and wanting the best for her in life. However, Larry has a skeleton in his cupboard that only Molly knew about, albeit subconsciously, and this is why he treated her differently to his two older sons who have both gone on to carve out very successful careers for themselves.

Bloom was looking down the barrel of a maximum penalty of ten years in prison, and a US$1.5M fine. On the day of the court hearing, Molly pleads guilty to a lesser charge for her involvement in the operation and was sentenced to a years probation, a US$1,000 fine, and 200 hours of community service much to her and Larrry's surprise, with the Judge practically dismissing the case on the grounds that there was little evidence to demonstrate any real criminal activity.

'Molly's Game' is a solid Directorial debut for Sorkin and has all his usual trademarks of rapid fire dialogue; sports, celebrities and underworld dealings; a strong female protagonist in Chastain and an equally strong support from Idris Elba. The film runs long at 140 minutes, but it moves along at a good pace and seldom leaves you wanting. You do however, need to pay attention as the film darts back and forth from the present day back to Molly's early childhood years learning to perfect her skiing moves under her ever present, demanding and relentless father, and her rebellious teenage years that influenced what she was to become. Then there is the language of the game itself and the images that flick up on the screen of winning hand combinations; then not to forget the confident quick paced dialogue delivered by lawyer Charlie Jaffey in conversation with Molly or defending her case to the Prosecutor's or plea bargaining; and then finally the back to front nature by which the film plays out which we see in flashbacks. The film is entertaining enough and well worth the price of your ticket entry for Chastain's performance alone if nothing else, and to see her sparring with Idris Elba, but in between the moments of razor sharp quickly delivered narrative and exposition, and the action of the poker table and its myriad of players, the film does drag its heels somewhat which elevates the film to the ranks of top card game movies, but doesn't surpass them.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-