Poker Night (2014)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Poker Night starts off with a bang and doesn't let up. It follows a somewhat frantic pace, but, by way of crafty storytelling, manages to be much more than just another mindless hack 'n' slash film. In fact, labelling Poker Night a hack 'n' slash film at all, is doing it a disservice. There is far too much thought and creativity put into the story, for that.Flashbacks are a central focus in Poker Night and they're cleverly utilized. Each veteran cop who partakes in poker night, takes the viewer on a journey back in time, imparting wisdom that directly pertains to protagonist, Beau Mirchoff's survival. What's interesting is that Mirchoff acts out each cop's flashback, rather than the cops themselves. It's a unique approach that I really enjoyed.Poker Night does an outstanding job of visual storytelling and it's cinematography suits the story perfectly. The score is equally impressive.The cast is solid, with strong performances around the table, no pun intended. I especially liked Michael Eklund as the psychotic serial killer. When unmasked, his eyes were perfect for the job. Very sick stuff.Arguably, Poker Night's greatest strength is how it merges several genres (thriller, horror, suspense, action, comedy) into one, while avoiding the whole "jack of all trades, master of none" moniker. It takes a well thought out story to accomplish this and shouldn't be overlooked.For instance, I was completely shocked in several scenes and burst out laughing in several others. Especially the killer's "family life" flashback, where he was still wearing his killing mask. I felt like a manic lunatic watching it myself. Good stuff.In closing, Poker Night is not the greatest individual thriller, horror, suspense, action or comedy movie of all time. What it is, is one of the only movies I can think of, that combines all of these genres into one film. That alone makes it unique and well worth you 105 minutes.It's fragmented yet seamless, it's tricky, it's unpredictable, it's stylish, it's clever.And most of all, it absolutely deserves a higher score than 44%. Throw in a big name actor and the score probably doubles. Again, stupid but true.Definitely recommended.

In this mix between Silence of the Lambs and Creep Show a rookie cop has to escape a serial killer whilst calling on the stories he was told during a poker night hosted by experienced police.The stories are played out in flash back, as are some of the serial killer's.The actual plot of the film isn't that spectacular and some of the cop stories amount to little less than a routine arrest. But they are told extremely well with plenty of colour just the right blend of drama and quirkiness.The punishments the killer dishes out make you wince but were very subtly handled.Elements of darkness are expertly counter balanced with lighter scenes and themes. Even the abstract way a group of paedophiles are depicted is surreal yet sinister.I found this to be a very enjoyable watch, not very many bells and whistles but if you like character acting and suspense you will love this..

To me, I watched this film mainly because a friend highly recommended this film, and partly because of the rating here is like 6 out of 10 which apparently not the worst ><Anyways, get back to business. Great things about the film: 1. Setting of the film is pretty refreshing, a little bit feels like a stage in a theatre 2. Being able to tell the story pretty clearly. 3. Damn, those legs of Ms. Sage are fine!!!!Things I personally hated: 1. couple things feel like ripping off from some other WELLKNOWN good films Such as: a) Batman: Begins ---"scarecrow" which happened to be the villain AGAIN, like really? Can't you be more creative?b) Kickass --- the whole Mr. Alby being the mentor & the screenplay, just feels Kickass to me.c) No Country for Old Men ---- "We just pretend they don't exist " to me, that just sound just the point of NCfOM trying to express. This also shows a bit of too much cynicism.d) Silence of the lamb & Se7en ----- The room full of pictures of dead girls, does it remind you some things from those two films?2. Overall the storyline is told clearly, but some does not make sense. 3. Some scenes feel too childish for a thriller. 4. The stories told at the other officers had absolutely nothing to do with the film like at all, just saying "don't ever give up", "ask for a kiss" They can be replaced with other things to make the movie more intense. Oh well, the film is called the Poker Night, isn't it? So I understand but I still think not a good choice of storytelling. Like the guy didn't even use any advice from these cops in any way, then why needed to tell the stories? 5. Storyline is a bit messy as the film just keeps back and forward and back and forth etc, just a little bit needless and pointless.Overall, 3 out of 10 is definitely as high as I can rate this film. If not, only lower not higher.Sorry friend...

Thanks to the other reviewers - that's the only reason I watched this.Not a great film, but it becomes fascinating as it roller-coasts along.First up, a lame voice over - verbose, flat, abstract. Followed by a sequence of heroic cop tales using the conceit of a poker game where each veteran has a lesson to teach the rookie. Interwoven with this is the main plot, in which the rookie is kidnapped by a serial killer and imprisoned in his lair.The tales are uneven. The point is that each cop has to discard the system and do what he thinks is right, which results in a couple of shoot-first-ask-questions-later murders. Entertaining, but the self justification had zero irony.The dialogue (like the VO) is not as good as it thinks it is, and there's a lot of "we're laughing because the script says LAUGHTER". Baaad writing.But then ... we get weird humour. The serial killer explains his back story, and there are some surreal little scenes of the serial killer community. Then the rookie explains his back story, and suddenly this thing turns into an unexpected puzzle.I thought all the cops at the poker table were already dead, reminiscing in purgatory. But no - it's a sort of Mulholland Drive trick, and the story powers on to a clear resolution.Hectic, all over the place, but worth watching.