UnowPriceless hyped garbage

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

hughdavey Even Bruce Willis couldn't save this masterpiece. The first half was pretty bad, but then something happened: it got worse. It was like a soft core 'Showgirls' but without the character development, tension, drama and humor. I was going to give it a 1, but I kept thinking about Laura Prepon sunning herself and I gave it a 2. Call me generous.

Jonathon Dabell Director Stephen Frears and star Bruce Willis seem to demonstrate an uncanny gift for inconsistency. Frears' work ranges from the sublime (Dangerous Liaisons, My Beautiful Launderette, The Grifters) to the ridiculous (Accidental Hero, Mary Reilly). Likewise, Willis frequently lurches from the terrific to the terrible – every Die Hard is cancelled out by a Hudson Hawk; every Pulp Fiction spawns a Color Of Night. Given the involvement of Frears and Willis, one would be right to anticipate only two possible outcomes for Lay The Favorite – it's either going to be very good or very bad. Sadly, in this case the film falls into the very bad category. It can't just be chalked down as another dud in the Bruce Willis canon either – a number of other good actors sink with this ship, including Catherine Zeta-Jones, Joshua Jackson and Vince Vaughn.Tallahassee lap-dancer Beth Raymer (Rebecca Hall) wants to change her life so, with the blessing of her father (Corbin Bernsen), she heads off to Las Vegas to seek work as a cocktail waitress. Her American dream doesn't turn out quite the way she planned, and pretty soon Beth finds herself desperate for whatever employment she can find (as long as it doesn't involve getting naked). Enter professional gambler Dink Heimowitz (Bruce Willis). Dink bets on anything and everything, placing tens of thousands of dollars per day on various sporting outcomes. Such is the extent of his gambling that he requires a team of lackeys to man the phones in his office. After displaying an unexpected knack for numbers, Beth is given the chance to work for Dink's organisation. She is quickly seduced by this lifestyle of high risk and instant fortune. The rest of the film traces Beth's adventure in the pro-gambling profession. She falls in and out of love with Dink; has various run-ins with Dink's savage-tongued wife Tulip (Catherine Zeta-Jones); falls for a sensible and well-organised New York journalist named Jeremy (Joshua Jackson); is fired and re-hired several times by Dink; and ultimately ends up working for highly unscrupulous New York bookie Rosie (Vince Vaughn), who puts her in charge of the Curacao limb of his illegal gambling racket.From a quick scan of the plot synopsis, there's no obvious reason for the film to fail. It has a strong cast, an eventful storyline, and is set in the fascinating world of pro-gambling. The components are certainly in place for a good movie, so where does it all go so horribly wrong? The biggest drawback is the character of Beth, presented in the script as a totally brainless bimbo. Every now and then she displays a moment of sudden ingenuity which rings completely untrue. The entire story is about Beth (she IS the story, in effect) yet is by far the most irritating character in it. Having said that, none of the actors really seem to be firing on all cylinders. Willis seems jaded, Vaughn merely rehashes his loud and brash comedy routine for the umpteenth time, and Jackson gets a boring role and looks bored playing it. Zeta-Jones has slightly more to get her teeth into as the sharp-tongued rich bitch Tulip (some viewers might get a kick out of hearing her screech the C- word at her long suffering husband), but later in the film her character mellows out somewhat and quickly loses her appeal as a result. It seems ironic that Zeta-Jones chose this of all films to return to screen acting after a three year hiatus… can this really be the best offer that came along? The incomprehensible gambling jargon makes many scenes all but impossible to follow. Worse still, the plot never builds to a dramatic conflict worth caring about. Things just amble around meaninglessly for an hour and a half or so, then the film ends. Overall, Lay The Favorite is a waste of time and talent. The book upon which it is based (Lay The Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling) by the real Beth Raymer is reportedly a rather fascinating read. If that's the case, put your chips on the book… because the film is an utter donkey.

tomsview The appeal of this film comes down to whether or not you like Rebecca Hall because she is in just about every scene.I don't find her difficult to watch at all. Apart from a likable performance, she reveals sturdy, tanned thighs in a succession of short shorts. She portrays Beth Raymer, the author of the book on which the film is based, as an infectiously good-natured woman looking for fulfilment in her life, but who is also drawn to exciting and edgy pursuits.She becomes involved with Bruce Willis' character, Dink Heimowitz, a bookmaker, who gambles on just about any kind of sport for high stakes. He gives her a job and she shows aptitude for the work. But Dink is impulsive, moody and married – to Tulip Heimowitz played by Catherine Zeta-Jones.Dink fires Beth to save his marriage. With her newfound gambling skills, Beth goes to work for a far more reckless gambler, Rosie, played by Vince Vaughn. She also meets Jeremy, a comparatively normal guy played by Joshua Jackson. However, Dink remains her mentor and eventually helps her to win a critical wager that ends the film.Movies can involve you in subjects that you know little about whether it's coal mining, bomb disposal, the stock market, deep-sea fishing, football or whatever. Usually, enough knowledge is imparted for the audience to appreciate the subject's relevance to the characters.Gambling and the world of bookmaking are the subjects of "Lay the Favourite", but little is explained.Admittedly, my knowledge of gambling is limited. I even have trouble filling out the form for a Melbourne Cup ticket during my annual trip to the TAB. I'm sure I'm not alone in this, and I must admit I lost track of what was happening in the story even at the end when the whole thing hung on Beth's wager on the basketball game.This is where I think the script could have done a better job in bringing the audience up to speed. After all, Dink needed to explain things to Beth when she started out and it was the perfect opportunity to inform the audience without narration or tedious exposition, but the explanations are rushed at best. Interestingly, director Stephen Frears' brilliant "The Grifters" explained itself perfectly while dealing with a not totally dissimilar subject.With the exception of Beth and Jeremy, the characters are extreme and quirky. They almost seem to be modern-day versions of the Damon Runyon characters out of "Guys and Dolls". Dink, Tulip and Rosie, amongst others, are all fairly idiosyncratic characters, but the quirkiness knob might be turned a little too high.I think the critics were too harsh with this movie. Described as a comedy, the film is more whimsical than outright funny. I can see it's weak points, but it held my attention until the end – I wanted to know what happened even if it was confusing.

Valerie Wilkinson So, why pick up a movie called "The Gambler" in Japanese. "Play the Favorite" actually is a line in the movie, a sort of key to the story. Answer: I like movies about games, I like "game theory" and hope for something like A Beautiful Mind. Hearts in Atlanta, 21, Moneyball. In fact, it was Joshua Jackson that pulled me. I went through "Fringe" with him, wanted to see him in something else. I actually didn't realize how high level the cast was! It kind of starts off like "Showgirls." Naive girl rolls into town, um, doesn't get a gig as cocktail waitress so, we aren't in the same story, and it isn't going to be the same story.Why did I watch it again and again? When her father laughed because Beth wants to leave Tallahasse for Los Vegas, and that scene worked for me. I liked her dog. I was already with Rebecca Hall as Beth much more deeply than I ever could with Vicky in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona". But on the other hand, and to be fair, I did not watch that movie three times in a row, hunting for it. What? The thing that makes it ring true, that pulls me in. I've driven up to a place, looked at it, decided it would do, and said, "I'll take it." Hit the pavement looking for a job.Enter Dink and face it, I love Bruce, I've loved him a long time, since "Moonlighting" and you've seen these kid actors, Harrison Ford, Michael Keaton, John Travolta, bursting with sex-appeal and self-confidence, and you've seen them getting older, and so here is Bruce being Dink, and I'm already with Beth, so there is an interview and she tells him everything, he tells her everything, he forgives her for being a kid, and he hires her, she is stoked and the movie kept me until the end. Catherine Zeta-Jones does a great job, Vince Vaughn makes his small but central part work. It's a sort of sad note that Joshua's Jeremy was just a bit too bland, but the core story of the two central people becoming real friends, overcoming the possible delusions of sex and infidelity worked. The chemistry of Bruce with Rebecca was spot on. I believed it and felt like that is a love that can hold the world together and a very good role for Rebecca.After I watched this movie again and again, I also understood more about the world, the games, and the characters. It was taken from Beth's true story. I should add that Catherine Zeta-Jones played her role to perfection, if you understand that the story is a true story of some real people, not a titillating fantasy.