I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Best movie of this year hands down!

Wonderfully offbeat film!

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Do you remember as a kid seeing one of those rock tumblers? Maybe you saw it in a comic book or a friend had one? You'd put a rock in, it would spin around and after a while the rock would come out all smooth and polished and cool looking. Well, Player 5150 is like a rock that didn't spend enough time in the tumbler. Parts of it are smooth and polished, parts of it are rough and jagged and it doesn't seem to be all one thing. It is still a little cool to look at, however.Joey (Ethan Embry) is a California stock broker who spends remarkably little time in the office. A little of that seems to be because the folks who made this movie didn't really understand what a stock broker does for a living, but mostly it's because Joey is what they used to call a "degenerate gambler". He doesn't feel alive unless he's got money riding on something, particularly sports. Joey has a beautiful wife named Ali (Kathleen Robertson) who's an important volunteer on the governor's re-election campaign. He's also got a bookie named Tony (Christopher McDonald) who works out of the kitchen of his restaurant with his ginormous thug Beno (Bob Sapp). Joey's also got a rich client named Nick (Bob Gunton) who, unbeknownst to Joey, is also a bookie. Nick is several steps up the criminal ladder from Tony, though.This story basically takes place from a Friday to a Monday. Joey owes Tony $60,000 and places additional $10,000 bets on four football games. If he wins, he'll only owe Tony $20,000. If he loses…well, I think you can guess whether or not Joey loses. That leaves him needing to come up with $100,000 by Monday or, and Tony is pretty clear on this, Joey's going to get hurt quite badly. There's also a college kid named Dwayne (Patrick Mapel) who only has until Monday to pay the $10,000 he owes Tony. Monday's important because that's when Tony has to pay back the money he owes to Nick, who also happens to be owed by the unhappy compulsive gambler married to the governor Ali works for. Nick squeezes Tony, who squeezes Joey and Dwayne, who scramble around trying to find a way to cover their losses. Everything eventually spins to a fairly decent ending, which is then capped off with a remarkably stupid dénouement.Player 5150 isn't bad. It's got some nice acting, especially from Bob Gunton, Christopher McDonald and Kathleen Robertson. There's a scene where Ali has discovered some of the ugly secrets of her husband's life and Robertson does an affecting job of conveying Ali's conflicting emotions without having a single line of dialog. It also helps that Robertson is truly stunning, the sort of woman that men used to carve into stone because they couldn't bear the thought of her beauty ever fading.The film also sets up a interesting dynamic where characters mirror each other. Tony plays tough guy with Dwayne, threatening him and roughing him up. We also see Dwayne as the bookie for another college student who owes him money, doing a cruder, less capable version of the same act. And Nick does an even sharper, more menacing version of the same thing when he pressures Tony to pay his debt.But after making it seem like the story was going to say something about the nature of gambling and gamblers, this movie fritters it all away for a melodramatic turn into a relationship drama. The various subplots come together in a too pat and disappointing fashion to serve the big question of whether Joey and Ali will end up together after going through hell. It's not at all what you'd expect from watching the first half of the film, and I don't mean that in a good way.There's also too much extraneous stuff here. There's a character who pops up to have one conversation with Joey, disappears, the shows up again toward the end playing a pretty significant role as apparently Joey's best friend. I'm not sure that part was at all necessary. I know the story didn't need to have girlfriend for Tony. Maybe they just wrote her in because they got Kelly Carlson from Nip/Tuck to be the movie, but she doesn't serve any purpose. Player 5150 also makes way too spotty use of narration. There's a bit at the beginning, nothing for 50 minutes, a bunch of narration to paper over a montage, nothing for another 30 minutes, then finishes up with another blast of voice over. I'm also not sure why Joey's gambling is established as thrill seeking behavior at first, then morphed without explanation into a self-loathing, self-destructive impulse. And it seems like half of the subplot with the governor's wife was cut out of the script and what was left didn't have much of a point.This film is like a journey where you have an okay time getting where you're going, but when you arrive you realize you haven't gotten anywhere. It's not a bad way to spend some time as long as there's nothing better to do.

Avoid this movie at all costs, everything about it is bad, especially the ending which is almost comical.Here's a hint to American film makers who want to make a movie about the world of the gambler. Gambling is legal in many countries, in fact betting (bookie) shops were legalized in the UK in 1961 ! This means that to many audiences the whole notion of the penniless gambler running away from a bookie who wants to break his legs is just an archaic stereotype.The gambling world should be a fountain of stories for movie makers to film. Instead we normally get the dumb and dumbered down type of nonsense that Player 5150 represents.

Player 5150 is a great film for the authenticity it brings to screen. A rare gem in the rough. By comparison to all the special-effect driven overblown budged movies being released today, Player 5150 is a character-driven story that takes you through every range of emotion. David O'Neill (Writer/Director) does a great job inviting you, no daring you, to identify with the main character Joey, (Ethan Embry) who is a compulsive gambler and whose life is about to spin out of control. As you do, you experience a taste of that "unique rush of excitement" that a real gambler feels when they are up and are winning, but when luck runs out, the finality of what it means to lose hits home and the darker side of gambling emerges.Enter Tony (Christopher McDonald) a ruthless no non-sense loan shark. In my opinion, I thought McDonald delivered an award winning performance along with Bob Gunton (Nick) in showing the raw, gritty, and sadistic reality found on the losing side of the coin of gambling. Where gamblers gamble for the thrill and the rush, loan sharks are about greed. As you travel along at 200 mph with Joey in the fast-lane of a gambler's life, McDonald is the proverbial brick-wall-reality-check smiling sadistically back at you as you slam into him. A gripping performance was delivered also by Kathleen Robertson (Ali), who played Joey's wife giving us insight on what it is like being in love with someone who has a self-destructive addiction. My only criticism would be about the ending. I felt that this movie could have had any number of endings and it would have been alright, but it seemed like an ending couldn't be decide upon so they creatively worked them all in somehow. For me, it made the ending fuzzy and gray instead of a bold clear contrast which made the rest of the movie gripping and powerful.As an overall experience, I enjoyed watching the movie very much. It kept you constantly leaning forward in anticipation of what would happen next. If you enjoy fast-pace action-drama and character-driven stories, then highly recommend Player 5150 as it delivers.

First off, I never take the time to actually write a review of any of the movies I have seen, but I felt the need to do so to prevent others from having to waste their time with this film. I must admit that the fact that this went straight to DVD and starred Bob Sapp should have clued me in to the fact that this movie was less than stellar, but I went against my better judgment and watched it anyway. I am actually a bit embarrassed to admit that I was actually looking forward to seeing this since I tend to like movies that deal with plot lines centered on investing/stock trading (of which there was very little in this movie) and gambling (the main focus).The acting in this movie was terrible and it was painfully obvious that this was a pretty low budget film. There were a few somewhat notable actors in this film though which causes me to wonder what they were thinking since there is no way this job landed them a big, fat paycheck. Granted, Ethan Embry isn't exactly the first name off of a casting director's lips when discussing a potential lead for a huge blockbuster, but his talent surely merits him better work opportunities than this.If you choose to watch this movie despite the numerous red flags it has (straight to DVD, low budget, K-1 fighters attempting to act, etc.), seek solace in the fact that you will not waste too much of your time. The one redeeming quality that this movie had was the fact that it clocked in at just under an hour and a half. So, after you shake your head in disbelief at the ridiculous ending, you can at least look at the clock and thank the editors of this film for the fact that they could have wasted even more of your time.Proceed with caution.