Strictly average movie

one of my absolute favorites!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Director deserve praise for depicting harsh reality of gambling & its trauma .. Brilliant performance of mark wahlberg add more interest in movie.

Our protagonist is in trouble plenty. It is not enough that he is the heir to one of the richest men in the state, that he has met with success as a writer, and that he is a college teacher. He must work out his own salvation through his own self-destruction, burning his loan sharks(s) (there are several), his family, and his none-too-bright student, with whom he engages in more self-destruction by having sex with her.Yet the line must be drawn somewhere. He is unwilling to sacrifice the life of one of his student athletes, who initially resists a loan shark's offer of easy money, then gives in, and then switches to get a better deal. And, yes! He plays great ball. Then he plays flaccid ball. Then he plays great ball!And all are redeemed.Uh-huh. The sole redemptive moment in the story is John Goodman's character's "F*ck You" speech, which is an illustration of what an idiot the protagonist has been by squandering more than two million, when he could have lived modestly and told the world, "F*ck You!." Goodman really delivers on this, and the moving is worth watching just to catch the wisdom he imparts.A big fan of Mark Wahlberg, I am not sure that as a kid from Southie he is quite able to carry off the look of the disaffected and dissipated rich. Better will be forthcoming, I do hope.

Decent film, except for the end. Much better ending for Wahlberg to have lost everything with a final spin of Roulette, and then have been killed by his Mafioso-style lenders. Which is what the movie wants you to believe...Wahlberg has a death wish.Instead, after winning the BIG money with a single spin of the Roulette wheel we see Wahlberg running through the city to visit his student/girlfriend. Ouch! Does anyone really believe he now stopped gambling?Of course not. I suspect he ran through the streets in excitement because he figured a more sure-fire way to gamble, namely bribe players into fixing sports games. Either ending could have been a better fit then telling Goodman, 'Fuck You," and running off to see his student/girlfriend. No real imagination with that one, just sudsy Hollywood.Where is Martin Scorsese when we need him?

The plot of the film is quite interesting, it's easy to watch. This film is about a man who loves to gamble. The situation goes so far that once at stake is not the amount of money, but his life. The most interesting thing is that during the day he is an ordinary literature teacher who teaches young people life, and at the same time does it quite unreasonably with her. Excitement - that's what he can not live without. Jim absolutely does not care what happens to him, his motto is "all or nothing". In the title role, one of my favorite actors of our time is Mark Wahlberg. He perfectly entered the image and opened the character. Also worth noting is Bree Larson, who played his apprentice, who knows about his second life and is trying to help him in some way. Such a life may seem cheerful, but sooner or later everything comes to an end and it is necessary to make a choice: to stop or make a risk that may be the last. I liked this movie so much that I watched it a second time. The most important point and for what I'm ready to watch it again and again is the ending. She keeps in suspense and then lets go. There is nothing superfluous in the film. I advise everyone to watch this movie.