SnoopyStyle
It's 1957. Indiana small town kid J.C. Cullen (Matt Dillon) wins the local craps games at the gas station. Hooker sets him up with Ferguson Edwards (Lee Grant) in Chicago. Mr. Edwards (Bruce Dern) is her blind partner. Sonny Binkley takes him around to play. He charms nice girl Aggie Donaldson (Suzy Amis) who has a past with Sonny. He goes to a private game at the Gem Club owned by George Cole (Tommy Lee Jones) where Cole's wife Lorry Dane (Diane Lane) dances. He breaks the bank angering Cole. The next night, Cole sets him up with loaded dice. Then gambler Phil Carpenter (Tom Skerritt) from California comes in.I've never been a fan of Matt Dillon coming in hard as a cocky young stud lead. He's too pigheaded to like. He's not as charming as he acts. He needs some vulnerability and more introspection. The production style is limited and the directing style is craps. There are some interesting actors but the story lacks sustained life. It has sections where the story is compelling. J.C.'s gambling with Cole over the two nights has good tension but it doesn't keep it going. It gets tied down with a messy story and an unlikeable Dillon. The movie could be good if it simplified to just them and Diane Lane. But I doubt it.
johnny-08
I was attracted to this movie when I looked at cast list, but after I watched it I must admit that I felt a bit disappointed. The main problem of this movie is that actors aren't capable of holding this movie on their back. Why? Because of bad script. Although Dillon, Lane and Jones try very hard to take this movie on another level, there is no innovative storytelling and the direction is too ordinary. So for Matt Dillon fans this is watchable movie, just like for admirers of beautiful Diane Lane. Legendary Tommy Lee Jones is always great but this is not movie for him; far below his level. So if you get hooked up by this great cast watch it but don't expect anything big or extraordinary. The only thing that you'll remember about this flick is Diane Lane scenes; rest of it is very forgettable.
bill-987
I could easily have imagined that this film was a hastily slapped together attempt to capitalize on the success of the "Cincinnati Kid". Grab a bunch of talent the likes of Dianne Lane, Tommy Lee Jones, Matt Dillon, and Bruce Dern, and Tom Skerritt, take away the card table and substitute a crap table and go collect your receipts. The only problems with this scenario are that the films are 22 years apart and that this a poorly slapped together effort. Oh yeah, and they're both remakes of a true classic. I suppose you could say the concept was used one other time between "Kid" and "Big Town" with "The Color of Money", but I categorize that as a sequel.It's the story of a young gambler (Newman McQueen Dillon) whose prodigious talent motivates his departure from small town small time to take on the best members of their calling. He risks losing his loyal true love (Laurie Weld Amis) in the pursuit of his dream, falls into the clutches of an evil influence (Scott Ann-Margret Lane), and learns a lesson from the older, wiser (Gleason Robinson Skerritt) whatever.Out front I must confess that Dianne Lane is one of my all time favorite actresses although I don't always like all her roles. In this film, however, she is the perfect amoral opportunistic little whore. In "Cincinnati" Edward G. Robinson's Lancey Howard comes very close to equaling Jackie Gleason's performance as Minnesota Fats, but Gleason's is simply perfect.I'm sure I'll see this film again just to see a 22 year-old Lane naked, and I'm a big Steve McQueen fan, but I'll take "The Hustler" every time.
pool2000
This is Matt Dillon's best performance by far. This shows why everyone thinks he has such talent. But like most of his other work, this movie is dark and realistic about human nature -- in a word, truthful. All the characters have at least two levels -- the superficial level, and a deeper level which is usually darker and more warped, yet never exaggerated. This film also features a masterful performance by Tommy Lee Jones, an excellent job by Suzy Amis, and Diane Lane's most sensational, most lurid, and deepest performance ever in her depiction of a scheming strip tease queen, the ultimate femme fatale, yet a tortured little girl underneath.The script is very good, very insightful, very restrained in its depiction of a lurid underworld of raw emotion. It dramatizes a world of sin and depravity, yet the story is at core a morality play in which decency and morality not only survive but thrive in spite of extreme temptations.A good movie on every level.
AD
