Player 5150 (2008)

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.

Sadly Over-hyped

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

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.

I have to admit that after reading the users comments from "adyt23" and another terrible review, I went into it without any great expectations and with my finger on the erase button as it was recorded on my PVR(Tivo in the U S). But boy am I glad I didn't erase it and ended up watching the movie!! I don't post many reviews on IMDb as I only post them when I'm am very pleasantly surprised by a movie as I was with this one. I really don't know how anybody could call this a bad movie. I thought it was one of the more memorable movies I've seen in the past few months or so and I highly recommend it. Their were some familiar faces so it was not just a bunch of unknowns in a low budget flick, it may not have had a big budget, but what it did with the finances it did have was put together a really good somewhat suspenseful type drama that involves bookies, gambling, a bit of drugs and all the ingredients that makes these "under the radar" or lesser known types of movies worth watching. The story is about a man played by Etan Embry, who has a serious gambling addiction and the ordeals he goes through to try and make good on his marriage. The events leading up to the final scene in the movie are riveting and I couldn't stop watching as it kept me glued to my seat the entire time. This movie is a hidden gem and as I said earlier, I highly recommend it and it is great from start to finish and boy what an ending it has. It really takes you for a loop but I'll leave it at that.

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 gem of a film. It is a nice break from all those splashy special effects used nowadays to entertain audiences. This was a good character driven story about a degenerate gambler that pushes it too far. Anyone that has been involved with the rush of sports betting can relate to the plot and characters. Ethan Embry delivers a stand out performance lead role JOEY. His delivery combined with facial expressions made him seem like a true everyman caught up in a bad situation. I felt for the guy even though it was only a film. Kathleen Roberston was amazing. I only knew her from her days on Beverly Hills 90210.Bob Sapp makes a worthy cameo. Despite not being an actor he wasn't terrific or terrible. Overall I was entertained by Player 5150. Writer and Director David Michael O'Neil delivers a good film about the life of a gambler going out of control. If you enjoy character driven dramas give this one a chance.