It's a petty thing, I know, but I think Kevin Spacey spouting lines like "I like to take a special interest in my students" may have artificially lowered my feelings on this film.

Oh no, wait, it actually is kind of bad.

Let's start with the characters. Ben is an incredibly unlikable character and the film desperately wants to convince you that he's a victim despite being a privileged lying asshole. He suffers basically no repercussions by the end of the film (he gets off scott-free and continues to gamble and learns basically nothing) despite his moral compass being almost as shot as the supposed antagonist of the film, Mickey. Mickey himself is arguably the most entertaining part of the film but that isn't really high praise. But even he manages to get annoying and acts completely out of character by the end. Why does he let Ben in, again? Why are the others even still working for him after they betrayed him? Why is Ben the only one who is punished and has his money stolen? These are all questions the film either forgets or refuses to answer.

The side characters are all incredibly bland, most don't have any real character traits besides surface level shit like "he's an asshole", or "he's weird". Ben's girlfriend (She's so bland I forgot her name) falls in love with him for little actual reason. Ben's two friends learn about what he's been doing and are somehow cool with it despite the fact he nearly fucked up their project for his Vegas trips. One of them even joins the crew.

Cole, the primary or secondary antagonist depending on how you look at it, does a complete 180 and lets Ben go for no actual reason. Why? You had him and his friends in your grasp. Why let some potential trouble to your client go? You already said you believed in your side of the hussle enough to not go join the Counters, so what changed? It wasn't the facial recognition software because you already knew about that, so what?

Honestly, the most egregious thing about this film is the ending. I'd have dismissed this film as simply mediocre were it not for how completely out of tune the final act is. Every character seems to do a 180 just for Ben to get away clean. Mickey's IQ has to drop significantly for him to be fooled by Ben, and Ben swaps the chips for chocolate coins somehow??? How? Where did you get those? We literally saw you take the chips from the table and there was no time for you to get the chocolate because you were being chased (we saw this) by Cole and his goons.

I said this before, but Ben learns nothing. He keeps his diploma and gets to go to Harvard (Cole apparently arranged it somehow, despite living in an entirely different state and having no connection whatsoever to them?). His mom isn't even fucking angry at him, after him LYING to her and nearly getting killed by Cole's goons for some money Ben already fucking had (he literally could have stopped when he got the 300 grand but doesn't). He continues to gamble and Mickey is the only one who is punished. I already mentioned how bullshit Cole letting Ben go is, but it really is such shitty writing. This guy believes in his cause enough to be beating kids to a pulp repeatedly but apparently betrays his company because he doesn't get a pension? What? What does that even mean, Lawrence?

The core concept of this film is fine. Hell, I was even excited by it, since I generally really love gambling scenes in films (It was my favorite part of "Casino Royale" and "Solo"). And, most of the time, the gambling scenes are fun and interesting (When they're actually shown in depth). But, alas, that makes up maybe a good fourth or fifth of the film in total. The rest is boring drama that isn't fleshed out enough for it to be actually interesting.

Needless to say, I do not think this film is very good. I need a good gambling film to wash my mouth of this shit.

Ben looks like a Poundland Zac Efron, by the way.

40/100