I don't think I believed the movie Lucky You, but I sort of enjoyed it. A caveat: I enjoy watching poker on ESPN. If you don't, this movie will bore you.
Lucky You (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:136
Fresh:40
Rotten:96
Average Rating:5/10
Consensus: Lucky You tries to combine a romantic story with the high-stakes world of poker, but comes up with an empty hand.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for some language and sexual humor
Runtime: 2 hrs 4 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:May 4, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $5,727,530
Synopsis: Director Curtis Hanson (L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, WONDER BOYS) raises the stakes and takes on Las Vegas in LUCKY YOU. Huck Cheever (Eric Bana) plays poker for a living, using every opportunity that arises... Director Curtis Hanson (L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, WONDER BOYS) raises the stakes and takes on Las Vegas in LUCKY YOU. Huck Cheever (Eric Bana) plays poker for a living, using every opportunity that arises in daily life to hone his skills and test the odds. He is fueled by both a compulsion to win and the desire to do better than his father, L.C. Cheever (Robert Duvall), who is a championship poker player. Huck's skills come naturally, but he lacks patience. When he meets Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore), an earnest, honest girl from Bakersfield pursuing her dream of being a singer, he sees the possibility of a real relationship for the first time. But Huck's habits are hard to break, and he'll have to make some changes if he wants to make this relationship work. Barrymore is sweet as Billie, but it is the relationship between Huck and his father that moves the story along. Huck harbors ill feelings towards L.C. from his childhood--feelings that are complicated by his burning desire to best his father at poker. Bana effectively shows the animosity Huck feels towards his father with subtle changes to his facial expression and body language, and Duvall actually makes the hard-nosed L.C. likable. Ultimately, the real star of this movie is poker. Throughout the film, it's the strategies and bets, the flops and the rivers, that draw the viewer in. Professional poker players served as consultants and extras in the film, lending authenticity to the World Series of Poker where father and son face off. Debra Messing plays Billie's sister, Horatio Sanz is Ready Eddie, who can turn any situation into a bet, and Robert Downey Jr. appears all too briefly as Huck's friend. [More]
Starring: Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, Robert Duvall, Debra Messing
Starring: Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, Robert Duvall, Debra Messing, Horatio Sanz, Jean Smart, Kelvin Han Yee, Charles Martin Smith
Director: Curtis Hanson
Director: Curtis Hanson
Screenwriter: Curtis Hanson, Eric Roth
Producer: Carol Fenelon, Denise Di Novi
Composer: Christopher Young
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Reviews for Lucky You
... captures the manner in which both the smallest and largest events on a road trip can build a sense of camaraderie among three strangers with very little in common.
Hanson and Roth shuffle the two sides of the movie, the poker tournament and the love affair, with a Howard Hawksian feel for casual professionalism.
Since Lucky You overdid the poker cliches to death, let me end with one of my favorites: 'You got to know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em.' It seems this film never learned that lesson.
Better to fold 'em than to spend time watching Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore go literally nowhere.
Personally, I think this is one of those misunderstood films that never got a fair shake. DVD often corrects such oversights, and my hope is that Lucky You will finally find the appreciative audience it deserves.
...a well-intentioned romantic-gambling film that misses the mark by providing little we haven't seen before and better.
As soon as it has to face the real world, and deal with "emotions," it goes completely slack.
...everything about the movie is a little out-of-it, and not just because it's been lying on the studio shelf for a couple of years.
It's a shame that Barrymore's scenes are such a washout because the rest of the film is perfectly fine.
The end result is a movie that would have been better off eschewing its comedic aspirations in order to tell a serious story, which Hanson and Duvall have more than proven they’re capable of.
Can't decide whether it's a cautionary tale about gambling, a weepy father-son drama or a breezy rom-com.
Lucky You is a decent and often engaging character study that deserved more respect from critics and the studio than it received.
Below average, overlong drama that fails to deliver an emotional punch, largely because it's unsure of whether it wants to be a father-son drama or a romcom.
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