As part of his initiation, rookie detective Stan Jeter (Beau Mirchoff) takes part in a poker night with some of the best and most experienced cops in the business. Whilst participating in Poker Night our rookie detective must listen to stories from each of the officers highlighting their best arrests, their best achievements or their best examples of heroism. Initially, Jeter takes these stories with a pinch of salt until he finds himself the victim of a kidnapping by a vicious psychopath. Jeter must use all that he's learnt from his more experienced colleagues to try to escape from the mad man whilst he simultaneously tries to rescue a young girl who has also been kidnapped by the psychopath.
Poker Night is a mix between Saw and Training Day which are two films that I found to be enjoyable and both of these 'aspects' of the plotting were strong enough to hold my interest in the story. Unfortunately, when I watch a film and instantly identify similarities between the film I've watched and similar films that have preceded it (particularly similar films that I've really liked) then it's hard not to cast a critical eye over a film like Poker Night....
The structure of the film was something that I found it hard to get used to and, for me, Poker Night seemed to suffer from what I like to call a 'Stop/Start' narrative. What I mean here is that I felt as though every time the picture started to gather momentum (i.e focusing on the kidnapping) the picture would then Stop (by going back to the storytelling). The idea behind this film is that our rookie is supposed to put theory into practice in order to get the better of the man that kidnapped him based on the life experiences of his senior colleagues. However, I just never really felt like there was much of a connection between the stories that Jeter is being told by his colleagues and the way that Jeter tries to deal with the kidnapper. To me Poker Night came across as one part philosophical character studying and one part torture porn, but the 2 elements never really seem to fuse together and never felt as though they were part of the same story. This results in a film that, at times, is sluggish during its storytelling mode, but when the focus is on Jeter and the kidnapper it is much livelier and engrossing. I don't have a problem with talky sections of films if they serve a purpose, but as I've already mentioned I just didn't feel that connection here.
I've touched upon the fact that this film reminded me of Saw and Training Day, but it sadly comes off as a poor man's version of each of these films. It lacks Saw's intelligence and doesn't have the intense storytelling that we saw in Training Day. To compensate for this, the film tries to be clever by tying itself in knots with twist after twist towards the end which to be honest started to become increasingly more far-fetched and ridiculous as the film reached the finish line. The open-ended finale leaves it open for a sequel which is questionable to me given the fact that this first film is only good rather than being brilliant.
To me Poker Night is at its best when the focus is on Jeter, the kidnapper and the girl as these scenes provide us with some intensity and excitement. I would have preferred it if the film would have been more of a battle of wits/race against time horror/thriller (which is how it was sold on Sky Movies). Sadly, the storytelling aspect of the film is episodic, a bit tedious and for the most part feels unrelated from the action. A good film thanks to a number of well-executed and intense set-pieces, but not the brilliant film that it could, and should have been.
Poker Night is a mix between Saw and Training Day which are two films that I found to be enjoyable and both of these 'aspects' of the plotting were strong enough to hold my interest in the story. Unfortunately, when I watch a film and instantly identify similarities between the film I've watched and similar films that have preceded it (particularly similar films that I've really liked) then it's hard not to cast a critical eye over a film like Poker Night....
The structure of the film was something that I found it hard to get used to and, for me, Poker Night seemed to suffer from what I like to call a 'Stop/Start' narrative. What I mean here is that I felt as though every time the picture started to gather momentum (i.e focusing on the kidnapping) the picture would then Stop (by going back to the storytelling). The idea behind this film is that our rookie is supposed to put theory into practice in order to get the better of the man that kidnapped him based on the life experiences of his senior colleagues. However, I just never really felt like there was much of a connection between the stories that Jeter is being told by his colleagues and the way that Jeter tries to deal with the kidnapper. To me Poker Night came across as one part philosophical character studying and one part torture porn, but the 2 elements never really seem to fuse together and never felt as though they were part of the same story. This results in a film that, at times, is sluggish during its storytelling mode, but when the focus is on Jeter and the kidnapper it is much livelier and engrossing. I don't have a problem with talky sections of films if they serve a purpose, but as I've already mentioned I just didn't feel that connection here.
I've touched upon the fact that this film reminded me of Saw and Training Day, but it sadly comes off as a poor man's version of each of these films. It lacks Saw's intelligence and doesn't have the intense storytelling that we saw in Training Day. To compensate for this, the film tries to be clever by tying itself in knots with twist after twist towards the end which to be honest started to become increasingly more far-fetched and ridiculous as the film reached the finish line. The open-ended finale leaves it open for a sequel which is questionable to me given the fact that this first film is only good rather than being brilliant.
To me Poker Night is at its best when the focus is on Jeter, the kidnapper and the girl as these scenes provide us with some intensity and excitement. I would have preferred it if the film would have been more of a battle of wits/race against time horror/thriller (which is how it was sold on Sky Movies). Sadly, the storytelling aspect of the film is episodic, a bit tedious and for the most part feels unrelated from the action. A good film thanks to a number of well-executed and intense set-pieces, but not the brilliant film that it could, and should have been.