Shade (2003)
Card hustlers often work in packs, much like wolves or killer whales. They cruise through the casinos and ring games looking for prey. In most cases they target those who are wealthy but also weak, but what happens when they take a bite out of someone who can bite back?
In Shade the card sharks target a legendary card player, referred to as “The Dean”. On the plus side they manage to successfully sting their mark and take his money. On the minus side their success is short lived as they wind up running for their lives with vengeful mobsters nipping at their heals, anxious to avenge crime that has been perpetrated against “The Dean”.
Over the past few years their have been a rash of movies that have centered around the practice of scamming, grifting and gambling. Oceans Eleven, Confidence, and The Cooler are good examples. Shade has gotten lost in the mix with these high budget thrillers, but can easily hold its own against any one of them. One would consider the presence of Sylvester Stallone in any movie where he is not punching out a Russian, or shooting people with a large machine gun as a minus, but Sly pulls off a very good performance in this independent offering, and would have gotten more notice had the film been released widely.
Though this movie is centered around the world of poker, it is not about poker. It is about the scammers and grifters that plague the legitimate gamblers.
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