Poker Movie "Cold Deck" Set For Limited December Release
November 23, 2015 12:33 pmAfter making its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, the latest poker themed movie, Cold Deck, is set for a limited release on the big screen next month. Production on the crime thriller started in Toronto back in September 2014, and following completion, worldwide rights were eventually acquired by Screen Media Ventures, who have since been searching for a buyer for the Canadian film.
Directed by Zack Bernbaum, Cold Deck was co-written by Stéfano Gallo, who also stars as the movie’s main protagonist Bobby Locke, a gambler down on his luck, and whose dead-end job is insufficient to fund the medical care so desperately needed by his ailing mother. Bobby Locke, a regular at the poker tables, subsequently hatches a dangerous plan to rob a bunch of wealthy businessmen sitting in on a high stakes poker game hosted at a club run by the enigmatic Chips, played by Paul Sorvino. As the movie’s blurb then explains:
“Fed up with his lot in life, Bobby decides to seize the opportunity that arises when he is invited to a secret high-roller game, and along with his friend Ben, plots to rob these wealthy businessmen. Unfortunately, the game is presided by Turk (Robert Knepper) who viciously sets out to get revenge. Now Bobby is caught up in a new kind of game, one that could threaten his very survival.”
As one can expect from a poker-related tale, a liberal amount of cliched dialogue and characters populate the movie, including the compulsory catchphrase “play the player, not the cards”. Whether the movie will hit a chord with the poker community or the general public remains to be seen, although the odds are not great, judging by the reception of similar type films since the highly successful Maverick (1994) and Rounders. Perhaps one of the more original twists on the theme in recent times was Poker Night (2014), starring Ron Perlman, Giancarlo Esposito, and Beau Mirchoff, which currently has a rating of 6.3 on IMDB. Mississippi Grind (2015) starring Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn also attained a respectable 6.5 on the world’s biggest source for movie content and reviews.