Lucky You (2007)

Director:

Curtis Hanson

Writers (WGA):

Eric Roth (screenplay) &
Curtis Hanson (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

4 May 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Sport

Tagline:

Change your game. Change your life.

Plot:

A hotshot poker player tries to win a tournament in Vegas, but is fighting a losing battle with his personal problems.

Plot Keywords:

Poker | Poker Player | Father Son Relationship | Beautiful Woman | Pawnshop

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Phyllis Somerville	...	Pawnbroker
Eric Bana	...	Huck Cheever
Horatio Sanz	...	Ready Eddie
Drew Barrymore	...	Billie Offer
Joey Kern	...	Billie’s Admirer
Debra Messing	...	Suzanne Offer
Delaine Yates	...	Ginger
Mykel Shannon Jenkins	...	Gary
Robert Duvall	...	L. C. Cheever
Charles Martin Smith	...	Roy Durucher
Robert Downey Jr.	...	Telephone Jack
Saverio Guerra	...	Lester
Danny Hoch	...	Bobby Basketball
Kenny Cau	...	Chinese Restaurant Waiter
Kelvin Han Yee	...	Chico Banh

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some language and sexual humor.

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA | Australia

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Ireland:12A | Singapore:PG | Netherlands:6 | Germany:6 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Company:

Lucky You Pictures Inc.

Trivia:

The portrait (actually an enlarged photograph) hung on the wall during the final WSOP match is that of Benny Binion, the original owner of the Horseshoe, taken at his ranch in Montana.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Huck ('Eric Bana') plays in the super satellite and its down to 3 players it is said that Shannon Kincaid (Jennifer Harmon) is the chip leader but the very next hand she ends up all in against Huck and is out of the tournament, if she was the chip leader then she would still have chips left and not out. And then in the same scene after she is knocked out the remaining 2 end up all in and Huck believes he has won, however the dealer did not burn a card so when he comes back and loses he is out this would mean that they had identical chip stacks, which is not possible since he had taken the chip lead with the knockout of Kincaid.

Quotes:

L. C. Cheever: [At the World Series, Michelle reveals her hand, a King-high flush] Very nice.
Michelle Carson: [Smiles, L.C. reveals his hand, a straight flush] But not nice enough.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in I Am Legend (2007)

Soundtrack:

Lucky Town

Entertaining, And Poker Fans Will Really Love It

As far as playing or watching poker on television, I can take it or leave it, and I enjoyed this movie.... so I can imagine poker fans will really LOVE this film. It gives justice to their "sport" with realistic hands, playing, situations and attitudes.

Often, I thought something hokey was going to happen, something predictable but rarely did that occur in this film. You really never knew what was going to happen and suspense builds for a number of gambling scenes. I hesitate to say more for fear of spoiling anything. Suffice to say, the gambling scenes in here were very realistic. I know what from the behind-the- scenes bonus features in which a number of real-life professional players commented on that fact.

The film follows a father-and-son team (Eric Bana and Robert Duvall playing "Huck" and "L.C. Cheever") with a small romance sub-plot involving Drew Barrymore. It isn't just all about poker, although that's most of it - culminating in the World Series of Poker - but about the mentality of people who make gambling their life.

This film was far better than I figured it would be, and was rewarding in the end without being predictable. It was fairly low-key, too, in the profanity and sex department, but kids would be bored with this film, anyway.

This movie will mainly attract card players, I'm afraid, and that's too bad because it offers a lot more than that. The movie got better as it went along and wound up a good two hours of entertainment.