You've Got To Know When To Fold 'Em... "The Gambler"

The Gambler (2014)

Rated R

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Jessica Lange, John Goodman

Directed by Rupert Wyatt

The Story:

Jim (Wahlberg) is an English professor who has a serious gambling problem.  The problem, he doesn't know when to walk away while he's ahead.  So when he gets in debt up to his eyeballs, he asks another loan shark (Goodman) for more money so he can pay off that debt.  Of course when he squanders that money, he better pull something out of his hat before he winds up swimming with the fishes!

Sure, it sounds good on paper.

But man, was it poorly executed.

Clocking in at just a shade under 72 hours long, or at least that's how it felt, The Gambler was a good 80 minute movie with incessant, unneeded padding before, during, and after it was over.

Case in point, when he runs at the end of the movie.

And runs.
And runs.
And runs some more.
And keeps on running.
Please note he doesn't sweat after running through the entire city.

I got the point of the scene about 15 seconds into the running and knew what it was leading up to.

That it took 5 minutes (did it really? hard to say, felt like a shade under forever) to get there...

Unforgivable.

When the movie was good, though infrequent, it was pretty good.

So Marky Mark escapes worst of the year honors, but just barely.

Final Grade: C-