Best and Worst Pool Movies...

I'd say the Hustler was the best except that it isn't about pool.
all the rest were rubbish, all suffered from cheesey dialog, poor acting, terrible stunt work and silly larger than life characters.
 
At least real life hustlers can be true to a movie....

sjm said:
This post is adapted from a previous post of mine on this subject, and I apologize to those that have read it before.

Like most, I think best pool movie comes down to The Hustler vs The Color of Money. In my case, I love both of them. I think those that argue that the Hustler is more firmly grounded in plausibility make a good point, but I don't think it makes much difference.

Using a very contrived character as a vehicle to offer a panoramic view of an aspect of his society was not beneath the dignity of Charles Dickens and in no way detracted from the quality of the pictures of Victorian society that Dickens painted through the written word. I believe that The Color of Money's use of the admittedly implausible Vincent is similarly effective.

In The Color of Money, through the eyes of Vincent, we get to see:

small time barbox betting
bigtime barbox betting
players good enough to make it on the road
players not good enough to make it on the road
the hustling scene and its underlying morality
trashtalking and gamesmanship
dumping and its implications
mentor/student tension
the pre-tournament scene
the tournament scene
the tournament side action scene

and much, much more. Guess what I'm saying is that I don't feel that Vincent's implausibility as a character in any way detracts from the film.

Is it likely that a booze chugging driving range pro that rarely competed could rebound to the point of being in contention to win on the seventy second hole of the US Open golf tournament in his first try? Not really, but the very contrived Roy MacEvoy, played by Kevin Costner in "Tin Cup," still provided a wonderful panoramic view of the golf scene.

To those that dismiss The Color of Money as inferior to The Hustler just because Vincent is an example of artistic license, I ask you to reconsider. I think that because its treatment of pool's landscape is so much more comprehensive than that of The Hustler, it rates as the better of the two.

The Color of Money ---- simply the best pool movie ever!
Click to expand...

Anyone know Chris McCreary who hustled pool around OKC in the late '90s sometimes at Jamaica Joe's? Maybe Vincent was not as true to life as we would have liked, but Chris going around acting like Vince worked for him. It really fit him. (Chris is hilarious, but a little bit not-right.) Anyone out there know him? After he got into trouble with the law he started a karaoke business under the name Chris Barker. One of the funniest bastards you'll ever meet. When he would out-draw Mike Massey, he would start doing the St. Louie Louie rountine from the video "Learn From The Best." Somebody knows this guy, back me up- he WAS Vince! "Head down, have confidence in your tip, and snap the wrist, ALWAYS snap the wrist!!!!"
 
Pool Hustlers (lo Chiara e lo Scuro)

That's the Italian movie about the pin pool ( cinque birilli). I have it on a dubbed VHS.
 
Edit: My mistake. Shooting Gallery is on the list.

It’s a long list and I may have missed it but Shooting Gallery is in my top 5 pool movies and I don’t see it on the list.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Not yet mentioned (admittedly I just skimmed so maybe it was)...
Turn the River (2007) starring the beautiful Femke Janssen who delivers the cue with all the confidence of a baby taking its first steps. The movie is best enjoyed as a celebration of trainwrecks. Not as bad and therefore not as good as "The Room" but still pretty enjoyable in its awfulness. I found it wildly entertaining for all the wrong reasons.

full movie available on youtube. But before you click play just remember, you're never getting those 90min back.
 
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