"Turn the River" a review...

cuechick

cuechick

Flys In the Kitchen
Silver Member
I just watched it and my first impression was that it was an even higher level production than I expected. Famke Jannsen, who plays the main character, I thought was excellent and believable. The pool scenes were pretty well done with some good pool jargon thrown in. "I'm shooting lights out." for example. Though I felt some of the angles they shot from were a bit awkward.

Without giving anything away, the ending was kind of abrupt and a little hard to believe ... esp the scene with her x, who is played by Matt Ross. Who is always good at playing nasty (he plays the evil son in Big Love).

I thought Rip Torn was also good and I loved the kid who played her son. Tony (Robles) did a great job, they could have thrown him a few more lines though! JJ, who played her big money opponent and is both a real actor and a real player (he use to manage the West Side Amsterdam) was also excellent.

Overall, it is a very good little character study of a desperate woman using what few skills she has to try and get her kid back. It is more about her than pool, but pool is a nice supporting player and I think this is far better than any other recent pool flicks.
 
I actually just watched the movie with Tony two nights ago for the first time.

Tony had a bunch of lines when they filmed, but they didn't use most of them as they didn't like his voice. (He's suppose to be portraying a 20 something year old guy .... Unfortunately he's over 40!) LOL

So the voice you hear when he speaks, actually isn't his. Though it sounds like his voice if he were sucking on helium! ;)
 
GG11 said:
I actually just watched the movie with Tony two nights ago for the first time.

Tony had a bunch of lines when they filmed, but they didn't use most of them as they didn't like his voice. (He's suppose to be portraying a 20 something year old guy .... Unfortunately he's over 40!) LOL

So the voice you hear when he speaks, actually isn't his. Though it sounds like his voice if he were sucking on helium! ;)
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I thought it sounded a bit odd? I actually thought it would have been cooler if he never spoke at all! ... he deserves credit though for his acting... like either of JJ or Famke could ever beat Tony!!
 
Also! You got to take a look at "The Last Shot" on the DVDs extras.. it is worth a smile!
 
I'm Ready For MY Closeup

I just finished watching it a few minutes ago and I enjoyed it. I noticed in one scene, that the breaker broke by banking the cueball off the side rail in the 1 pocket game and buried the cueball in the stack (I think it was 'Duncan's' break)......

I didn't care for the ending. I mean, how can the movie possibly end without her getting her four plain donuts. That would kill me.

Doug
 
i liked it. Famke is hot, even when shes not made up. And they played one pocket which is a good change from every other pool movie ever made. Yeah pool wasnt the main focus but it was a big part of the movie and that is always good.

Personally i think famke should be in every pool movie :)
 
I thought it was ok. Certainly better than junkies. It seemed to me like the director may have been trying too hard to create poolroom characters, and I had a hard time buying into some of them. I would give it 3 Buds on the six-pack scale.
Steve
 
GG11 said:
I actually just watched the movie with Tony two nights ago for the first time.

Tony had a bunch of lines when they filmed, but they didn't use most of them as they didn't like his voice. (He's suppose to be portraying a 20 something year old guy .... Unfortunately he's over 40!) LOL

So the voice you hear when he speaks, actually isn't his. Though it sounds like his voice if he were sucking on helium! ;)
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OMG, Gail, I KNEW that wasn't his voice! I had to go back a couple of times to make sure and I came to the conclusion that that wasn't Tony's voice! It was when he first spoke--at the counter when he leaves after playing Famke--that I was like, "WTF? That's not Tony's voice. Huh?" And then I must've gone back like 5 times to hear it again. I thought maybe it was a sound thing or something. I was LOLing but overall, I think Tony did a good job and then I really LOLed when Famke started to beat him and he did his "Oh well" move with the arms which I've seen lots of times. That was classic Tony!

Anywho, in my opinion, I think this was a movie about a Mom doing whatever she needed to do to get her son back with a splash of pool and poker in for good measure. Lara, I agree, I think the ending was abrupt and I wanted to see some more. I was kind of unhappy about it and like you, I believed Famke as Kailey and thought she did a great job. For me the movie wasn't great but it didn't suck either.
 
I actually really liked it. I liked the fact that they used one pocket in the movie. I liked the fact that they kept most of the poolshots believeable aka no wild masses in a game one pocket or 9 ball. While the "main story" might have been her trying to get her son away from her ex husband pool played a HUGE part. With a name like turn the river I was expecting a movie based mainly around poker. In that regard I was pleasantly surprised. The only complaint I had was about the ending. I won't give it away, but it was abrupt and could have made more sense. Over all two thumbs up.
 
Oh I also liked the fact, that they did not make an issue about Famke's character being a female that could play.
 
mmmm...Famke :love2: It's always amazed me how a woman could sweat like she does and look that good doing it!

It was a weird ending, though????
 
9 Ball Girl said:
OMG, Gail, I KNEW that wasn't his voice! I had to go back a couple of times to make sure and I came to the conclusion that that wasn't Tony's voice! It was when he first spoke--at the counter when he leaves after playing Famke--that I was like, "WTF? That's not Tony's voice. Huh?" And then I must've gone back like 5 times to hear it again. I thought maybe it was a sound thing or something. I was LOLing but overall, I think Tony did a good job and then I really LOLed when Famke started to beat him and he did his "Oh well" move with the arms which I've seen lots of times. That was classic Tony!

Anywho, in my opinion, I think this was a movie about a Mom doing whatever she needed to do to get her son back with a splash of pool and poker in for good measure. Lara, I agree, I think the ending was abrupt and I wanted to see some more. I was kind of unhappy about it and like you, I believed Famke as Kailey and thought she did a great job. For me the movie wasn't great but it didn't suck either.
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You're so funny! Didn't he sound like a prepubescent child? LOL.

And yes, the move where he throws up his hands .... yeah, TR didn't have to reach too far for those acting skills!

It was a good movie. I too did not like the ending, but hey wouldn't be the first ending I didn't like. Did anyone notice the 14.1 break, even though they were playing 1 pocket??
 
GG11 said:
You're so funny! Didn't he sound like a prepubescent child? LOL.

And yes, the move where he throws up his hands .... yeah, TR didn't have to reach too far for those acting skills!

It was a good movie. I too did not like the ending, but hey wouldn't be the first ending I didn't like. Did anyone notice the 14.1 break, even though they were playing 1 pocket??
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"He" sounded like it was muffled or something. It was just strange. Did his lips even move??? I cracked up. The voice sounded more like him when he said, "You shoot good game" or something like that when he was playing the older gentlemen.

I noticed that break and was wondering if it's feasible for 1 Pocket. Hmmm. I wished they would've added some Tony shots or something in the extras.
 
just watched it last night and was very disappointed. the kid's acting was the most believable part of the movie. i thought the scene where the frat boy decks her in the jaw could've been done a little different. does this really happen? and to women? another reason why pool has such a bad name.
 
craigmac said:
i thought the scene where the frat boy decks her in the jaw could've been done a little different. does this really happen? and to women? another reason why pool has such a bad name.
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I thought that was a bit over the top myself. I think guys can be jerks like that but to actually hit a woman was a bit much.
 
Women Want To Come Into A Man's World & Play A Man's Game, They Get What They Deserve

craigmac said:
just watched it last night and was very disappointed. i thought the scene where the frat boy decks her in the jaw could've been done a little different.

does this really happen? and to women?
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Sure, I've decked a few of them.

Doug
(and a few have decked me) :)
 
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