Review of Four Dogs Playing Poker

This movie is burdened by a screenplay that is so atrocious, that no other element of the film could rescue it. The first five minutes of this film are very promising; we are shown an apparently savvy group of heisters in an exotic location in the middle of an operation. It is interestingly photographed, the actors appear competent and appealing, it is nicely directed, and well edited. After this the problems with the script came so fast, that I no longer paid attention to the other elements of the film, however my impression is that everything fell apart at once. I knew that the movie was in trouble as soon as the actors started goofing around on their radios in the middle of the serious and dangerous operation they were performing. When the object of the heist was cavalierly turned over to some nameless ship's purser, who I wouldn't have trusted with five cents, I resigned myself to the fact that I had wasted my money. When surprise, surprise, the object is apparently lost and the thieves have to figure out a way to make it right, the savvy heisters transform into a group of whimpering morons whose only solution is to kill one of the group for an insurance fraud. This was the end of `Four Dogs Playing Poker` for me. I rarely stop watching a film in the middle, but I couldn't justify wasting anymore of my time on this ridiculous movie. This film requires more than a suspension of disbelief, it requires a suspension of the fact that you possess a brain. If you are looking for a small, yet very worthwhile crime movie try `Thick As Thieves' with Alec Baldwin or `Jerry And Tom' with Joe Mantegna. Something more quirky but equally worthwhile is `Coldblooded' with Jason Priestly.