Actors: Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson
Director: Norman Jewison
I like to keep away from any criticism of a movie before I write my own review. However, today I decided to go on Wikipedia first - Wikipedia notes the similarities of this film to The Hustler. It may just be a massive hangover talking, but I had not even considered those similarities. The reason I hadn't is because The Hustler is a vastly superior movie in every way.
The Cincinnati Kid gets 4 stars for its cool poker sequences, which are filled with tension and reasonably well executed. It gets 1½ stars for being boring and making no sense away from the poker table. To me, it only takes one or two lines in a film to turn an archetype into a real character; sadly those lines were missing for most of the characters in this film.
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well said, man. this movie's poker sequences are great even though they're playing a game nobody plays. steve mcqueen's character is almost bizarre in this film. the strong, silent, cool persona is stretched way beyond reason, and the two women roles are like parodies. i was a fan of edward g. robinson.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember much about this one except that I made a point to see more Edward G. Robinson movies afterward.
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