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Poker Night

Play trailer Poster for Poker Night 2014 1h 45m Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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56% Tomatometer 9 Reviews 41% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
A young detective becomes an unwilling participant in a deadly cat and mouse game when he is kidnapped by a serial killer. To survive, he has to use all of the wisdom imparted to him by veteran detectives during poker nights.
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Poker Night

Critics Reviews

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Martin Tsai Los Angeles Times 12/22/2014
"Poker Night" brings to mind so many forgettable thrillers from the 1990s, films that aimed to impress stylistically but ultimately were met with indifference. Go to Full Review
Dennis Harvey Variety 12/20/2014
Flashbacks within flashbacks exhaust viewer patience in this snarky mix of crime, action and sadism. Go to Full Review
Abbie Bernstein Assignment X 12/20/2018
B
Poker Night has a lot to recommend it, but the game-night stories never seem to feed into Jeter's plight in a meaningful way. Go to Full Review
Rich Cline Contactmusic.com 01/12/2015
3/5
Refusing to settle down to focus on its intriguing central story, filmmaker Greg Francis whirls around through a series of whizzy flashbacks that layer in all kinds of subtext and interest. Go to Full Review
Mark R. Leeper Mark Leeper's Reviews 12/18/2014
7/10
Goes from comedy to horror to suspense. The visual story telling is tricky and the writing is even more so. Go to Full Review
Chris Klimek The Dissolve 12/10/2014
2/5
The majority of it runs at the speed of the last five minutes of a Christopher Nolan film, when entire story beats are compressed into a shot or a line. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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02/03/2021 I thought the poker for stories was a really corny concept . The side flashback/imaginations of the movie were the best part but they shoulda found a less corny way to get them into the movie 2.4 . There’s no shot in hell the detective would end up in jail like literally no shot See more 04/21/2018 I'm a lover of the creepy yet darkly funny sub-genre of slashers. What can I say? See more 02/25/2018 Poker Night starts off with a bang and doesn't let up. It follows a somewhat frantic pace, but, by way of crafty storytelling, manages to be much more than just another mindless hack 'n' slash film. In fact, labelling Poker Night a hack 'n' slash film at all, is doing it a disservice. There is far too much thought and creativity put into the story, for that. Flashbacks are a central focus in Poker Night and they're cleverly utilized. Each veteran cop who partakes in poker night, takes the viewer on a journey back in time, imparting wisdom that directly pertains to protagonist, Beau Mirchoff's survival. What's interesting is that Mirchoff acts out each cop's flashback, rather than the cops themselves. It's a unique approach that I really enjoyed. Poker Night does an outstanding job of visual storytelling and it's cinematography suits the story perfectly. The score is equally impressive. The cast is solid, with strong performances around the table, no pun intended. I especially liked Michael Eklund as the psychotic serial killer. When unmasked, his eyes were perfect for the job. Very sick stuff. Arguably, Poker Night's greatest strength is how it merges several genres (thriller, horror, suspense, action, comedy) into one, while avoiding the whole "jack of all trades, master of none" moniker. It takes a well thought out story to accomplish this and shouldn't be overlooked. For instance, I was completely shocked in several scenes and burst out laughing in several others. Especially the killer's "family life" flashback, where he was still wearing his killing mask. I felt like a manic lunatic watching it myself. Good stuff. In closing, Poker Night is not the greatest individual thriller, horror, suspense, action or comedy movie of all time. What it is, is one of the only movies I can think of, that combines all of these genres into one film. That alone makes it unique and well worth you 105 minutes. It's fragmented yet seamless, it's tricky, it's unpredictable, it's stylish, it's clever. And most of all, it absolutely deserves a higher score than 44%. Throw in a big name actor and the score probably doubles. Again, stupid but true. Definitely recommended. See more 02/25/2018 Poker Night starts off with a bang and doesn't let up. It follows a somewhat frantic pace, but, by way of crafty storytelling, manages to be much more than just another mindless hack 'n' slash film. In fact, labelling Poker Night a hack 'n' slash film at all, is doing it a disservice. There is far too much thought and creativity put into the story, for that. Flashbacks are a central focus in Poker Night and they're cleverly utilized. Each veteran cop who partakes in poker night, takes the viewer on a journey back in time, imparting wisdom that directly pertains to protagonist, Beau Mirchoff's survival. What's interesting is that Mirchoff acts out each cop's flashback, rather than the cops themselves. It's a unique approach that I really enjoyed. Poker Night does an outstanding job of visual storytelling and it's cinematography suits the story perfectly. The score is equally impressive. The cast is solid, with strong performances around the table, no pun intended. I especially liked Michael Eklund as the psychotic serial killer. When unmasked, his eyes were perfect for the job. Very sick stuff. Arguably, Poker Night's greatest strength is how it merges several genres (thriller, horror, suspense, action, comedy) into one, while avoiding the whole "jack of all trades, master of none" moniker. It takes a well thought out story to accomplish this and shouldn't be overlooked. For instance, I was completely shocked in several scenes and burst out laughing in several others. Especially the killer's "family life" flashback, where he was still wearing his killing mask. I felt like a manic lunatic watching it myself. Good stuff. In closing, Poker Night is not the greatest individual thriller, horror, suspense, action or comedy movie of all time. What it is, is one of the only movies I can think of, that combines all of these genres into one film. That alone makes it unique and well worth you 105 minutes. It's fragmented yet seamless, it's tricky, it's unpredictable, it's stylish, it's clever. And most of all, it absolutely deserves a higher score than 44%. Throw in a big name actor and the score probably doubles. Again, stupid but true. Definitely recommended. See more 10/01/2017 The best way to describe this film would be a group of cops, playing poker, winner tells there best story, but it is so much more than that. The stories give you a feel for the character, some more than others, but as a whole they make you emotionally attached to them. I love a film that gives you the "da fuckkkkkkkkk" moment, where you mind goes crazy and then you click and everything makes sense, this film had a few. The narration throughout helps the story from going stale, filling you with information and reason, Stan (Beau Mirchoff) seemed a bit shakey at times, but did a good job. I honestly didn't expect that much of the film from reading a previous review, but never judge a book by it's cover. It really shocked me and kept me thinking, had me hooked from the get go. See more 05/15/2017 I didn't hate it. I didn't like it. It is right in the middle of the road of take it or leave it. See more Read all reviews
Poker Night

My Rating

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Movie Info

Synopsis A young detective becomes an unwilling participant in a deadly cat and mouse game when he is kidnapped by a serial killer. To survive, he has to use all of the wisdom imparted to him by veteran detectives during poker nights.
Director
Greg Francis
Producer
Chad Krowchuk, Corey Large, Aaron Rattner
Screenwriter
Greg Francis
Distributor
XLrator Media
Genre
Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 5, 2014, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 11, 2017
Runtime
1h 45m
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