There’s a lot of material there in the poker world that is ripe for satire but it misses the boat here almost always.
Comment
03/24/08
The Grand (2008)
38
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:42
Fresh:16
Rotten:26
Average Rating:5.2/10
Consensus: The Grand has moments of comic ingenuity, but the jokes in this poker satire often miss.
Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: In the tradition of such improv-driven comedies as BEST IN SHOW and A MIGHTY WIND, director Zak Penn (INCIDENT AT LOCH NESS) casts an affectionate eye on the world of professional poker in his... [More]
Starring: Woody Harrelson, David Cross, Dennis Farina, Cheryl Hines
Director: Zak Penn
Reviews for The Grand
The Christopher Guest troupe couldn't have done it any better, because they would have just done the same contrived characters and uninspired bits.
03/21/08
This has lots of TV sitcom stars working very hard to be funny with ludicrous characters. If an actor looks like he's laboring to be funny, he isn't.
03/21/08
The Grand is in the grand tradition of Christopher Guest 'mockumentary' comedy satires: Its greatest asset is its eclectic, quirky-funny cast.
03/21/08
Even if you know nothing at all about the game, you'd be hard-pressed to find better entertainment for such a modest entry fee.
03/21/08
[Director] Penn could not have selected a more spoof-worthy venue than the world of high-stakes Texas Hold 'Em, and he has packed his film with actors -- many of them sitcom or sketch comedy stars -- who get the point of the exercise.
03/21/08
As middling mock-docs go, I'll put The Grand ahead of that paintball one (Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story) and Bob Saget's Farce Of The Penguins. And then I'll fold.
03/21/08
The 'card flick' has usually been a standard western, drama or crime deal -- that is, until a pack of mostly veteran comic actors tried their hand at improvising, Christopher Guest-style, in the highly amusing The Grand.
03/21/08
[Director] Penn has crucially miscalculated, mistakenly assuming we’d rather watch comedic actors play poker instead of watching them be funny.
03/21/08
If it never achieves the balance of broad laughs and barbed insights into human frailty of, say, A Mighty Wind, it delivers plenty of sharply funny moments.
03/21/08
This failure of steely intention, combined with a not quite satisfactory resolution of the fates of the characters, keeps the movie just shy of being a first-rate comedy.
03/21/08
The sort of half-baked vanity project favored by the Tribeca Film Festival, Zak Penn's The Grand features a slew of recognizable faces in a fitfully funny improvised comedy.
03/21/08
Penn only wanted to create his world, not explore it, and failing that he axes the players as quickly as possible as though he's bored and ready for the credits
03/20/08
Too much of The Grand is eaten up by thin conceits that go nowhere.
03/20/08
Director Zak Penn isn't quite up to [Christopher] Guest's level but the highlights of The Grand suggest he could be someday.
03/20/08
The entire film is just too low-key and bland to stir enthusiasm.
03/20/08
The Grand lacks any sort of urgency or inner propulsiveness; the actors do their little goofs, then hand them off to the next, lending the jest the frolicking but ultimately monotonous quality of a game of tag.
03/20/08
Put Herzog at the same table as Hines, Harrelson, Parnell, Cross, and Farina, and poker on film starts to look a lot less dull. Imagine what they could do with Monopoly.
03/18/08
Zak Penn’s The Grand is a seesaw, but the setting -- the high-stakes poker subculture -- is remarkably fertile and the actors are a treat.
03/17/08
Did Zak Penn's The Grand, an improvisational comedy set in the world of poker, cast itself?
03/05/08
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