i want him to think im pondering a call, but all im really thinking about is vegas and the fucking mirage

I went to the Poker King premiere the other night. Now because I admire Golden Scene the company tons, because Lau Ching Wan is one of my most respected actors, and because the Golden Scene PR girl would throw a hissy fit on me (actually normally I don't mind, but I'm counting on her to buy me Bill Simmons' book while she's in LA right now so I can't piss her off),  I'm not gonna blog about what I think of the movie.

Instead, I'll go back to Rounders, the first legit poker movie, and to this day still, the only poker movie that matters.

Kinda crazy when you consider how huge poker has blown up all over the world the past decade, and the best poker movie is still the very first one that came out in 1998 before the explosion.

Rounders is a bible to poker players more so than Super Systems (irony cause in Rounders, Matt Damon referes to Super Systems as the bible for poker players), having worked at a casino, the amount of people quoting Matt Damon, Ed Norton, or John Malkovich at poker tables is insane.

No other movie OWNS a particular sport/hobby the way Rounders does poker. Meaning if you ask bball fans what's the best bball movie or rock fans what's the best rock and roll movie--you'll get different answers. Not so with Rounders, it's the only answer.

After Rounders' realistic portrayal of poker, it's hard to watch any poker scene in any other movie anymore--they're always over the top and the final hand is always a crazy four of a kind vs royal flush kinda scenerio. Check out the poker scene in the Mel Gibson movie Maverick, it's ridiculous. At least that movie didn't try to be realistic so it's okay. Oh and Danny Glover has a cameo in the movie, and him and Gibson share a brief moment on screen where they have this "don't we know each other?" look. This type of inside-joke ish reference is what makes a cameo great. This Danny Glover is a top five cameo... OF ALL TIME! (you know what's another great cameo? Bruce Willis showing up as John McClane in Loaded Weapon. Or David Bowie in Zoolander)

Anyway back to the original rant....not only is Rounders a realistic portrayal of poker, there's some solid acting (wouldn't expect anything less from Malkovich and Ed Norton) and some truly great lines.

And you wanna talk about selling out? Pro poker player Johnny Chan-who was immortalized in the movie Rounders-shows up in Poker King dressed like Riddler, as in the Batman villain. Showing up in the movie doesn't make him a sellout, but it's the fact he told media at Golden Scene's wrap party that he thinks Poker King is the new Rounders. He doesn't believe that. No one who plays poker believes that. No one who's a poker enthusiast will like the movie. I'm serious. I'm not bashing it from a filmmaking/script standpoint, because on that front it's about typical to what's been coming out of local productions this year. But this movie is another one of those that gets all the facts/rules/basic concept of poker wrong. It's extra insulting because it's backed by a casino and supposedly made to promote the game. I mean, the entire poker scene in Casino Royale was stupid (Marvin and I were literally figured out how Bond was going to win that final hand before it happened because the script was building up to that cliche steretypical poker hand), but no one cared cause it's a James Bond movie.

Oops, I said I wasn't gonna bash the movie...guess  I won't be getting my Bill Simmons book.