Based upon a short novel by Fyodor Dosoyevsky this is a remake of an earlier film from 1974 of the same name . I haven't seen the original but does contain an absolutely gripping tagline of "For $10,000 they break your arms. For $20,000 they break your legs. Axel Freed owes $44,000" . If that tagline doesn't hook you in then may be you just don't like movies . On top of that I see the 1974 version has an average user rating of 7.2 , The 1970s was a highpoint of American cinema where morally dubious flawed people behind the camera were making movies revolving around dubious flawed fictional characters . This remake barely made a ripple at the box office when it was released at the end of last year and has a fairly low rating and after seeing it then it's not too easy to see why
Rupert Wyatt is an adequate director but nothing I've seen from it suggests he's anything more than that . The screenplay is written by William Monahan and this should get a few alarm bells ringing . Much of his work is composed of merely adapting from a vastly superior source and any embellishment he adds to the story is inferior compared to the original work . He also fails to disguise the source . You watch a film with Monahan appearing in the credits and there's some good bits in it ? Well give the credit to the original source material . You watch a film with Monahan appearing in the credits and there's bad bits in it ? Well you all know who to blame . Monahan could defend myself by saying he's not Akiva Goldman and he would be correct but I could equally defend myself by saying no matter what evil deeds I do I'm not on a par with Hitler . A strawman argument . Since this film sources a film that is based on a story by Dosoyevsky there's lots of existentialism spoken about . If you like this praise be to a 19th Century Russian writer . The protagonist finds himself stuck between a rock and a hard place due to his own self destructive actions ? Hey that's sounds like many American films from the1970s . To be fair the cast do their best with the material on offer and rise above the film's flaws but THE GAMBLER doesn't deal the audience a winning hand which is a pity
Rupert Wyatt is an adequate director but nothing I've seen from it suggests he's anything more than that . The screenplay is written by William Monahan and this should get a few alarm bells ringing . Much of his work is composed of merely adapting from a vastly superior source and any embellishment he adds to the story is inferior compared to the original work . He also fails to disguise the source . You watch a film with Monahan appearing in the credits and there's some good bits in it ? Well give the credit to the original source material . You watch a film with Monahan appearing in the credits and there's bad bits in it ? Well you all know who to blame . Monahan could defend myself by saying he's not Akiva Goldman and he would be correct but I could equally defend myself by saying no matter what evil deeds I do I'm not on a par with Hitler . A strawman argument . Since this film sources a film that is based on a story by Dosoyevsky there's lots of existentialism spoken about . If you like this praise be to a 19th Century Russian writer . The protagonist finds himself stuck between a rock and a hard place due to his own self destructive actions ? Hey that's sounds like many American films from the1970s . To be fair the cast do their best with the material on offer and rise above the film's flaws but THE GAMBLER doesn't deal the audience a winning hand which is a pity