The truth about poker movies is that very few of them are actually about the game of poker. Most of them involve some other sort of human drama, and poker is just worked into the mix as part of the backdrop of a broader story. For example, a plot for a poker film could be something like this; boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins millions at the World Series of Poker, boy suddenly finds himself knee deep in girls, boy dies from sexual exhaustion. If we took out the other bits, and just left the part in about winning at the WSOP, the whole thing would be pretty dull. The need for a story to overshadow the game comes from the fact that if they just made a movie about a poker game there would be two hours of cards being played just to have it climax with a scripted ending. It would be sort of like watching professional wrestling, but without all the shouting and the occasional elbow smash. With this said, the film Stoic features a rather disturbing story, and the whole thing starts off with one of the worst poker bets in history.
In the upcoming Uwe Boll film, “Stoic”, three inmates decide to alleviate the boredom of a German prison by playing a little poker. Seeing as the terms of their incarceration include having no access to NeTeller, they must find other stakes besides money. In this case the loser must eat something, throw it back up, and then eat the meal they just regurgitated. After this particularly icky line has been crossed, they move on to behavior that may be acceptable in a San Francisco bath house if it happens to be run by the bad guy from all those SAW movies.
This particular use of poker in a film makes me long for the days when KGB was giving away his tells with Oreos or Brett Maverick was trying to score with Jodi Foster during a break in a tournament. This bit in the film Stoic was just gross beyond words.
