EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

pointyfilippa The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

andrewfleming-57891 Hard Eight is a very good film. The films draws you in from the excellent opening scene right to the end, which returns to the location of the first scene. The characters are all very interesting, particularly Sydney. The actors are good, Samuel L Jackson manages to give his character a prescene in almost every scene of the film. The script is humerous and also very interesting. The 'cigarette matches' stands out. All in all, its a very good film and well worth a watch. 8/10

imdb-45 I didn't expect much from this film, hoping to find something on cable - and this surprised by standing out. Philip Baker Hall is the main character here and he's a great and often overlooked actor that shines as a former gambler gone right, trying to straighten out the seemingly go nowhere life of a young man. Hall takes him in, teaches him the right path, but unfortunately the young man isn't too bright and his limitations and insecurities get the best of him, leaving Hall to make some difficult choices as his unexplained protector.This takes you through the life of making small but decent money by smartly playing up the casinos. It always keeps you interested, even if Gwyneth Paltrow is the weaker link in this film. Samuel L. Jackson does his usual character and he's good with it.A fantastic sleeper film. I enjoyed it.

TheLittleSongbird 'Hard Eight' may not be one of Paul Thomas Anderson's best, his later films being more complex and more refined, but even when Anderson was not at his best he was much better than most directors in that position.For a feature film debut, 'Hard Eight' is still very promising. It does have moments of lethargic moments, the odd clunkiness and the ending is somewhat anti-climactic, but the potential seen throughout the film is enormous and from the start it is obvious that 'Hard Eight' knows its own strengths and makes the most out of them.It looks impeccable, even when not very experienced in directing at this particular point Anderson's distinctive style is evident here with the long takes and tracking shots that suggest a Martin Scorsese influence. It's a beautifully shot film, and even if not as refined as his later films Anderson shows great promise as a director, showing a knack for visual style and excellent direction of actors. The music is suitably atmospheric, sometimes quirky, sometimes ominous and sometimes elegant.Much of the script is very naturalistic and remarkably feels like the characters are talking like real people. It's tautly structured and thought-provoking too. 'Hard Eight' is a film quite light on plot, but rich in characterisation, not a bad thing considering that it is essentially a character study. The storytelling is still quite nicely done though, and while the characters are not the easiest to like there is a compelling realism about them and they're interesting.Phillip Baker-Hall is magnetic in the lead role, in a performance of towering sincerity, while John C. Reilly matches him very well with an appealing gawky charm, Gwyneth Paltrow is charming and moving and Samuel L. Jackson brings plenty of flesh and succeeds in making the character too much of a retread of previous characters. Philip Seymour Hoffmann makes a very entertaining if somewhat too brief appearance.Overall, very promising debut from Anderson though he went on to even better things with meatier material and an even more refined style. As is evident from the superb 'Boogie Nights'. 8/10 Bethany Cox

jimbo-53-186511 Veteran gambler Sydney (Philip Baker Hall) stumbles across John (John C Reilly) sat outside a diner. The two men strike up a conversation and Sydney quickly learns that John has tried his hand at gambling in order to pay for his mother's funeral. Sydney offers to help John out and gives him a crash-course in how to hustle the casino out of a fortune. Although Sydney seems to be helping John out, is there more to what he's doing than meets the eye? This is Paul Thomas Anderson's debut picture (both as writer and director) and under normal circumstances I would normally go easy on a debutant's picture. Unfortunately, I've seen a few of PTA's films such as Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood and Punch Drunk Love and therefore I can't really be that charitable and sadly all of these films suffer the same problems as Hard Eight (albeit to varying degrees). Anyway let's try and evaluate this film.Well I have to admit that it started well and seemed to tell the tale of a young man called John who needed a bit of a direction in life. John then stumbles across Sydney who teaches him how to hustle the casino and teaches him a bit of self-respect and how to value himself as a person. OK so far so good, but what happens beyond this point is almost beyond a travesty....The film then skips by two years and we now find ourselves in Reno, Nevada. Sydney is in a casino there and John is in there too with his new friend Jimmy (Samuel L Jackson). It's clear from this point that we're lead to assume that Jimmy has lead John astray, but is this actually true? From this point on the film goes from telling an interesting story about John (a misguided individual) getting some direction in life (from Syndey) to a stupid story about his shotgun wedding to casino waitress and prostitute on the side Clementine (Gwyneth Paltrow)and them keeping a guy hostage because he didn't pay Clementine for sex - I get what Anderson was getting at here, but it's so badly handled that it becomes laughable.The film takes a turn for the worst when Jimmy and Sydney meet and we learn that Sydney killed John's father. I suspect Anderson intended this to be a plot twist that got the 'Wow' factor from the audience, but it's one that's so ludicrous and jars against the narrative so much that it's almost too ridiculous to believe. Yes it at least explains why Sydney wanted to bond with John at the start, but I felt a bit cheated when this was revealed. The story struggles more under scrutiny when you realise that Jimmy and Sydney were both in Atlantic City when Jimmy saw Sydney murder John's father, but then the two just happen to both meet a few years later 2,500 miles away from the crime scene with the son of the dead dad just happening to be there as well. I'm all for trying to suspend disbelief, but this was just too much.The ending is even worse when we see Jimmy get killed by the very guy that killed John's father; yes Jimmy was wrong to blackmail Sydney, but it's clear that Sydney was the worst of the two. This aspect of the film is even worse when you consider that Anderson offers no real commentary on anything that's happened and ends the film in a lazy way whereby you don't know whether or not Syndey gets away with his crimes. Even if this aspect of the plot didn't bother you the fact that Anderson didn't even bother to make Jimmy's assassination surprising or suspenseful just showed a real lack of care.The only positive I can take from this film is that it is very well-made. Anderson's direction is stylish and the performances from the likes of Baker-Hall, Jackson & Reilly were all good (the first two gave rather stock performances, but Reilly really excelled in giving his character a gawky nervous charm). I like the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as an actor, but he was actually really annoying in the 5 minutes or so that he was in this film. Ultimately, the big problem with Hard Eight is that it's really badly-written and whilst I got the feeling that Anderson was attempting to make this an insightful character study he doesn't give this film or his characters anywhere near the required depth to make these aspects work as well as they should do.