The Grand (film)

infobox film
name = The Grand


caption = Promotional poster
director = Zak Penn
producer = Jeff Bowler
writer = Zak Penn Matt Bierman
starring = Woody Harrelson
Cheryl Hines
David Cross
Chris Parnell
Richard Kind
Dennis Farina
Werner Herzog
Ray Romano
music = Stephen Endelman
cinematography = Anthony Hardwick
editing = Abby Schwarzwalder
budget = $3 million [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117966617.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&nid=2564 'Grand' lands in Anchor Bay - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety ] ]
released = March 21, 2008
distributor = Anchor Bay Entertainment
country = United States
language = English
imdb_id = 0427998

"The Grand" is an improv comedy film written and directed by Zak Penn. The film has an ensemble cast including Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson, Chris Parnell, Werner Herzog, Jason Alexander, Michael Karnow and Cheryl Hines.

The film's style is similar to the films of Christopher Guest (Penn himself states this [http://www.comingsoon.net/blog/2007/04/interview_zak_penns_at_the_gra.php Interview: Zak Penn's The Grand (ComingSoon.net Blog) - ComingSoon.net ] ] ), where each actor is given direction concerning their character, and the actors are left to improvise each individual scene. The plot of "The Grand" was somewhat more open-ended than Guest's work, however. The focus of the film is a poker tournament played at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas between the characters in which real poker matches were played by the actors as the scenes were filmed. The film's script did not specify the winner of the tournament, and the ending of the film was determined by the actual game played on set.

The film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, and was distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment.

The film opened in limited release in the United States on March 21, 2008, opened in wider release on April 4, 2008, and is now on DVD.. [cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427998/releaseinfo |title=The Grand (2007) - Release dates |accessdate=2008-03-21 |publisher=Internet Movie Database]

Plot

Jack Faro (Harrelson) is a drug using, serial marry-er, lovable guy who is just out of rehab and enters The Grand: a huge Texas Hold Em poker tournament in Las Vegas that he started years ago. Jack is in the tournament to get money to keep his deceased grandfather's (Corbin) casino called The Rabbit's Foot. Also playing in The Grand are twins Larry (Cross) and Lainie (Hines) Schwartzman who have been put into competition together their whole lives because of their father (Kaplan), Harold Melvin a genius with social issues who loves the movie/book Dune and lives with his mother (Harris), Andy Andrews (Kind) a nice guy who is amazing at online poker and comes off as an amateur, Deuce Fiarbanks (Farina) a older poker player who has been in Vegas since its early days, and The German (Herzog) a ruthless, cheating, man who likes to kill small animals. Who will win The Grand?

Cast

*Woody Harrelson - "One Eyed" Jack Faro (The Sentimental Favorite)
*Cheryl Hines - Lainie Schwartzman (The Woman)
*David Cross - Larry Schwartzman (The Bad Boy)
*Richard Kind - Andy Andrews (The Unknown)
*Chris Parnell - Harold Melvin (The Lonely Genius)
*Dennis Farina - Deuce Fairbanks (The Old Timer)
*Werner Herzog - The German
*Ray Romano - Fred Marsh
*Barry Corbin - Jiminy "Lucky" Faro
*Michael McKean - Steve Lavish
*Gabe Kaplan - Seth Schwartzman
*Andrea Savage Renee Jensen
*Estelle Harris - Ruth Melvin
*Michael Karnow - Mike Werbe
*Judy Greer - Sharon Andrews
*Jason Alexander - Yakov Achmed
*Brett Ratner - "Sob Story" Barry Blausteen
*Hank Azaria - Mike "The Bike" Neslo
*David Pressman - Melville "Murph Murph" Murphy
*Tom Hodges - Tim "Tiny Wonder" Woolrich
*Shannon Elizabeth - Toni

Pro Poker Player Cameos

*Phil Gordon
*Doyle Brunson
*Daniel Negranu
*Phil Laak
*Phil Hellmuth Jr.
*Antonio Esfandiari

Critical reception

The film received mixed to favorable reviews from critics. As of March 21, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 42% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 36 reviews. [cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009244-the_grand/ |title=The Grand Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes |accessdate=2008-03-21 |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 61 out of 100, based on 13 reviews. [cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/grand |title=Grand, The (2008): Reviews |accessdate=2008-03-21 |publisher=Metacritic]

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0427998|title=The Grand
*rotten-tomatoes|id=10009244-the_grand|title=The Grand
*metacritic film|id=grand|title=The Grand
*amg movie|id=1:392223|title=The Grand