With A Little Help From My Friends: POOLHALL JUNKIES

For those of you new to reading this space, this is a feature that I try to write sporadically. I’ve asked people I know to recommend some of their lesser-known favorite movies for me to watch.

Once I watch them, I try to combine my thoughts on the movie, with some observations about the recommendation in general. So every once in a while, I’ll put up posts like this, which I’m call “With a Little Help From My Friends”.

Today, I’m looking at POOLHALL JUNKIES, at the suggestion of my oldest friend Sean. My thoughts after the jump

The Details:POOLHALL JUNKIES – USA, 2002. Starring Mars Callahan, Michael Rosenbaum, Ricky Schroder, Chazz Palminteri, Allison Eastwood, and Christopher Walken.

The Source: Sean, aka “Finn”. Close friend since we were nine year old Cub Scouts. A guy with rather good taste in movies, despite the occasional moments to shock me with news of must-see movies he’s never watched.

The Reason: Crackling dialogue, Christopher Walken “Walkenizing” his way through yet another movie, and some amazingly shot pool sequences. Finn is yet another photographer (I swear I’ll write on of these about someone who isn’t sometime soon), so obviously that caught my attention.

The Reaction: The movie is the story of Johnny, a pool hustler who alternates his existence between trying to defy his estranged father(Palminteri), and trying to protect his younger brother (Rosenbaum). I just discovered that the movie suffered box office death, and while it isn’t exactly a bad movie, it’s easy to see why it tanked. It’s rather generic for much of its run, and feels like a watered down version of about a dozen other movies I’ve seen.

While providing a laugh or two along the way, the movie unfortunately plays it very safe until finally getting its act together in the climax. The last fifteen minutes are where some fantastically shot and beautifully edited pool sequences take over. It’s also this stretch where palminteri and Walken begin to play off each other, And without giving too much away, the final showdown includes a pretty neat twist.

Adding It Up: In case you’re keeping score at home, this is two of these in a row my friends have loved more than me. Were I flipping channels on a lazy Sunday and came across POOLHALL JUNKIES, I’d have been pleasantly surprised. But for something I deliberately sought out and put on, I left slightly disappointed. The pool sequences are indeed fun, but they disappear for some good long stretches, and what fills in isn’t nearly as entertaining. Add in some writing that tries to be Guy Ritchie-esque, and you have the recipe for a letdown.

Sorry Finn, it didn’t do it for me. We’re still friends though!