Sydney

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Year:	1996
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Paul Thomas Anderson
Genre:	Slow paced thriller
Starring:	Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson
Rating:	3/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119256/
Tagline:	When good luck is a long shot, you have to hedge your bets.
Favourite line:	"I will fuck you up if you fuck with me, ok? I know three kinds of Karate: Jujitsu, Aikido, and regular Karate."

Paul Thomas Anderson favourite Philip Baker Hall stars as Sydney, a man with a dark secret buried in his past, that he is trying his best to make amends for. (Not going to tell you what the secret is though, as that would spoil the ending!) He befriends John C. Reilly's character, also called John, down on his luck having gambled away the money he was hoping to use for his Gran's casket - he didn't have the requisite $6,000, so attemtped to win it on the tables, with little success.
Sydney invites John to Las Vegas, telling him that he will show him a way to make his money, and makes good on his word, demonstrating a scam involving something called a 'rate card' (no idea either), and the clever use of multiple chip booths.
Skip forward two years, and John's life is good, until he hooks up with Paltrow's hooker Clementine, and matters take a decided turn for the worse....

Anderson's debut feature is a surprisingly plodding affair, never really kicking into gear, and way too much screen time is given to chewing over topics relentlessly, boring the viewer into submission.
Not rubbish - the combination of Anderson and Hall pretty much ensure that - but not the best thriller on the block.
Additionally, the original title 'Sydney' is weak to say the least. The movie has now been rebranded as 'Hard Eight', much snappier, though of course a name does not a movie make. Just watch A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell for confirmation if you don't believe me. I'll say no more on the subject.