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Fantastic!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

David Staebler (Jack Nicholson) is a Philly talk radio DJ taking care of his grandfather. He goes to Atlantic City to find his black-sheep brother Jason (Bruce Dern) in jail. Monopoly originated from Atlantic City and Marvin Gardens is the property right before Go To Jail. Jason tells David to find Lewis to set off a mercurial scheme to get a gambling license with Japanese investors. Jason has an even bigger plan to live big in Hawaii. Sally (Ellen Burstyn) is Jason's girlfriend and Jessica (Julia Anne Robinson) wants to be a pageant queen.I would like this movie so much more if I understood the proper plan and what Jason is trying to do with his scheme. Jason is so weaselly that he never really explains what's going on. On the other hand, that's what so real about Jason. He's no mastermind and it could be perfectly realistic that he has no plans. The question becomes what David is thinking about. Bruce Dern is absolutely brilliant as the unstable brother. This is a well-acted movie but I don't really understand what's going on.

A 1972 film by Bob Rafelson, "The King of Marvin Gardens" stars Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern as a pair of brothers. Dern plays a fast-talking idealist, Nicholson plays a morose realist. The two gather in Atlantic City, where Dern attempts to convince his brother that an audacious business venture will prove profitable. Nicholson doesn't believe him.The political and social events of the 1960s and 70s eventually became catalysts for disillusionment. Within the space of a few years, a generation of Americans shifted from optimism, hope and idealism to disenchantment and distrust. "The King of Marvin Gardens", its title an ironic reference to one of the more exclusive properties on the Monopoly board game, captures this Zeitgeist well. Virtually every scene features our duo battling a landscape which refuses to actualise any and all dreams, before the film ends with a bloody climax in which our dreamers get shot down. This makes for grim viewing, but Nicholson's quietly engrossing, and Rafelson constructs a number of strong, surreal scenes.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing. See "Go Go Tales".

How can this movie have a 6.5 star rating? It's bloody awful! If it weren't for the talent of the cast it'd be completely unwatchable. I'm dumber for having watched it. Here it is in short: People acting as if they're stoned, dialog, dialog, dialog, something dumb happens, dialog, dialog, dialog, someone gets shot, movie over. I don't think it's the director's fault. I don't think anyone could have made this disaster screen worthy. The only reason I watched it in the first place was for research of Atlantic City's boardwalk. I can't write enough about this movie to make the review stick. Who decides a review has to be at least ten lines of text anyway? This is almost as dumb as this movie.

It was the 3rd movie that i've watched from Rafelson in his golden 70's era (after Five Easy pieces n Stay Hungry).I found it brilliant. it could be named as "Five Easy Pieces,part ii". all of director's elements are present here:the story of frustrated Americans in 70's, their alienation from their families(i just reminded that poetic sequence in the final of " 5ive Easy Pieces",where jack talks to his handicap father n the symmetric sequence in "Marvin Gardens" is at the beginning when Jack narrates a fiction story about his grandfather).the movie truly criticizes the "American dream" and Rafelson is definitely 1 of the first directors who dared to create the story of this disillusioned generation with poetic n compelling structure.i am afraid that i'll remember "Marvin Gardens" by one sequence n 1 quote: the scene where two brothers arrange a show to elect(!) Miss America. that's a fantastic satire about "opportunism-like" evaluation of American dream.and the quote in near final where Jason (Dern) says: "if everything don't work out for you like magic,then it's all a mirage"...