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Thanks for the memories!

good back-story, and good acting

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Shade is set in the world of poker hustlers working the clubs and martini bars of Los Angeles. The tale unfolds as a group of hustlers encounter "The Dean" and pull off a successful sting that results in their pursuit by a vengeful gangster. This is probably one of the best movies about Poker with a very simple plot and some pretty talented actors like Sylvester Stallone, Jamie Foxx, Thandie Newton and Hal Holbrook as far as acting, script and story go they were pretty good the only part of the movie that was stupid was that scene with Rodney Rowland's character named Jeff but it's still a pretty cool and fun film and the ending was pretty awesome and it made sense how Vernon played his friends also Sly is great as ever and that's why i'll give it a 10/10.

Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in his filmography in order, I come to a supporting role, in his best movie in years, 2003's Shade. Plot In A Paragraph: Vernon (Stuart Townsend) Miller (Gabriel Byrne) and Tiffany (Thandie Newton) are small time con artists, who cross paths with Jennings (Jamie Foxx) and attempt to con "The Dean" (Sly Stallone) in a high stakes poker game. In his best movie in six years (since Copland in 1997) Stallone plays it closer to his real age (albeit going from one extreme to the other with the hair dye) giving one of the most effective performances of his career. With his eyes gazing steadily from his strong face reminding us what a splendid actor he is when he is allowed to escape from his stereotyped roles. For his brief time on screen (he doesn't appear till 40 mins in) Stallone brings style to the proceedings. There are some good individual performances, but the main cast lack any real chemistry with each other Stuart Townsend looked destined for big things (but it never quite happened) Gabriel Byrne does what Gabriel Byrne does, whilst Jamie Foxx is effective too, and poor Thandie Newton looks great, but she isn't a good actress, and is often embarrassing against the stronger actors. In his one scene, Hal Holbrook (who I always like to see) goes through the motions of performing in a part that's has no lines worth speaking and Tony Burton (Duke in the Rocky movies) has two small scenes, unfortunately none of them are with Stallone.

I won't lie, I thought it was a pretty good movie. But I have seen two distinct versions of it! I purchased and watched the DVD version of this movie, and then acquired (for backup purposes), watched, and deleted an .avi version of this movie, only to find that it was quite different. Most of the music was different, the story had a few significant changes as well, and the "chapter" headlines that appear in the DVD version were not on the other version. I would say that the non-DVD version or this film was superior. Does anyone know of a second cut that legitimately exists, and if not, what happened to it? I would like to get my hands on the non-DVD version, and the movie would have gotten an 8 from me if that was the only version out there.

Shade draws its audience into a world of sharp suits, jazzy tunes and card tricks, which, despite its obvious cool, doesn't really make the grade.That isn't to say that Shade isn't entertaining. It looks good, it sounds good, and the performances are effective enough (Foxx is particularly...noticeable), but the film just isn't as well done as other con movies such as The Grifters (1990), and is way below the sophistication of bigger heist movies such as Ocean's Eleven (2001).My biggest problem with Shade was the the final plot twist. It seemed a bit unnecessary. The biggest problem in terms of plot is that it's based on an a grudge from an event that happened before the film starts, that we only learn about through infrequent references. Sure, there's tension between Charlier (Grabriel Byrne) and Vernon (Stuart Townsend), but it's not enough, and it's something that could have been made clearer with a flashback or even a short conversation. After all, they did it enough for Stevens (Stallone), and he's a supporting character at the most.That being said, Shade is still a decent enough con movie to be worth watching, and while it has a few problems, that doesn't stop it being enjoyable.And it *did* make me want to play poker.