Review of Bookies

I really tried to like this film; I wanted it to be a success. But some weak characters kept the film from rising above a kid fantasy movie. It had little relation to real-life college gambling or real-life bookies (both of which I unfortunately became far too familiar with while living in Union CIty in the early 1970s. Galecki was a bit over the top, and one rooted for him to get shot. Stahl, on the other, was a sympathetic character, who was the voice of reason, while Luke Haas was pretty much just a third wheel in the film. The character of Hunter was also underdeveloped and suffered from poor dialog as the romantic interest. David Proval was pretty good as the older bookie, but his partner and strong-arm, Vincent, played by the competent John Diehl, was highly unrealistic as a bookie's arm. Most bookies I knew were loners, who operated on their own without strong-arms. So that device did not work well.

The story line was interesting, but once again, depending on the school (I went to Columbia U, which had no shortage of rich and powerful students with money), the volume of sports betting was just not that heavy. Most bets were between $10-$50, and the idea of a player throwing a game has been done a few times before; most notably in The Gambler, with James Caan. Occasionally, a good business student would go off the deep end and start betting $100s of dollars, but not thousands, and certainly not the amounts mentioned in this film. I would say the film was a good try, but no cigar. Because of the realism factor.