35
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 50ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliThere's no compelling reason to see Deal. Everything it offers is familiar to the extent where even though it's not a remake, it feels like one.
- 50L.A. WeeklyL.A. WeeklyWhen you're working with clearly conventional material, it helps to attack it from a cockeyed angle or at least adopt a gritty, lived-in urgency, but Deal is fatally earnest.
- 50Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesChicago ReaderJ.R. JonesThe main pleasure of this high-stakes-poker drama is watching a septuagenarian Burt Reynolds effortlessly revive his 70s screen persona as a strutting paragon of male shrewdness and sexuality.
- 50Boston GlobeWesley MorrisBoston GlobeWesley MorrisDeal doesn't really care about the characters as much as it does the World Poker Championships, where Tommy and Alex end up. Once we get there the movie becomes interesting because Cates understands the game and its dramas a lot better than he understands people and theirs.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenThe Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenThe dull production obviously sees itself as an updated "Cincinnati Kid" for the World Poker Tour set, but the end result and its characters have all the originality and dramatic depth of a TV telecast.
- 40VarietyVarietyPublic fascination with Texas Hold 'em and other poker variations will likely bolster B.O., though more discriminating auds may choose to pass.
- 38Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsChicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMoving slowly these days, Reynolds does less than no acting in this role, and he’s still the best thing in Deal.
- The direction by Gil Cates Jr. is inept at best, and the script by Cates and Marc Weinstock seems to operate under the assumption that trafficking in flabby clichés -- the kindly call girl, the scrappy youngster, the angry dad -- will somehow smooth over the underdeveloped characters.
- 25The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasTo think that a semi-major studio financed a production this low-rent and listless is amazing: Since when did MGM start making student films?