Jim (James Lawless) is an especially nice middle-aged grocery store
owner in some small town in the Midwest - in other words, someone the
Devil (Paul Davies) hates for all his honesty and righteousness. So he
sees to it that Jim wins a trip to Las Vegas, and once there, wins every
bet in the casino. Modest man that he is, Jim only bets small amounts, but
after two days of gambling, he figures that he could make enough money in
Vegas to afford some badly needed renovations on his grocery store ... so he
continues gambling (and winning) longer than he intended to ... and after
a while, even casino owner Joe grows wise to him, and he uses all his
ressources to figure out Jim's system - but since his winning
streak is entirely due to the devil's interference, he has none. So Joe
sends a hooker up to his room, and even though Jim refuses her in bed, Joe
gets enough footage from the security cam to make up a incriminating video
to send to Jim's wife shouldn't he leave town. Jim's still a few
thousand Dollars short of what he needs for the renervations, so he decides to go to
Atlantic City to continue gambling, but because Joe still tries to figure out Jim's system, he
sends his computer expert Sylvia, whom Jim has grown fond of, with him to keep an eye on him. In the
meantime, one of Joe's employees, Paul, has figured a way to quietly move
a handsome sum of money from the slotmachines over to his account, but
before leaving, Sylvia has figured out his scheme - and now he has
travelled after her to Atlantic City to take her out. Joe has found out
about Paul in the meantime though and warns Sylvia ... but until Joe and
his men arrive (they do soon enough) to take out Paul, she and Jim find
themselves on the run. With Sylvia saved, Joe finally wants to take care
of Jim for good - in a poker game. And it's just then and there that the
devil ends Jim's winning streak, and Jim loses all he has won to Joe. And he
returns to his Midwestern small town being just the man he has before. Rather
uneventful little film about gambling that at times wants to come across
as a thriller, a gangster flick or of course a fantasy movie, but it
simply lacks both budget and directorial imagination to succeed in either
genre - thus all the film's characters do little more than talk for most
of the movie, and the one chase scene in it (Paul going after Sylvia and Jim)
looks like little more than a friendly game of tag. Add to this below
average performances from all involved and some pretty embarrassing comedy
and you are left with little more than a really boring film.
|