Blu-Ray Review: Poker Night

By Brad Henderson

Who the hell approves artwork for DVDs and Blu-rays for XLrator Media? I will slap the shit out of them for slapping together this bullshit for Poker Night.

What the hell is going on with this shit on the cover? It doesn’t even come close to portraying this film correctly at all and it pisses me off. Poker Night is excellent and people won’t watch it because of this goofy-ass artwork. Hell, I almost skipped it but I’ve learned over these past few years to ignore what I see.

Poker Night hits hard, really hard. Our story revolves around a rookie cop who is invited to a poker night with some fellow cops/detectives during which they rag on each other and talk shit. The rookie has to keep his mouth shut and listen to these wise geezers’ stories about their lives and busts they have made. Running parallel to that is the story of what is going on with the rookie in the present while he revisits poker night in his head, all the while hunting for a criminal who is raping and murdering children. I said it hits really hard.

At first it seems that Poker Night is going to be your ordinary run-of-the-mill cat and mouse game, but it takes a very dark turn. I’m actually going to post what the killer says and the rules he has just to show you how sinister this movie gets:

The Killer’s Rules:
1. To have sex with little girls.
2. To kill anyone who gets in the way of the first rule.

Yeah, whenever that popped up I didn’t know what to expect. At first this movie plays like a mid-‘90s made-for-TV cop drama but then goes a route that I was not expecting. I will say the film is very classy about the rules and doesn’t go overboard or show what the killer does. I’m glad they didn’t do this because it would change the film completely. Just knowing someone is a pedophile is enough for the story to continue; we don’t have to have visual evidence of what he does. So if you think about skipping it because of that, I can promise you it doesn’t get that malevolent.

What really makes Poker Night stand out is the complex story that is unfolding and the motivations of the rookie. Because of the stories from the aging cops that he has to sit through, he gains the knowledge and succeeds at his task. The parallel stories that are happening don’t get too complicated and the film is pretty easy to follow. It would be easy to get lost from the original story but the timing and complexity are perfect.

I’m not sure many writers or directors could pull this kind of film off but it looks like the director (Greg Francis) is not new to these kinds of criminal stories. Looking at his filmography he has directed a lot of TV dealing with true crime stories as well as fictional.

Poker Night was a huge surprise for me and can’t wait for this to be discovered by other people. I think we may have a borderline cult classic on our hands if it finds the right audience. It’s just that everything about the cover and even the copy on the home video release makes it seem like The Collector took a trip to Las Vegas and set up booby traps in a casino or something and that’s not even close to what it ultimately is.

Poker Night was released on February 10 by XLrator Media.