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IMDbPro

Four Dogs Playing Poker

  • 2000
  • R
  • 1h 37m
IMDb RATING
5.5/10
1.5K
YOUR RATING
Four Dogs Playing Poker (2000)
Home Video Trailer from MDP Worldwide
Play trailer0:42
1 Video
10 Photos
CrimeDramaMysteryThriller

Four friends steal a valuable statuette for a dangerous black market art dealer, lose it, and are forced to play a deadly bluffing game to save their lives.Four friends steal a valuable statuette for a dangerous black market art dealer, lose it, and are forced to play a deadly bluffing game to save their lives.Four friends steal a valuable statuette for a dangerous black market art dealer, lose it, and are forced to play a deadly bluffing game to save their lives.

  • Director
    • Paul Rachman
  • Writers
    • Shawn David Thompson
    • William Quist
  • Stars
    • Olivia Williams
    • Balthazar Getty
    • Arly Jover
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.5/10
    1.5K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Paul Rachman
    • Writers
      • Shawn David Thompson
      • William Quist
    • Stars
      • Olivia Williams
      • Balthazar Getty
      • Arly Jover
    • 29User reviews
    • 6Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win total

    Videos1

    Four Dogs Playing Poker
    Trailer 0:42
    Four Dogs Playing Poker

    Photos9

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    Top cast26

    Edit
    Olivia Williams
    Olivia Williams
    • Audrey
    Balthazar Getty
    Balthazar Getty
    • Julian
    Arly Jover
    Arly Jover
    • Maria
    Jason Cairns
    • Oscar
    Ruben Moreno
    • Priest
    Daniel London
    Daniel London
    • Kevin
    Stacy Edwards
    Stacy Edwards
    • Holly
    Steve Jones
    Steve Jones
    • Tom
    • (as Stephen Phillip Jones)
    George Lazenby
    George Lazenby
    • Carlo
    John Taylor
    John Taylor
    • Dick
    • (as John Nigel Taylor)
    Tim Curry
    Tim Curry
    • Felix
    Octavia Spencer
    Octavia Spencer
    • Waitress
    • (as Octavia L. Spencer)
    Ray Berrios
    • House Security Guard
    Peter Vasquez
    Peter Vasquez
    • Data Security Guard
    • (as Peter Mark Vasquez)
    Ramiro Fabian
    • Supervisor
    Jorge Luis Abreu
    • Porter
    Forest Whitaker
    Forest Whitaker
    • Mr. Ellington
    Inday Ba
    Inday Ba
    • Punk Chick
    • Director
      • Paul Rachman
    • Writers
      • Shawn David Thompson
      • William Quist
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews29

    5.51.4K
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    Featured reviews

    5Blockmary

    Good premise, poorly done

    **SPIOLERS WITHIN**

    Four Dogs Playing Poker had a very good premise. Unfortunately, the plot gaps kill the movie. The following are issues I had with the movie:

    1. In a game of life or death, they let one person go into the bank to place the life insurance policies in the safe deposit boxes. Ultimately, this leads to the demise of the other characters. Are you kidding me?? Gee, you think she might cheat the other people and save her own life?? Surely not. Lets trust her to go in alone.

    2. There is no way they could have collected on life insurance policies that quickly, especially in a situation as suspicious as it would have been.

    3. Incriminating messages are left on various answering machines. These people are apparently not too bright.

    I will stop at this point, although I could go on forever. The acting was mediocre AT BEST. A couple of scenes were really corny, including the leaping between buildings and the woman falling off the ladder. If you are looking for a movie that is realistic, this is absolutely not it.

    5 out of 10.
    PabloGT

    A very poor intent to make a good movie

    There is one thing I dislike the most about certain movies, and this is when they pretend to be smart, well-made, and to be something, while they indeed lack details, arguments, script, and the acting capacity of its stars is not even considered. This is all about "Four Dogs Playing Poker". At a certain moment you feel that you left your brain somewhere else, because you can't believe what you are seeing. One can be mislead, though. You see big names, i.e., Tim Curry, Forrest Whitaker, playing small roles, and you immediately presume that you are in front of a piece-of-art that has convinced those big names to work almost for free just to help a young and gifted director. I don't want to judge their intentions, but I can tell that the only good thing about "Four Dogs Playing Poker" is that keep you all the time filling up all the details that are missing. I don't want to tell you what details are missing, I prefer that you rent the movie, see it when you have nothing to do, and challenge your brain to find out all those things that make no sense at all. If the movie wanted to play a little bit serious, it should have joked about the stupid idea of its main characters, and show how unproductive it was at the end. That would have at least save the day. In a scale of 1 to 10, let not be so hard on them, let's give a 3+.
    SCHAGELA

    Not like Shallow Grave or Usual Suspects at all!

    I gave this one a shot, lured by the text on the cover that this flick would be like mix of the two very good above mentioned films. Not at all in my opinion. I think the plot is very cheaply worked out. The '4 dogs' could have found their way out of the situation more easily than making up this stupid idea about life insurances. I found the acting very poorly too, except maybe for Tim Curry.

    All in all not worth the time or money.
    6ruud-35

    Surprsingly amusing

    I bought this DVD for 2 euro 90 at a gas station. So my expectations where not that high. When i buy a movie like this with some famous actors, I don't expect it to be good, but you never know. Am i watching a mistake of a famous actor. I really love Forest Whittaker, and after watching the movie nothing is changed about that. He probably red the script and saw the possibilities. Anyway Looking from this angle, i always expect to stop halfway the DVD and continue doing something else. Because the price was so cheap, that there would be no other option than a bad movie This movie is indeed not fantastic, the acting is poor and over the top, but it is a movie which keeps you watching. In fact i felt some fear watching the end. So my 2 euro 90 where well spent. But i do agree that the end result could have been much better. Intriguing movie, not very well done, but amusing and worth watching! I still try to understand if i understood the whole movie. But who cares for 2 euro 90
    HellBoy13

    Good idea. NOT the worst movie in the world. Worth a watch.

    What's the concept behind the painting "Four Dogs Playing Poker"? Poker is a game of luck, but winning involves bluffing, lying, and aggressiveness. Dogs think they can handle these human traits, but they're just dogs. Predictable. Emotional. Easy tells.

    This movie is about four childhood friends who are all in danger of dying.

    To save themselves, they concoct a scheme to sacrifice one of them for the sake of the others. But they want to keep things anonymous to alleviate guilt, and that's where they stop trusting each other. Like four dogs playing poker, trying to figure out the other dogs' motives, not knowing who to trust...

    The details sometimes fall by the wayside in order to set up this very interesting idea, but I found the story itself to be gripping. I had to watch the whole thing to see what happened.

    Can you trust YOUR childhood friends if all your lives were on the line?

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    Related interests

    James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Sharon Angela, Max Casella, Dan Grimaldi, Joe Perrino, Donna Pescow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Tony Sirico, and Michael Drayer in The Sopranos (1999)
    Crime
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown (1974)
    Mystery
    Cho Yeo-jeong in Parasite (2019)
    Thriller

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Goofs
      Kevin and Holly are listed in the credits twice.
    • Crazy credits
      Daniel London in the role of Kevin is listed twice in the closing credits.
    • Soundtracks
      Concerto in G Major For Two Mandolins & Strings
      Written by Antonio Vivaldi

      Performed by Eliot Fisk, Guitar

      Orchestra of St. Luke

      Albert Fuller, Harpsichord

      Courtesy of MusicMasters, Inc.

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 6, 2000 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • 4 Dogs Playing Poker
    • Filming locations
      • Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina
    • Production companies
      • Half Moon Entertainment
      • New Moon Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 37m(97 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby SR
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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