Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie

Rating

Director

Ernest R. Dickerson

Screenplay

Michael Ritchie, Jason Keller

Length

1h 28m

Starring

David Krumholtz, Tory Kittles, Carmine Giovinazzo, Jennifer Morrison, Nick Turturro, Frank John Hughes, Zachary Levi, James LeGros, Theo Rossi

MPAA Rating

R

Review

PREFACE:
In the early 2000s, I was writing reviews for an outfit called Apollo Guide Reviews. That website has since been closed down.

Attempting to reconstruct those reviews has been an exercise in frustration. Having sent them to Apollo Guide via email on a server I no longer have access to (and which probably doesn’t have records going back that far), my only option was to dig through The Wayback Machine to see if I could find them there. Unfortunately, while I found a number of reviews, a handful of them have disappeared into the ether. At this point, almost two decades later, it is rather unlikely that I will find them again.

Luckily, I was able to locate my original review of this particular film. Please note that I was not doing my own editing at the time, Apollo Guide was. As such, there may be more than your standard number of grammatical and spelling errors in this review. In an attempt to preserve what my style had been like back then, I am not re-editing these reviews, which are presented as-is.

REVIEW:
A New Yorker takes a trip to Arizona where he begins a career in bookmaking, but his love life takes a turn for the worse when his career begins to take control of his life.

“Big Shot stars David Krumholtz as Benny Silman, a young, impressionable student whose ambitions are high and his passions higher. Benny desires to be popular and successful, and goes to Arizona State University to get girls. Approached to make a bet on a game that he thinks is a guarantee, he ends up losing money to a bookie. The only problem is that he doesn’t have the money. Benny decides to host a party with an entry fee to pay back the debt. When the bookie comes to collect, Benny still hasn’t raised enough cash, but because of his huge party attendance, the bookie offers to take him under his wing and teach him the ropes of bookmaking.

Succeeding at his role, Benny quits his store job and begins making book for a living. In doing so, he attracts the attention of a Chicago gambling shark who agrees to place some huge bets on games that Benny is confident he can win. Joe (Nicholas Turturro) seems to know there’s something more to it and gladly accepts the bets, which Benny loses. Joe shows Benny the error of his ways and points him to the fact that there are other “factors” of which Benny hasn’t taken advantage.

Benny then takes under his wing university basketball player Stevin “Hedake” Smith (Tory Kittles) who agrees to shave points from his game to keep the spread within range and make a killing. This attracts much attention, as two Las Vegas mafia men begin using Benny to make lots of money.

Big Shot, which has the subtitle “Confessions of a Campus Bookie,” is a dramatic story based on the real-life events of Benny Silman’s rise and subsequent imprisonment. It shows us the power of charisma and the downfall of getting too much too quickly. Krumholtz gives an admirable performance as the wayward college student. His overwhelming charisma helps keep the movie going. When he smiles, you can see his cunning, ruthless and compassionate soul.

The film’s other performances range from abjectly terrible (Kittles) to plainly average (Turturro) to good, but expected (Alex Rocco as Vegas mafioso Dominic). Silman’s love interest, played by Jennifer Morrison, is a selfless woman who simply wants her boyfriend to devote attention to her, but often feels he’s more in love with bookmaking than her. Morrison makes this evident, delivering another of the good, but expected performances. The love interest must be interesting and likeable in order to convey the emotion opposing the racketeering profession. Morrison makes that statement loud and clear and keeps Krumholtz on the ground.

Director Ernest R. Dickerson, whose cinematography career is far more lustrous than his directing career (Malcolm X as compared to Demon Knight), takes Big Shot from beginning to end without flourish, without embellishment and without concern for his audience. While the film’s direction is adequate, it is inferior to the performances in many respects. A screenplay by Jason Keller based on a story by Michael Ritchie, Big Shot brings a terrific opportunity to Krumholtz, who takes the role as written and deepens it.

Big Shot is a sports fan’s movie. With lots of beautiful women, sports action and a chance to live out an arm chair bettor’s fantasy, the film will appeal primarily to male audiences, but women will have a love story and an opportunity in the end to take a “see what happens when” attitude.

Review Written

May 6, 2003