Hard Eight Rating: Release Date: 05 August, 2003 Retail Price: $19.94 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Philip Baker Hall John C. Reilly Samuel L. Jackson Michael C. Hall Complete Cast (19 total)

Hard Eight Reviews

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Promising Debut
Small town America... only this isn't the pleasant and white-picketed small town America of film noir fame, it's the gray and colorless small town America of neo-noir, and there's the man on the sidewalk looking like a lost bum to prove it. A bum who's being approached by that famous "Man in a Black Trenchcoat"...

Hard Eight (AKA Sydney, but I've yet to see a version of it anywhere that actually claims that title) is a debut pretty much as promising as Blood Simple to the brothers Coen. Paul Thomas Anderson immediately sets out to give us only the best, with actors he wants to make famous and a script that has characters doing almost nothing we want (or expect) them to do, but who yet remain completely sympathetic throughout.

Anderson also uses neo-noir color to great effect, allowing red and blue to do what harsh black and white contrast is supposed to do in classical noir. That said, Anderson still knows where the majority of the talent lies, and despite the long takes and steady-cam shots that would develop into those dizzying long takes from later movies, he focuses most of his time on the characters' faces, and just lets them be.

If he hadn't already done the amazing and always stunning later work of Magnolia, Boogie Nights, and Punch Drunk Love, I'd say that this is a "promising debut that makes me impatient for the next Anderson picture to come out," but since he does now have four classics notched into his belt, I must say, "See this to see Anderson at his roots," and "Man I can't wait for his next feature!"

--PolarisDiB

Little seen drama with wonderful pace , acting and plot
If you like a good drama , then you will enjoy this .
I'm extremely glad to see an actor the caliber of Philip Baker Hall starring in a film .
The film's plot reveals the characters to us in its own time .

The other actors rise to Philip's level , as if sensing that they can't let their game slip .

I've always liked that seedy side of gambling and its related employees and hangers-on and the film explores that world .

Watching this film with Martin Scorcese's CASINO would be a nice double feature .

HARD EIGHT is a wonderful film and I encourage you to see it , expecially this version as it has the director commentary , which will add to the whole experience .

More Customer Reviews (20 total)

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