Big Shot - Confessions of a Campus Bookie (2002)

Really good flick

This movie, based on a true story is interesting and Ernest Dickerson's direction is superb - I like the 'shaky' camera effects. David Krumholtz is awesome as Benny Silman! He starts out as a naive freshman, moving across the country to go to college, but the freedoms get the best of him. He starts gambling, then works for a bookie, then goes out on his own. He ends up hooking up with a b-baller to assure the house wins everytime, but the wrong people find out about his scheme and it gets complicated.

The subplot with Callie is cute, especially when she mocks him. This movie is great, even after repeated viewings. February 15, 2004

edited subsequent to price drop; still 4 stars

originally i said this was a very good movie to buy if you could stomach the then-high price, which i could. i went to ASU around the time the hedake smith story was reaching full media realization. this is an interesting take on the whole mess.

the DVD's best extra, of the real benny silman explaining what happened, is a raw take on the situation from a guy who genuinely seems to understand he did wrong. (note that, as best i could tell, no footage was added or subtracted from the TV version of the actual movie, in case you hoped to see callie nude or witness benny brutally unloading a machine gun on big red and his posse.)

flaws: the video transfer, though generally glossy and praiseworthy, is a little messy in a couple spots (most noticeably when benny is selling suits). and the spanish subtitles consistently refer to ASU as the university of arizona - an obvious sore spot for any ASU alum!

anyway, i watched it twice the first day i bought it, and this was a movie i'd already seen once on TV.

highly recommended. thanks for releasing this, FX. December 30, 2002

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