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Grand, The
Anchor Bay Entertainment


6.3

based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 3 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for language and some drug content

Starring Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Ray Romano, Jason Alexander, Dennis Farina, Chris Parnell, and Richard Kind

The Grand is in the tradition of such improvisational comedies as Best in Show and This Is Spinal Tap. The story is set in the world of professional poker and follows six players who reach the final table of the world's second-most-famous high-stakes tournament, the Grand Championship of Poker. The Grand was improvised from a detailed treatment cowritten by Zak Penn and Matt Bierman, who also served as Executive Producer. (Anchor Blue Entertainment)

GENRE(S):	Comedy
WRITTEN BY:	Matt Bierman Zak Penn
DIRECTED BY:	Zak Penn
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: March 21, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

The Grand is a fast and furious comedic attack that begs to be seen again. There’s just so much going on, it’s nearly impossible to keep up.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Delivers plenty of sharply funny moments.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter

What makes The Grand a memorable comedy is that the main stories are really about families – how they screw you up and how they save you. And you don't have to understand poker to know the rules of that game.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Nearly every actor has his or her moments of hilarity, but it's the surprises, like Herzog's terrific turn as a bunny-loving sadist, that make the biggest impact.

Premiere Aaron Hillis

The interpersonal dynamics haven't been scripted out very thoughtfully, so as the final 20 minutes wind down, it becomes increasingly tough for Penn and his talented cast to mine humor from a story that mandates they actually play elimination rounds of poker.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

While not a grand-slam comedy, the offbeat humor and easy byplay gives The Grand a winning hand.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The Grand is a seesaw, but the setting--the high-stakes poker subculture--is remarkably fertile and the actors are a treat.

Village Voice Jim Ridley

It has a lot of affection for its screwy characters, and it has a cast worth watching even when the plot's held captive by a bunch of boring cards.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

What The Grand lacks in originality it more than makes up for with its high percentage of funny moments.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The year's big dramatic gambling hit, 21, is all plot, no personality; The Grand, a comedy that follows six contenders into the finals of a poker tournament, is all personality, no plot. I'll take personality.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The Grand is in the grand tradition of Christopher Guest "mockumentary" comedy satires: Its greatest asset is its eclectic, quirky-funny cast.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

The actors certainly look as if they’re having a good time, and if you’re in the right mood, you might too.

Variety Ronnie Scheib

Safer, more conventional and closer to broad TV sketch humor than Christopher Guest's comedies of manners, The Grand never quite recoups in laughs what it loses in spontaneity.

Washington Post John Anderson

Wildly uneven but often quite funny, The Grand allows its actors to act out, get the "E!" out of their systems and give the Christopher Guest treatment to professional gambling without Christopher Guest, with whom it would have been funnier and a lot more acerbic.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Typical of bad improv, the inmates take over the asylum, leaving a movie that's little more than a loose, wildly uneven assemblage of individual comedic shtick.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

There are small pleasures, but not many. It especially underwhelms when you consider how Penn seemed to have found a new paradigm for this now-hoary comic form.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

There's a lot of truly hilarious material in The Grand.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

A defective poker comedy where the poker is a lot more interesting than the people playing it.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Each of these improv farceurs wins a few laughs. But not enough.

Los Angeles Times Jan Stuart

Lacks any sort of urgency or inner propulsion; the actors do their little goofs, then hand them off to the next, lending the jest the frolicking but ultimately monotonous quality of a game of tag.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Well, nobody said The Grand was another "Best in Show."

Chicago Tribune Maureen M. Hart

It’s hard to believe that a lineup so stellar could generate so few laughs, but there it is.

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

The performers don't really seem at the top of their game here.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it a7:
Werner Herzog and Gabe Kaplan in the same movie? The next best thing would've been if they had shared the same screen space. The legendary director of "Fitzcarraldo" and "Aguirre, Wrath of God" is so funny, but what if the star of "Welcome Back, Kotter" got into a shouting match with him? Cult classic status would've been an automatic. Imagine this exchange. Herzog: "Ich bringe dich um!" Kaplan: "Up your nose with a rubber hose." It's a missed opportunity, but "The Grand" has enough eccentric characters and funny throwaway lines to excuse it's tendency to plod along without any sense of urgency. The bit that concerns a certain power trio from Canada doesn't quite match the hillarity of Steven Malkmus' shout-out in the Pavement song "Stereo"(from "Brighten the Corners"), but it's close.

Coolmonk S. gave it a7:
Jokes and characters hit and miss as seems par for so many mockumentaries - probably enjoyable for tv tourney poker fans and those who like the genre nonetheless. It was a challenge for me to accept that a real hand-held camera/crew would have made it behind the closed doors in several scenes. By contrast, my sense of continuity isn't usually shaken by the camera use in NBC's The Office.

Jay H. gave it a5:
Semi mockumentary, not really all that funny. I never found it immensely engrossing. Amusing at times but it doesn't stand out in any way.

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Grand, The Anchor Bay Entertainment

Grand, The
Anchor Bay Entertainment