Win It All Movie – More Than Just A Gambling Story
The Win It All movie follows the life of Eddie, a small-time gambler, as he agrees to stash a bag for an acquaintance who is just heading to do some time in prison. When Eddie discovers that the bag is full of cash, he sets off on a crazy poker adventure with a twist. In this Win It All movie review, we will go over all the important details shown on the camera. We will learn about the cast, characters, the plot and much more!
Win It All Review – About the Plot
The Win It All movie protagonist, Eddie Garrett, is a gambling addict in his thirties. He works as a parking attendant outside Wrigley Field, only to support his favourite night-time activity, gambling. When his shift is done, he changes his clothes and makes his way to the well-known poker table. Thus, the lead character presents himself as living in an unbreakable cycle of making petty cash on the car park, to only lose it the same night on chips.
One morning, Eddie finds an associate by the name of Michael, in his own kitchen. The local thug presents our friendly gambler with an offer that he can just not resist. Michael must do some time in jail and therefore, he asks Eddie to store a mysterious bag for him. Once Michael comes out of prison, he’ll pick up his belongings and reward the keeper with ten thousand dollars. Of course, Eddie takes the opportunity to make some easy cash and accepts the offer.
Even though Eddie must simply not touch the bag until Michael returns, and be rewarded for that, things get out of hand quickly. A few days later, Eddie opens the bag and finds out that there is a lot of money inside. Despite being advised by his addiction recovery sponsor Gene not to touch the money, Eddie takes five hundred from the bag and goes off to gamble it. Luckily, he finishes his risky endeavour and comes out with a profit. To celebrate his profit, Eddie goes with his friends to a favourite bar of theirs, where he meets Eva.
Feeling happy about his life, Eddie continues to gamble in the hope that a few good games is all he needs to fix his life. Unfortunately, that action takes him on a downward spiral resulting in him owning the bag over twenty-one thousand dollars. Desperate that he owns a lot of money to Michael who is just about to come out of prison, Eddie calls Gene for help. Being an ex-gambler himself, Gene manages to get Eddie into an illegal high-stakes game.
Without seeing any other way out, Eddie and a friend of his drive to the secret game location with the bag of money. Moments after they enter, Eddie is quickly seated on the only poker table in the bar, and he buys in for fifteen thousand dollars. Initially, he loses thirty thousand dollars and takes a break, thinking that the game is too crazy and wild to beat. However, after Eddie calms down, he enters with the rest of the money that he has in the bag.
A few games later, due to his cunning gaming strategies, Eddie manages to win enough to cover the entirety of the bag. Despite his friend asking him to leave, he is determined to make even more money. Amidst the argument, he collapses, so he is cashed out and taken directly to the hospital. The protagonist wakes up on the next day still in the hospital. There, he talks Ron into driving him to Eva’s house.
The movie ends with a happy end where Eddie is eating dinner with Eva and her family. Meanwhile, Michael is being confused as to why is there an extra four hundred dollars in the bag that he gave to Eddie.
The Film Critics – Is Something Missing?
Now, since we have gone over the plot of the movie, we will continue our Win it All movie review by examining the film’s critiques. The comedy has scored decently on IMDB with a rating of 6.2. In comparison, the famous money heist comedy Ocean’s Eleven has a 7.7 score on the same platform. Of course, there is a noticeable difference of 1.5 points in between the two movies, but we can all agree that Win it All has performed great even when put alongside a film classic of the rank of Ocean’s Eleven.
Win it All impresses us with its tomatometer score of 85% on its Rotten Tomatoes movie review. However, the audience’s rating of the movie contrasts with the underwhelming 55%. Regarding the reviews of the critics, there are plenty of them. Some reviews share similar evaluation of the Win it All movie outlining the spectacular performance of the actors, while other present a different perspective.
“There’s enough disreputable behavior bookending the righteousness, and enough solid jokes along the way, to make the effort moderately entertaining.” – Mike D’Angelo
Continuing to look at the criticism on the Win it All film, it seems like a wild discussion has swung around the plot of the movie. Some critics even evaluate the comedy title as a production with decent acting, good directing, and an overall lack of a good plot. Some are disappointed by the fact that they were expecting a poker movie but instead you follow the life of a pretty normal guy with a mild gambling addiction. As expected, the normal guy gets himself in to trouble, only to become a better person and fix everything.
“Simple stories can offer the most sincere acting. On paper, Win It All appears a generic gambling-gone-wrong film. And while the story doesn’t deviate too much from this perceived notion, the cast and characters elevate the film exponentially.” – Sam E.
The Win It All Movie Cast, Ratings, and More
The comedy movie Win It All is co-written, directed and edited by Joe Swanberg, who is famous for emphasising on the improvisations when filming. Unlike the majority of his work, Win It All was shot with an existing script. The second co-writer is Jake Johnson, who also played the protagonist in the movie, Eddie. Amongst the cast you can see many familiar faces starting with the beautiful Aislinn Derbez, Brooklyn nine-nine star Joe Lo Truglio, and Keegan Michael Key.
Name: | Win It All |
Release Date: | 23 May, 2017 |
Genre: | Comedy |
Director: | Joe Swanberg |
Writers: | Joe Swanberg, Jake Johnson |
Stars: | Jake Johnson, Aislinn Derbez, Joe Lo Truglio |
Runtime: | 1h 30m |
In 2015, it was announced that Joe Swanberg will direct Win It All, based on a screenplay written by him and Jake Johnson. Later the same year, the names of the other co-starring actors were revealed. The movie was shot in secrecy in the city of Chicago and had its world premiere at the South by Southwest on 11 March 2017. As the movie is a Netflix exclusive, Win It All was respectively released on the platform on 7 April 2017.
Watch Win It All Movie Online
If you are looking for a way to watch the movie online, we would like to point out that since Win It All is a Netflix exclusive, you will be able to find it only on their platform. You can either watch the movie using the free trial or go with the monthly paid subscription and access it together with hundreds of other titles. Unfortunately, you will be unable to find the movie legally elsewhere.
Did “Win It All” Win any Awards?
Unfortunately, the Win It All movie was not nominated and did not win any awards whatsoever. However, that does not necessarily mean that it is a bad movie, the competition for any of the big American movie awards is often brutal. Each year, you see the best movies of the annum competing there. And while Win It All has some potential, it was outshined by the other great comedy titles of 2017.
Final Thoughts About Win It All
To conclude, Win It All is a refreshing fun movie, which successfully combines comedy, drama, and thriller all in one place. The film is intriguing and exciting to watch however, it has definitely met some mixed critiques. Like any other movie, Win It All has viewers that enjoyed it, and such that did not. Therefore, our only advice would be to go and watch Win It All, and decide for yourself, if you liked it as much as we did or not!
Frequently Asked Questions
What other great way to end our Win It All movie review but to gather some of the most frequently asked questions regarding the film. Therefore, in the section below, you will see some of these hand-picked questions and an answer to them too.