Even Money Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Even Money Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 31, 2020

Almost a year ago MVD Visual’s MVD Marquee Collection imprint released a little remembered film called Shade on Blu-ray, and I mentioned at the time how its twisty tale of magic, card sharks and grifting, along with its at least relatively starry cast, would have seemed to have made it a “sure bet” for ticket buying audiences. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t, and that same disconnect seems to have afflicted Even Money, a film which bears at least a few surface similarities to Shade, including offering a twisty tale that does in fact include magic and grifting, although with some other forms of gambling taking the place of card playing. Even Money’s (relatively?) starry cast includes the likes of Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, Ray Liotta, Forest Whitaker, Tim Roth, Jay Mohr and a really weirdly made up Kelsey Grammer. There are probably a few too many interlocking plot strands in Easy Money for the film to fully resonate, but it has some interesting elements, not the least of which are some rather unusual performances from Basinger and Grammer in particular.

The film is narrated by a cop named Brunner, played by Kelsey Grammer in an odd prosthetic nose that makes him look like the just slightly less hefty brother of the nefarious cop played by Orson Welles in Touch of Evil (and that may well be intentional, given a few "similarities" they share). There's been a killing, and Brunner suspects a local mobster named Victor (Tim Roth), who evidently works for a mysterious guy known only as Ivan. However, this is just one of several competing and supposedly intersecting plots in Even Money. There's also an emphasis on out of control gambling courtesy of two characters, a novelist named Carolyn Carver (Kim Basinger), whose secret habit is probably destroying her marriage to Tom (Ray Liotta), and Clyde Snow (Forest Whitaker), whose debts to some henchmen (including one played by Jay Mohr) forces him to ask his star basketball player brother Godfrey (Nick Cannon) to throw a game that has some considerable dough riding on it. Even these elements are not the sum total of storylines competing for attention in Even Money, which may be the film's biggest issue.

Even Money Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Even Money is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the MVD Marquee Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. There's a slightly digital look to this presentation at times that is especially noticeable in some moments of sharpening, where halos are evident. Otherwise, the transfer offers some good detail levels, especially since a prevalence of close-ups (and at times extreme close-ups) is utilized. The palette is intentionally skewed some of the time, with some kind of weird gradings toward blues and purples. Grain can spike slightly in some of the more heavily graded material as well as the many dark scenes.

Even Money Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

One of Even Money's undeniable pleasures is another very nice score by Dave Grusin, which sounds great in the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. The score kind of sounds at times like Grusin doing Pat Metheny, and it gives a nicely warm, jazzy ambience to some of the cues. Dialogue and sound effects are all rendered with fine fidelity, and the use of locations like crowded casinos offers some good opportunities for immersive background noises.

Even Money Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers includes Even Money (1080p; 2:16) along with trailers for other releases from the MVD Marquee Collection.

Even Money Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even Money offers a top flight cast, several of whom are playing characters seemingly designed to net them Academy Award nominations, under the leadership of an Academy Award nominated director, but this debut screenplay from Robert Tannen (who evidently has only one more feature film writing credit in the interim since this film was released in 2006) is probably simply stuffed too full of characters and competing plot elements to pull off its own intended "trickery". The fact that director Mark Rydell shows up in a closing cameo in a supposed reveal that I suspect is going to zoom right over the heads of most viewers (do you know what Mark Rydell looks like?) suggests some kind of "meta" aspect may have been aimed for here that the film similarly doesn't quite attain. The video is a little digital looking at times, but audio is fine, for those considering a purchase.