I just watched the movie. Adam Sandler blew me away. He was incredible in it. I knew he had good acting chops. Problem was he just made too many comedic movies(which I love) for people to take him seriously in drama roles. This one though, I couldn't see anyone else except him doing this. He was freaking awesome. The directors also did a great job. I saw their other movie, good time, and funny enough I saw Robert Pattinson in a different light compared to his other movies. I can't wait to see what the Safdie brothers do in their next movie.

I gave this a try last night. Didn't make it through it. As said, Sandler was doing a great job. I just didn't find any characters that I liked or really cared about. Everybody in the movie was a piece of crap and that made me apathetic to their problems. I am sure it was a great ending where Happy escapes a death sentence, but I didn't care enough to stay awake and see. Don't take this review as me bagging on the film. This is simply a case of this film wasn't my cup of tea.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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Everybody in the movie was a piece of crap and that made me apathetic to their problems. I am sure it was a great ending where Happy escapes a death sentence, but I didn't care enough to stay awake and see.

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You're right that there is no redeeming character in the whole thing and it doesn't follow the typical movie arc which made it pretty unique theses days. It wasn't my favorite either and I'll probably never watch it again. That said your assumptions about the parts you didn't watch are way off.

Finally got around to watching it, and it was great. Movie had me nervous and on the edge of my seat the whole time, it's hard for me to watch movies centered around people with gambling issues. Oh man, that ending, I had a feeling something was going to happen, but I was still surprised. This movie is worth your time for sure, I enjoyed it.

Caught it on Netflix this last weekend.

Decent watch, but don't really get what all the fuss was about. Sandler played the role well, but IMO getting a little too much praise for simply "not being slapstick Sandler"... His performance wasn't something I felt was Best Actor worthy. Honestly Julia Fox was far more impressive to me (in a lot of ways -- but namely her acting).

Everything else I felt was somewhat plodding at times. I didn't find it to be a very deep movie character wise outside of Sandler and his girlfriend. None of the other characters really had any depth whatsoever.

IMO the ending made it poignant, and it did a good job of displaying the addiction and how some guys can convince themselves that they are so much smarter/savvy than they really are, all the while ruining what was a pretty good life and hurting those around them.