Should Have Been A More Direct Sequel

Rating: Null/10 (15 September 1999)

I had a hard time connecting with this film. Paul Newman might have been playing the same character from "The Hustler" but apart from one oblique reference, you could scarcely tell that this is supposed to be the same man who learned the tragic consequences of his desire to be the best at pool. I would have much preferred it if Scorsese had provided some greater continuity with the previous film (Jackie Gleason and George C. Scott were still around. Heck, a reappearance by Scott as the sleazy Bert Gordon would have really helped put things in perspective because I kept getting the impression that Eddie's approach to teaching Vincent was to avoid the worst features of how he learned from Gordon). And in the end, we don't get anything close to the kind of wonderful set-up the matches between Newman and Gleason gave us in the first film.