Great Film, But Weak By Scorsese's Standards

Rating: 7/10 (13 May 2011)

This film brings together the classic American actor, Paul Newman, with a popular stud of the time, Tom Cruise. With a notable cameo of Forest Whitaker as Amos the hustler.
How to judge this film? It is not as great as Newman's original time around as Fast Eddie ("The Hustler"), but still a great film just the same. And it hardly ranks as one of Cruise's best, though he gets that craziness out of him here (with a bare minimum of running). Scorsese has done better, much better, but he was working within a framework here and I think as far as sequels go, this one is pretty great.
A must-see film, not so much because it is one of the better films, but because it has three great giants of film together in one place. Love it or hate it, this is a strong presentation of talent.