jhs39 Kirsten Dunst usually makes good choices, but this one ranks with her Crow movie as the worst. Absolutely dreadful drama about 18 year old girl who leaves home to meet her professional poker playing father (James Caan) who sends her birthday cards but was otherwise never a part of her life. There isn't a single moment in this disaster that rings true. Avoid at all costs.

quinnmass As a movie, the movie sucked. It sucked in the kind of dismally bad way that only the laziest of movies can. The young male romantic interest of Kirsten Dunst ranks high in the pantheon of Characters that Should Be Killed As Soon As Possible With a Blunt Instrument - he is as likeable as the Dell Guy.However, the only reason I write is to comment on the poker scene, which takes the cake for spectacular laziness. For a movie involving two characters who are supposed to be the top two greatest poker players in the world, it would be nice if the writer had actually bothered to peruse the rudimentary structure of poker games.In the scene where James Caan plays the kid at poker, Caan is playing Texas Hold'em. The kid, however, is apparently playing 5-card draw. Caan's TWO cards face down are pocket Queens. That's unfortunate for him, because the kid has FIVE cards in his hand, which contain at least trip deuces. Let's make sure we got that. In the same hand of poker, one guy is playing a completely different form of poker than the other!! HA HA HA HA HA HA. When I saw this, I sat in stunned, giggly disbelief.This is not a little error. It is unforgiveable sloppiness, especially when you bill your movie as a Vegas, gambling movie that involves the two greatest poker players in the world. It's as if a 5th grader wrote this. If it were a sports movie, it would be like one guy playing his golf shot while his opponent, a football player, tackles him. Retarded. Just like the entire surrounding movie.

George Parker Somewhere in this contrived morass of stereotypes and shoddy film making is a story with some entertainment value. Good hearted street chick meets boy gambler and they hit the road for Vegas where she meets up with her long lost dad, falls in love with her traveling companion, and both learn some lessons in life. Unfortunately, this junk flick is a laughable miscarriage with the sundry heavies more fleshed out than the protagonists. Personally, I ended up liking the hitman who refused to kill anyone on Valentine's Day more than the hero and felt more compassion for the slutty stripper than the heroine. Don't waste you time with this mess of a movie which I'm sure Dunst and Caan are trying to forget.

fairygirl411 This movie is so dumb. The James Caan parts of it are a lame excuse for soft-core porn and pseudo-gangster antics. The Kirsten Dunst/Vincent Kartheiser parts have the potential to be really, really good -- good dialogue building a truly interesting relationship. BUT. Kirsten's acting sucks -- it just sucks in every way possible. They have no chemistry. The character of Lidda (Dunst) wasn't "bad" enough for me -- she wasn't much of anything, it was like she was reading her lines and had no clue what was going on. Vincent Kartheiser's Colonel was just about the only believable character -- I liked Colonel a lot. But it didn't help the film much.I didn't appreciate the none-too-subtly cloaked symbolism (i.e. the "Second Chance Motel," the whole movie happening on and around Valentine's Day). The ending was also stupid -- it's supposed to be optimistic, a "fresh start," but PLEASE. You know she's going to keep smoking, and he's going to keep gambling, and they'll get sick of each other really fast and break up again. It didn't convince me.