Following the lives of three individuals centered around an addiction from which they find no escape. The only thing it gets them is DEEPER! Basinger plays a housewife who hides her gambling addiction from her family, even if it means they think she's having an affair. Whitaker plays the older brother of a college basketball student on the verge of making it big time, only to run the risk of being brought down for shaving points. DeVito is a small time magician with a bit of a gambling problem, himself, while Grammar plays a cop trying to find the killer of a bookie and finds himself on the trail of another bookie who's trying to take over the dead man's action.This film is good! Really! I don't know what else to say about it. The characterizations were right on and the message is there: what a world you live in that will feed you what your disease tells you that you need! It affects all areas of your life: your sanity, your financial situations, your loved ones, your job, and, eventually, if you let it, your life. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bottom-feeders out there who's main reason for living is to give you that "sugar," only to take it away when the time is right (so to speak).I'm not sure if the director and/or the writer were speaking from personal experience, but, speaking as one with his own addiction demons, he/they weren't very far off the mark! 7 out of 10 stars!

I like the political undertones of this movie. But that's about it really i would end my commentary here but IMDb would not allow me to cut so short. Some good acting I guess, but the movie really does not have that much to offer cinema as such. always a pleasure to see these actors, in this case not at the most convincing, none of them.Its a very spoon fed movie, any fool will get it. Its like an idiots guide to the concept so many times portrayed and the world still plays along. Cheesy bits like death with the mobile in the dude's hand and Danny DeVito hanging at the end you can see that he is still alive, he doesn't look dead at all. I found the idea of the book on Abraham the magician very inspiring. The ending of the whole movie though is oh so very predictable from the very beginning.

I worked in Hollywood when this script made the rounds. (I've now come to my senses and make my living in another field.)I can tell you that it was a fantastic script. Highly ambitious.The reason it is not as good a movie as the screenplay is due to the producer and the director.It's a shame because it should have been a fantastic movie.Trust me when I say that all the stars got attached because of the script. None of them got paid near what they usually make. (The producer is notoriously cheap.)There are some wonderful moments which remain, but when I watched it, I just wanted to get back in the business and remake it as it should have been made the first time!Pity.A lot of things need to come together to make a great film.

Welcome to Even Money, a strictly, by-the-numbers, connect the dots, type of film that has very little to recommend it.Everybody seems to be sleepwalking it, borrowing character elements from their previous films.Tim Roth plays a vicious gangster. Oooh original. Danny De Vito a failed magician who dreams of the bigtime. Yawn. Kim Basinger a mother with gambling problems, whittling away the family savings. Done how many times before in TV movies? Oh and Forest Whitaker has to ask his basketball prodigy brother to throw games so he can cancel his debt with the loan sharks, wow that's novel.And then we have Kelsey Grammar with a plastic nose and face to match, that distracted me so much from his character, every time he appeared I kept thinking what's Kelsey Grammar doing with the dodgy nose? I forgot who he was meant to be.People are comparing this with Crash - why? Different director and very poor writer, and a plot that isn't anywhere near as intertwined as people think.A very simple, unoriginal film, with NOTHING to commend it. Avoid.