“F**k the Bears.” I haven’t heard that line in a movie since “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” and now that I’ve heard it in “Bookies,” I’m as giddy as a chimp with a tube of model airplane glue.
Obsessed with gambling, three college roommates decide to secretly enter the bookmaking biz. Your typical characters are represented here – there’s the crazy, reckless one (Johnny Galecki) who gets hooked on coke and winds up endangering the operation; there’s the nerdy, quiet one (Lukas Haas) who does a lot of the menial footwork in order to save the more interesting stuff for the other characters; and there’s the brains behind the operation, who at the same time has morals to keep things in check and who also has a hot girlfriend (Rachel Leigh Cook – rowr) who does not approve of his get rich quick scheme.
But of course, things don’t stay in check and the mob winds up hunting these college kids down for invading their gambling territory.
Beginning as a fairly funny college buddy flick, “Bookies” gets more intense as these college kids discover the dangerous pitfalls of bookmaking. It’s a cool film and there are definitely lessons to be learned here for those of you thinking of possibly beginning your own grassroots gambling operation, but I would’ve rather had a good old “Revenge of the Nerds” style comedy. Call me old fashioned, but when it comes to college flicks, I love boobs, bush, farts and jumping jacks. The gambling was cool in this film, but don’t get all serious on me here.
