Official Synopsis:
Woody Harrelson stars as One-Eyed Jack Faro, a not-quite-fully-rehabbed gambler, party monster, and serial marry-er hoping to save his late grandfather's hotel-casino by winning $10 million cash at The Grand Championship of Poker. But first he'll have to beat a Vegas field of geeks, gurus, online amateurs, greedy developers, ruthless housewives, old-school pros and more of the top players in the world for the largest prize in poker history. Jason Alexander, Ray Romano, Mike Epps, Judy Greer, Werner Herzog, Gabe Kaplan, Michael McKean, Phil Gordon and Doyle Brunson co-star in this no-limit comedy from director Zak Penn (Incident At Loch Ness).
  
Our Take:
Poker is fun. Mockumentaries are fun. And there’s really no way to beat a cast that heralds Woody Harrelson, David Cross, Dennis Farina, Cheryl Hines, Richard Kind, Chris Parnell and Werner Herzog. But then comes the bad news…The Grand was written and directed by Zak Penn.

You see, Zak Penn is a man who loves to ruin comic book movies, much in the way that David Goyer loves to ruin all movies except not quite as bad as Goyer. Zak is currently the only credited screenwriter on the upcoming Hulk (the WGA just ruled Ed Norton’s name out of the credits) so now I’m even more worried about that. But anyway, back to The Grand and how we all lucked out a bit.

The Grand’s screenplay really wasn’t a screenplay at all. It was a treatment; a treatment that the actors were given and then told to go nuts with. That means we have all these brilliant people listed above, whom are known for improving, essentially improv-ing an entire movie. What’s not to like about that?

Special features include:

* Commentary with Writer/Producer/Director Zak Penn, Writer/Executive Producer Matt Bierman and Actor Michael Karnow.

* Alternate Endings (2 minutes) – Two different endings here, one of them with optional commentary.

* Deleted Scenes (11 minutes) – Six scenes, two of which don’t have optional commentary.

* Select Scenes With Commentary – Three different options here: Woody Harrelson & Zak Penn, Ray Romano & Cheryl Hines & Zak Penn and Woody Harrelson & Cheryl Hines & Zak Penn.

* Wild Cards: Player Profiles (21 minutes) – Jack Faro, Lainie & Fred, Larry Schwartzman, Deuce, Harold Melvin, Mike Werbe, The Dealer, Cameos.

Everyone is fantastic in The Grand but if I’m going to recommend it for anything I’m going to recommend it for the sole reason of seeing Werner Herzog in the role of an insane man who loves to mutilate cute little animals to feel powerful over his opponent right before he plays poker. I mean, come on; that’s gold.

Overall Picture:
Movie: B
DVD: B+

- Landen Chase Pelish
Staff Writer