Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Pool, hustling, gambling, sex, drugs, and lots of violence. With an ingredients list like that, I expected to really enjoy Shooting Gallery. Sadly, this movie missed its mark on several levels.

Basic Plot

The movie starts out with an extremely violent, bloody shootout. We have no idea who these people are and what relevance they will have to the story about to unfold. We next meet Jericho (Freddie Prinze Jr.) a pool shark whose skill gets him noticed by local gangster/pool hall owner Carl Bridges (Ving Rhames). Pretty soon he's inducted into Carl's "tribe" of pool hustlers, and he quickly rises up the ranks. As tends to happen when dealing with underground gambling, Jericho soon finds himself on the wrong side of the law, and a seedy cop named Martensen (Callum Kieth Rennie) has him right where he wants him. Of course Martensen doesn't really care about Jericho's pool hustling ways. What he really wants is a tape that's in Carl's possession. It seems that the shootout in the very first scene was in fact caught on video, and Carl has every reason to want that tape, at any cost.

The good stuff and the bad stuff

The pool-playing was always fun to watch. The amazing trick shots are incredible. Of course, I don't fool myself into thinking these amazing shots were really made - it's trick photography of course. But, it's still fun to watch those great shots.

The dialogue in this movie relies very heavily on pool hall jargon. Without knowing what a lot of the terms mean, it can be very difficult to follow along. So what does the director (Keoni Waxman) do? He superimposes the terms and their definitions over the scenery when we're in between scenes. Realistic? Of course not! But to someone like me, who doesn't know a thing about pool hall jargon, it was most helpful. Even with the definitions, though, the dialogue is still difficult. There's a lot of mumbling, and, frankly, too much jargon being thrown about.

There are times when the movie is s-l-o-w and the story very difficult to follow. There are a lot of "Why did he just do that??" moments. Coupled with all the "huh? What did he just say?" moments, it can be very difficult to understand the story. But if you hang in there with it, the story works pretty well in the end. There are twists and turns, but ultimately, it does all come together. But you have to have a lot of patience and faith during the 101 minutes before the ending.

Do not watch this movie expecting ANY character development, or to gain any understanding about what would draw people into the underground world of hustling and gambling. We learn next to nothing about any of the characters. By the time we meet them, they're adults doing what they do. There's a character named Jezebel (Roselyn Sanchez) whose sole purpose is to provide eye candy for the male viewers, and a love interest for Jericho. She's a self-proclaimed gambling addict who will do anything for her next "fix". How'd she get where she is in life? We have no idea. Just like we have no idea how Jericho got into pool hustling. I prefer movies where the characters are developed so that we have an understanding of what drives them. But this is not such a movie.

Overall

For most people, I can't recommend this movie. It's simply too hard to follow, and way too "shallow". Plus there's violence, sex, drug use, and all kinds of reasons to keep the kids (and some adults) away. Unless you're a die-hard pool fanatic, I don't think this movie will be for you.

Recommended: No

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age