Beaver
Maximum Effort
I am a pool player and wanted to include a pool hall movie, debating between “Color of Money” and this. I chose this because some may have never heard of it. Not the greatest movie, but I liked it.
Poolhall Junkies is the story of a pool player named Johnny( Mars Callahan), who also wrote and directed, who's been coached and mentored since a young age by Joe (Chazz Palminteri). Joe has been methodically dismantling Johnny's hopes of achieving success in professional tournaments, trashing invitation letters, convincing young Johnny that he could never make it, in favor of the perhaps-more-lucrative business of back room pool hustling.
Johnny finally learns of his `trainer's' deception and gives up hustling to please his Law-Practice-hopeful girlfriend Tara (Alison Eastwood). Certain circumstances,(in a Rounders-esque fashion) force him back to the world of pool. After a chance encounter with Tara's uncle (Christopher Walken, who gave a great performance), and after learning that his younger brother has been hustled and arrested all in one night by Joe and his new apprentice (Rick Schroder), Johnny returns to the pool halls for one last big money game.
Poolhall Junkies is the story of a pool player named Johnny( Mars Callahan), who also wrote and directed, who's been coached and mentored since a young age by Joe (Chazz Palminteri). Joe has been methodically dismantling Johnny's hopes of achieving success in professional tournaments, trashing invitation letters, convincing young Johnny that he could never make it, in favor of the perhaps-more-lucrative business of back room pool hustling.
Johnny finally learns of his `trainer's' deception and gives up hustling to please his Law-Practice-hopeful girlfriend Tara (Alison Eastwood). Certain circumstances,(in a Rounders-esque fashion) force him back to the world of pool. After a chance encounter with Tara's uncle (Christopher Walken, who gave a great performance), and after learning that his younger brother has been hustled and arrested all in one night by Joe and his new apprentice (Rick Schroder), Johnny returns to the pool halls for one last big money game.
