Reviews

Bought it because of Johnny Cash. Would not give it as a gift to my worst enemy....

I have looked high and low for this movie for years. I'm the little kid writing on the chalkboard in the beginning of the movie. No one anywhere had this movie but anyway the movie with the CD is a great combo. If you haven't seen any of Johnny Cash's films you got to see this one. June Carter Cash and Claud Aikens is in it also. This film was a memorable moment in my life. Johnny, June and Claude were all very down to earth nice people. Thanks Amazon!

I am biased as i am a big Johnny Cash Fan but I enjoyed this show. The acting isn't all that bad.It is a light movie you don't have to think too hard to enjoy it.If you don't like Johnny you will not like this movie.

Because I'm such a pool freak, I can get into any billiards movie. Although this movie had a decent plot, it didn't show as much pool playing footage as I expected. Definitely NOT a "Pool Hall Junkies" type movie.

Great film. Johnny Cash as the Baron. Great story and great acting by Cash. If you love Cash buy this

Reviews

A fun CD which will appeal to the sports lover, music lover and history lover in equal measure. The idea is simple. "Play The Game" contains 17 American and British songs, each one about a different sport. The songs were written between 1862 and 1913. Listeners are likely to be drawn to the songs which illustrate their favourite sports. Many golfers will recognise the plight of the player in "Caddie", written in 1900, who pleads with his caddie, ever more desperately, to 'get me right out of this mess'. Enthusiasts of British heritage will enjoy "The Eton Boating Song", the song of Eton College, the elite British school where Lady Diana's children, Princes William and Harry, were educated. The CD also includes a real historical curiosity : "A Hunting Morning" is a setting of a rare poem by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. The liner notes contain an article on the history of sport, a background note on each song plus short biographies of the composers and lyricists. The CD would make an unusual Christmas or birthday gift for a sports-loving friend. Strongly recommended! Tom Dawson, Pimlico, London, UK.

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My husband really likes this movie, but he doesn't like the widescreen version of it, which is what we ordered. We had to send it back, but I'm sure we will find one that is the regular screen version, and order that one.

This film is absolutely frightening. Pools or billiards seem to be civilized games. But to play them you have to go to special pool rooms and there if you want to play for money you better have your manager. Then you become a hustler and the manager is the pimp. Unprotected you will get your thumbs or your fingers, or your arms, as for that, broken. If protected you better bring in the profit that is expected. But then how can everyone be protected? There must be a loser somewhere to pay for the winners, and then the loser's manager is going to lose money and he will not like that. So they have little arrangements and the loss is shared or the loss is never too much or the loss is that of the stray amateurs of one evening. But when a real good player appears and he wants to win big, he has to have his manager and he has to pay his percentage. But if he is very good he will never understand he must lose from time to time and he will jeopardize the local winner who is the famous chap in these here pool rooms and who knows exactly what to do and who to make lose or win. The young good one who wants to win at any cost and alone will be a danger to the balance of the trade, if not the racket. So he will have to be eliminated. Morally by calling him a loser or by having his own girl friend destroyed in a way or another, it will never succeed. He will even become more aggressive in his winning. Then you have to rig some game to bring him in a corner. He has to be authorized to win much one night in order to bring him either to accepting the authority of his manager and pay his share, or be brutalized into not being able to play again. There are two more solutions but that's the end of the film. Let him go or just plain kill him? In a world that this one a dead body can always be camouflaged. Have a good film. But I find it typical of his time, very early 1960s and it sounds like a sound stage and it is quite slow in rhythm in many ways. But the story is good and the acting is promising especially for Paul Newman. Jackie Gleason on the other side is by far too static to be impressive. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

The film opens with a typical scene in a day of the lives of 'Fast Eddie' (Newman) and Charlie (McCormick). Another small town stop pretending to be salesman with car trouble on their way to a sales award convention so they need to spend a few hours at the local pool hall while their car is being worked on. They go into their routine to 'setup' the locals for the big hustle and at the end of the day the locals are a few hundred dollars lighter. The ultimate goal is to 'hustle' the mighty one, Minnesota Fats (Gleason) who hasn't been beaten in 15 years. The big match lasts 36 grueling hours and several bottles of booze. The cocky, swaggering Eddie has met his match but it wasn't the pool skills that did him in. Can he recover or is he the 'born loser' that Bert Gordon (Scott), the 'Fat Man's manager and professional gambler, accuses him of being? Sarah (Laurie) enters the picture and can two 'born losers' rehabilitate each other? The acting is outstanding by all five main characters and the settings in seedy bars, bus stations and pool halls genuinely gives the feeling of life in another world where day to day survival is fueled by alcohol and nicotine and petty pursuits. Can anyone pull themselves out of this environment or are they destined to be 'born losers'? Human nature at its most raw and vulnerable. One of Newman's great performances along with Gleason, Scott and Laurie. A classic!!!

If you play and enjoy pool this is one of the best! Newman is great as Fast Eddie, Gleason as Fats and Willie Mosconi racking the balls , a real pool player not an actor. Excellant Special features about the movie. Piper Laurie what can I say BEAUTIFUL! Great dramatic tragedy.

I bought this 2 disc collector's edition used which includes the flick and lots of extras for about $7 plus a few dollars for shipping. I'm adding it to my small film library which includes two other Paul Newman movies: Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy. Hustler has a great story and theme and wonderful acting. Paul Newman, George C. Scott and Piper Laurie have never been better. Jackie Gleason is suberb in this dramatic role as well. The B&W photorgaphy shot primarily on locations around New York is top notch. The DVD version is worth it just for the audio commentary alone which includes some of Paul Newman's thoughts. What I really liked about the commentary was Dede Allen's thoughts (editor) and Carol Rossen's (director's daughter) thoughts. Both add so much insight to the making of this great movie. I hope that Carol would consider writing a book about her memories of her dad. After all these years (movie was released in 1961) it still holds up because its main theme is still so important. How important is winning? What are we willing to give up in order to win? This was not a movie about pool but about life. Hollywood Howie

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A veritable Jambolaya of entertaining road stories, incredible bank shots,and of course easy to follow, demonstrated instruction from the world's formost bank pool authority, Freddy the Beard. I enjoyed it, and learned plenty too.

Reviews

The rating is a little odd because this book must be listed in a toy category. It is a bank pool billiard book and not a toy. This is a FIVE STAR book. Until this book there hasn't been much worth while information on learning how to make bank shots in pool & billiards. Even if you only play 8 ball or 9 ball, this book is a must. It will make a huge difference in your game. If your new to pool and billiards, don't let the advanced nature of this book scare you away. What you will find is there are bank shots that are so easy, your Grandma could make them. If you have been playing a while and you are reluctant to take the bank shot, jump on this book. Improve your banking and you could jump to the next plateau. There is a companion book also from the same author, I could review it by saying ditto. The book has a lot of the writers pool stories. They are entertaining, but for me, I prefer the meat, banking and not the potatoes, pool stories. If you enjoy playing pool you need to own this book.

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This game is kind of fun, but it's not really a good pool game. It's more or less just a crappy program that is similar to pool, and seems fun if you make the best of it.

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For legal purposes, from this point forward, this review is my personal opinion. For many years as an instructor in pocket billiards, I dissuaded many students and potential students from buying this book. The author used conjecture and just plain myth to attempt to teach basic fundamentals in this book. Take shot number 1 as an example of this. He states "... If the two balls meet on this dot, the black object ball will roll into the center of the pocket". I am presuming that he is stating this as fact. Then later on in the book at shot 13 he states we now have to take into consideration a phenomenon known as "throw". Throw wasn't good enough principle to teach along with shot number 1? I hear a voice in my head that says "That's right folks. Forget what I taught you on shot number 1 as fact. I've got a new theory about what really happens when pool balls collide and I've corrected myself. Now this new way is fact". Huh? Ask any halfway decent teacher what you should do if a teacher teaches one basic principle as the truth and then later on tells you that you need to forget what was taught earlier since your brain simply wasn't ready for the new principle they are teaching now as the real truth. Run away. Maybe this isn't a teacher after all but merely someone that wants to sell you something. I'm not saying that Ray was trying to deceive anyone or had any malicious intent when writing this book. I believe that he simply didn't know "the truth" when writing this book. Please prove me wrong. Take shot number 1 to your local pool hall and do just like he says to do. Practice it for days, weeks, years, and eons. It's kind of close to the truth. Just not quite true though. Close. Like a white lie. Now keep in mind that not only are about 1/3 of the shots in this book similar to this example but 4 of the first 6 are also. If you are a student in training it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out which are which. If you are a student wanting to learn the truth about the game, then good luck wading through the mire. As a retired teacher of the game, I have not one cent to gain from this review or from my recommendations. Good luck.

Ray and Rosser know their stuff and they explain the key techniques very well. There is a "fundamentals" section at the beginning of the book (how to stand, how to bridge, etc) but then you get the heart of the matter - the 99 shots of the title. These are all situations that will come up in games, and you are told precisely how to shoot each one. Work through this book with a practice table trying each shot, and I guarantee you will significantly improve your game. I come back to this book again and again.

Great book for learning the basic and not-so-basic shots for the interested pool player. 99 shots in 99 days.

gift for husband...didn't used it much, but he said it was very informative and helpful with learning about making angled and trick shots

This is an essential read for anyone who is serious about the game. It helps you become proficient at shots that come up thousands of times in play.

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I can recall few products that I have bought over the years that more than lived up to its hype, promises, and my expectations. If there is a better book out there on pool and billiards, I am not aware of it. Clarity of writing and exquisitely simple and concise diagrams contribute to a superb resource.

Robert Byrne is the very best at describing how the differing aspects of pool and billiards is supposed to be played. I would definitely suggest that you buy this book or any of the other pool instruction books written by this author. I have bought this book for at least five of my friends and continually refer back to it myself. You won't be sorry you bought it.

I can't get through the book. A little heavy. A video on You tube is easier to understand.

This book is great because of it's content but it gets 5 stars because it's an anywhere-everywhere read! You can peruse the many interesting diagrams while sitting on the John or before bed yet it's still meaty enough to warrant sitting down at the kitchen table an digging in to the theory of playing great pockets Billiards. I don't think there's really anyone who couldn't get something out of this book.

In reading only a 3rd of this book, I have made some shots on league night that have blown everyone away. I feel a great respect from others that my skill level has soared. Thanks to Robert Byrne for your astute observations and obvious talent of communication! Ron Graff

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I have never played pool and decided I needed to learn. What better way than to read about it from the experts

This is an excellent book. The section on foul shots is invaluable to a 9 ball player. This knowledge in this section can save your tournaments and games. This information is not well known. I personally practice several of these prescribed shots routinely and have gone from being an average player to being someone that is considered top 5 in my small town (50K). I have a couple of Mr. Byrnes other works on pool and im continually amazed at his insight and tips on playing better. I reccomend reading three cushion strategies as well that Mr. Byrne presents because it will educate you on important carom shots and how to prepare better safeties and or find better angles on problem clusters. Robert also has a fantastic old world style (salty) sense of humor that makes me want to read his work again and again! Bravo to the author of this fantastic book! Bravo,Bravo,Bravo!!!

As usual a great job and a must have for any true student of this insane game. better than "99 critical shots" (by 251 shots by my count)

This is a great book!!!!!!!!! If you like pool you will learn and enjoy the witty narrative at the same time

Excellent reference to have around. We just had our pool table installed and plan on using this a lot in practicing shots.

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I didn't get a book with this, but I don't know if it would have helped. I did not like that when I got done playing a game, it put me back to the beginning like I had to start all over. Like I said I had no book and maybe it might have told me something. It's not a bad game, I enjoyed the play, but did not like going back to the beginning and a friend who borrowed it could not get it to play against somebody. Maybe that's in the book. Some may like it some not. I got rid of mine.

This was the worse item I have purchased. It will not play,keeps skipping,and cannot get through the whole game.

Not like regular pool, different from what I expected. We don't ever play this - waste of money.

Before I bought this product I checked out its reviews. I decided to buy eventhough the review were negative. I found I liked the program. If you are a average pool player I think you will like it. It has some items I didn't like but could work with. I feel this is probably preference. My issues were. Power shots don't always work. A bit slow when computer is thinking about its next move.

The controls for the game are horrendous. It's as if someone just threw this game together. But the worst part is, the controller accessory that was designed for it must never have been tested before selling it; the manufacturer would have noticed the IR transmitter gets blocked by pieces inside the pool cue stick. Nintendo is allowing too many mistakes by third party companies and needs to tighten down these problems.