Cards stacked against Reynolds in poker epic

Burt Reynolds is an irreverently amiable movie star who built up so much good will in his '70s glory days that you always want to see him come roaring back in triumph from the doldrums and second-tier projects that have afflicted him since.

Occasionally, he does, as in TV's "Evening Shade" or with his juicy part as the cynical porn director in Paul Thomas Anderson's wry, behind-the-skin-scenes saga "Boogie Nights."

More often, Reynolds doesn't, as in "Deal."

"Deal" is director/co-writer Gil Cates Jr.'s poker epic about a brilliant young player and privileged Yale senior named Alex Stillman (Bret Harrison of "The Loop").

He hooks up with a long-inactive ex-champ Tommy Vinson (Reynolds) to try to clean up on the World Poker Tour.

Haggard and quiet, Tommy supposedly is coming back from a three-decade retirement after he gambled away a fortune, crashing and burning at the tables until his salt-of-the-earth wife, Helen (Maria Mason), made him take the pledge.

These days, Tommy ponders the past and hangs out with his chum Charlie, a nothing part played with admirable saltiness by the great Charles Durning (real-life poker pal of Reynolds and James Garner.)

When Tommy spots Alex and decides to tutor him to read his opponents as well as the cards, the seemingly burnt-out old pro is finally back in the world of inside straights, busted flushes and folds in its new big-stakes TV trappings.

When Tommy and Alex have a falling out over a Vinson maneuver with a Las Vegas hooker (Shannon Elizabeth), they wind up -- surprise! surprise! -- battling each other in the final round of the televised championships, with millions in prize loot.

Reynolds brings something special to Tommy, a sense of fragility and weariness, of quiet immersion in his own sad exile from the poker limelight. But he has to work beyond the clichés of the script, which hamstrings everybody, including the gallery of poker pros and announcers (including Michael Sexton and Vince Van Patten) who fill supporting and cameo roles.

Does the plot remind you of that much, much better pool hall epic "The Color of Money"? Or of dozens of other sports sagas, backstage entertainment and gangster tales, matching up old pros and rising young phenoms, hurling them against each other for generally unsurprising last acts?

There are few surprises in "Deal," not even the climactic kicker, which is supposed to jolt you.

If you're looking for a good poker movie, you'd be better off renting Anderson's "Hard Eight," Robert Altman's "California Split," "The Cincinnati Kid" or "A Big Hand for the Little Lady" -- or digging up an old Garner "Maverick" episode from TV. (Try "According to Hoyle.")

For all its superstars and big TV trappings, "Deal" is strictly a penny-ante game.

"Deal"

2 stars

Starring: Burt Reynolds, Jennifer Tilly, Charles Durning, Shannon Elizabeth

Directed by: Gil Cates, Jr.

Other: An MGM release. Rated PG-13 for language, sexual situations and drug use. 86 minutes.