Revolver (2005)
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A revenge-seeking confidence trickster utilizes a universal formula discovered in prison to guarantee victory in every game or con.
The story
In an unidentified city, cockney gangster and gambler Jake Green is released from prison for an unspecified crime. Two years later, Jake and his brother Billy travel to a casino owned by crime boss Dorothy Macha to collect a debt. After a series of high-stakes bets and a subsequent assassination attempt, Jake is approached by a loan shark named Zach. Zach and his partner Avi offer to protect Jake from Macha in exchange for his money and total obedience. They claim Jake has a terminal blood disease, but Jake remains suspicious of their motives as he begins to navigate a dangerous web of debt and crime.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After being released from prison, Jake Green seeks to collect a debt from crime boss Dorothy Macha. Following a humiliating loss at Macha's casino, Jake is targeted for murder but is rescued by Zach and Avi. They convince him to surrender his wealth to fund their lending enterprise, claiming he has only three days to live. During his incarceration, Jake had learned 'the Formula'—a strategy to win every game—from a chess expert and a con man. As Jake performs heists for Zach and Avi to frame Macha, a complex web of violence unfolds involving Triad kingpins and hitwomen. It is eventually revealed that Jake's diagnosis was incorrect and that Zach and Avi were his cellmates. They reveal that by stripping him of his money (the physical embodiment of ego), they have freed him from the 'game' of a crime kingpin named Sam Gold. In the climax, Jake breaks into Macha's penthouse. Instead of seeking revenge, Jake asks for forgiveness and chooses to reject his ego, leaving a defeated Macha behind.
- First release year
- 2005
- Runtime (minutes)
- 110
- Production countries
- United Kingdom; France
- Original languages
- English; Cantonese
- Directors
- Guy Ritchie
- Writers
- Guy Ritchie · writer; Luc Besson · writer
- Cast and characters
- Jason Statham · Jake Green; Ray Liotta · Dorothy Macha; Vincent Pastore; André Benjamin; Mark Strong; Terence Maynard; Francesca Annis
- Genres
- action thriller; crime drama; crime thriller
- Themes
- Ego; Kabbalah; Fate
- Tone and mood
- Pretentious; Confusing; Philosophical
- Premise and plot tags
- Revenge; Crime; Confidence Trick; Formula
- Reception
- The film was generally panned by critics for being pretentious and over-complicated, receiving a 13% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 25/100 on Metacritic. It performed poorly at the box office, grossing only $6.7 million.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 13% · review count: 67
- Production trivia
- The film contains numerous references to Kabbalistic ideas, symbols, and numerology.; The number 32 appears repeatedly, including a lift with 32 buttons.; The dollar bills in Jake's money bags have a denomination of 12.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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