Main cast: Lance Henriksen (Reno Crevice), Kevin Tighe (Sam Forney), and John Kassir (The Crypt Keeper)
Director: Walter Hill
Card sharp Reno Crevice – snicker – bursts back into town after a year of living it up in Vegas, only to bump into his bitter nemesis Sam Forney – snicker. The both of them developed a very personal enmity back in Vegas, when Reno practically dethroned Sam in Vegas, forcing Sam to come here. Now that Reno is back too, after having lost one too many card games in Vegas and having his wife run off with a piano player, the two of them decide that the town is big enough for only one of them.
Sam wants to even the score with a game of cards. What is initially supposed to be game in which the loser gets out of town for good soon escalates into something far more gory and hence, fun, That’s basically the plot of Cutting Cards.
Don’t let the short synopsis fool you – this is one very entertaining episode. To be honest, the entire premise isn’t new – back in the 1980s, Hong Kong came out with a slew of card sharp noir, which saw dashing gamblers wager everything from a hand to a head with the turn of the cards, and the two guys in this episode are quite tame compared to some of the antics of the card sharps in those Hong Kong offerings. Nonetheless, this one works very well.
As this episode is basically a two-man show, it succeeds awesomely because Lance Henriksen and Kevin Tighe have both perfect chemistry and comedic timing. Mr Henriksen plays Reno like a swaggering, cocksure buffoon who tries very hard to appear suave, only to have every one of his hot buttons pushed successfully by Mr Tighe’s Sam, who at the end of the day is the dashing, more “upper class” gentleman. These two alternately goad the other person (when they are confident that things are going their way) and try to finagle their way out of a bad bet, and the end result is just pure hilarity.
The ending is predictable, but the fun is going all the way there with these two dolts. Plus, the ending is simply, 100% bromance-friendly hot. So yes, Cutting Cards is a straight flush in many ways.
