The Luckiest Man in America (2025)

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Title: The Luckiest Man in America (2025)

Genre: Drama, Thriller

Director: Samir Oliveros

Cast: Paul Walter Hauser, Walton Goggins, Shamier Anderson, David Strathairn, Maisie Williams, Patti Harrison, Brian Geraghty, Haley Bennett, Johnny Knoxville, David Rysdahl, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Ricky Russert, Lilli Kay, James Wolk

Release: 2025-04-04

Runtime: 90

Plot: 1984, Michael Larson, an unemployed ice-cream truck driver from Ohio, steps onto the game show "Press Your Luck" harboring a secret: the key to endless amounts of money. But his winning streak gets threatened when the executives in the control room start to uncover his real motivations.
 
Vuuxo

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I just watched the whole episode on YouTube from 1984. That shit is insane.
Michael Larson, whom of which obviously has the tism. Recognized that the "big board" wasn't random at all but had only a couple preprogrammed patterns that it followed and Larson memorized them by recording the show on VHS and rewatching them.

 
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Animosity

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Paul Walter Hauser is so damn good. Will check this out for the cast.
 
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Rajaah

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Vuuxo said:
I just watched the whole episode on YouTube from 1984. That shit is insane.
Michael Larson, whom of which obviously has the tism. Recognized that the "big board" wasn't random at all but had only a couple preprogrammed patterns that it followed and Larson memorized them by recording the show on VHS and rewatching them.

Click to expand...


This sort of "movie based on a show from the 70's and early 80's" has been a bit of a thing lately, between Late Night With The Devil (fictional but yeah) and the Dating Game Killer movie with Anna Kendrick. Between these movies and the Atari Collection on Switch, I've been getting nostalgic for an era I didn't even exist for and it's kinda crazy.

I've heard of this incident but I never actually saw it before. That is NUTS. At some point it becomes statistically completely unbelievable for him to keep, well, pushing his luck, and even the audience gets kind of hushed like "what is going on". I wonder what point he could have stopped at without the producers knowing he cheated.

Edit: After finishing the whole clip, quite frankly, what he did was so challenging to pull off that he deserved the money. Even if someone knows the algorithm, good luck actually memorizing and carrying it out like he did.

Paul Walter Hauser is PERFECT to play this dude
 
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Mahes

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That is not cheating. Cheating is when you find a way to alter the rules in your favor. He did not change the rules. It was not his fault that the system was not truly random. It should have been. He worked for the money. He had to have practiced for hours and hours to get that timing down. Despite all that, he could have miss timed that press on any one of those hits. I remember watching this show and thinking how it seemed like there was a pattern on how the system jumped from one to another. He saw the pattern and then studied it. Producers did not count on both a person studying it and having the skill to nail it every time. That was incredible to watch.
 
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Vuuxo

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Rajaah said:
This sort of "movie based on a show from the 70's and early 80's" has been a bit of a thing lately, between Late Night With The Devil (fictional but yeah) and the Dating Game Killer movie with Anna Kendrick. Between these movies and the Atari Collection on Switch, I've been getting nostalgic for an era I didn't even exist for and it's kinda crazy.

I've heard of this incident but I never actually saw it before. That is NUTS. At some point it becomes statistically completely unbelievable for him to keep, well, pushing his luck, and even the audience gets kind of hushed like "what is going on". I wonder what point he could have stopped at without the producers knowing he cheated.

Edit: After finishing the whole clip, quite frankly, what he did was so challenging to pull off that he deserved the money. Even if someone knows the algorithm, good luck actually memorizing and carrying it out like he did.

Paul Walter Hauser is PERFECT to play this dude
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That's the thing. He wasn't cheating. He exploited the patterns within the games rules. What he did was a loophole that I don't think even the producers knew about. If they did know, they must have hoped no one would figure out the pattern.
 
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Void

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Just because something isn't "cheating" doesn't mean they will allow it. Counting cards in a casino isn't cheating by any stretch of the imagination, but you'll get banned if they notice you doing it all the same. And counting cards is vastly easier than what I assume this guy did (haven't watched it yet, but I want to now).
 
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Mahes

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Void said:
Just because something isn't "cheating" doesn't mean they will allow it. Counting cards in a casino isn't cheating by any stretch of the imagination, but you'll get banned if they notice you doing it all the same. And counting cards is vastly easier than what I assume this guy did (haven't watched it yet, but I want to now).
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This is true. It still is not cheating. The company just will not tolerate the action of gaming the system. Cheating is when you break the rules. The rules were not broken. Now I will watch this just to see how they did react. That being said, this person would get every dollar or courts would get involved and the TV producers would lose.

In a casino, I imagine you can count cards....once(If you are just by yourself using your brain). If they get wind of it, they probably just escort you out and you are banned. Nowadays that Ban could carry over to all casinos in the area. Now if you are using a second person....that is cheating.
 
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Kajiimagi

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Wow this was way better than I thought it would be. Not sure how much they stretched the truth but it was a good movie. Solid 6.5/10. Probably won't watch it again but I don't regret seeing it.
 
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Gravel

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It was...fine.

Somehow they managed to make something more boring than actually just watching the episodes themselves. All that other crap just took all the wind out of the sails of the excitement that was the event. Yeah, maybe it gave some backstory, but it seemed low stakes and I have no idea whether it was true to life.

Only reason I really watched it is cause 90 minute movies are so rare nowadays, and yet, an hour into this one I was ready for it to be over.
 
Brikker

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Kajiimagi said:
Wow this was way better than I thought it would be. Not sure how much they stretched the truth but it was a good movie. Solid 6.5/10. Probably won't watch it again but I don't regret seeing it.
Click to expand...

Why is 65% "good"? Is this No Movie Left Behind or some shit
 
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Sylas

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Brikker said:
Why is 65% "good"? Is this No Movie Left Behind or some shit
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65% is good to great. not quite excellent.

50% is average. nearly every movie ever made falls into this category.

Let me see how many 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 out of 10s you've given for movies in your life then we can judge what you think a 6.5/10 movie is.

Now I'm guessing, but you are probably one of the retards who shit all over a movie and then assign it a 5/10. You dumbasses don't know you can just say 1/5 stars and call it a day, no you got to pollute the standard distribution model with your retarded takes.

it's ok, like 99% of people who judge movies or post reviews do this, they judge film like an inverse of how women judge men's appearances
 
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Burns

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Sylas said:
65% is good to great. not quite excellent.

50% is average. nearly every movie ever made falls into this category.

Let me see how many 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 out of 10s you've given for movies in your life then we can judge what you think a 6.5/10 movie is.

Now I'm guessing, but you are probably one of the retards who shit all over a movie and then assign it a 5/10. You dumbasses don't know you can just say 1/5 stars and call it a day, no you got to pollute the standard distribution model with your retarded takes.

it's ok, like 99% of people who judge movies or post reviews do this, they judge film like an inverse of how women judge men's appearances
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Sure, but no. We have all been taught by video game reviewers, since at least the 90s, that they may say they have a 10 point system, but really only use a three point system (unless it is utter trash or full of bugs). Which means that "good" games are at a minimum, 7 or higher. This was seemingly adopted by the majority of the public when rating both movies and games. So a 65% movie is not worth watching, just like a 65% rated game is not worth playing!
 
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Vuuxo

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I posted the actual episode in this thread which was way more entertaining than the movie. Just watch the episode.

*Edit* For those asking, in my opinion the real episode is more entertaining than the movie. However, the movie does dive into the reactions behind the cameras and in the production room. I don't know if the accurately shows that but the movie gives you both sides.
 
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Hateyou

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The movie was entertaining, it did make me curious to watch the actual episode. Watching the episode was more fun than the movie as the crowd was going apeshit the whole time. Seeing the behind the scenes reactions and trying to figure out what he was doing was good in the movie, wonder if that’s how things were actually going or if they made that part up.
 
ShakyJake

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So would y'all recommend watching the episode first then the movie or vice versa? This sounds super interesting.

There was a History series many years ago called "Gaming Vegas" or something.... Could be wrong on the title...but dramatized real life individuals that figured shit out in Vegas and games the systems. Was a great series and recommended it if you can find it still. This was probably 10+ years ago.

EDIT: Breaking Vegas was the name of the series.

www.imdb.com

Breaking Vegas (TV Series 2005– ) ⭐ 8.4 | Documentary, Drama

1h
www.imdb.com www.imdb.com
 
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Hateyou

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ShakyJake said:
So would y'all recommend watching the episode first then the movie or vice versa? This sounds super interesting.

There was a History series many years ago called "Gaming Vegas" or something.... Could be wrong on the title...but dramatized real life individuals that figured shit out in Vegas and games the systems. Was a great series and recommended it if you can find it still. This was probably 10+ years ago.
Click to expand...
It sounds like you would like the movie more, to get the dramatized part, then check out the episode. I didn’t watch the full episode but skimmed parts of it then watched like the last 15 minutes.
 
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Movie information in first post provided by The Movie Database
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