I love Mark Wahlberg and most of his work. This one gets you thinking. You have to watch it a couple of times to understand what's going on

This was a great movie & ordering on line is a plus.

Mark Wahlberg is intense and compelling as a gambling-addicted university professor in suspenseful crime drama The Gambler, a slick update of a grittier 1974 James Caan movie. But his character’s self-destructive behavior strains the viewer’s sympathy almost as much as it strains that of the people around him, including his wealthy mother ( Jessica Lange), the Jewish mobster he approaches for a loan ( John Goodman), and his most talented creative writing student ( Alison Brie). ‘It’s either victory, or don’t bother’ is his attitude to life, which makes for some gripping scenes as he gets into perilous scrapes with vengeful loan sharks and Korean gangsters.

It’s was hard to know what to make of Mark Wahlberg’s character in The Gambler . The man he plays, Jim Bennett, is a failed novelist, a self-loathing college lecturer, an overgrown trust-fund brat and an inveterate blackjack addict. like the supporting cast ,the gangster (Michael K. Williams) loan shark (John Goodman), his semi-estranged mother (Jessica Lange) Amy (Brie Larson) a promising female student.

Mark Walberg is one of my favorite actors. Always like his movies.