Vincent Van Patten Movies

A hot-shot college card player and a retired poker legend team up to take Sin City for all its worth, only to find themselves going toe to toe in the ultra-high-stakes World Poker Tour. Alex Stillman (Bret Harrison) is a Yale senior with a knack for Texas Hold 'Em. But while Alex dreams of the day he'll be able to dominate the tables out in Las Vegas, he hasn't mastered the art of the cards just yet. Alex's luck begins to change, however, after a chance encounter with legendary poker player Tommy Vinson (Burt Reynolds). Tommy gave up gambling 20 years ago in hopes that he could save his family. He recognizes the potential in Alex, and he's beginning to regain his confidence after two decades of maintaining a low profile. Alex agrees to become Tommy's protégé, and together the pair wins every tournament they enter. But Alex's attraction to beautiful Las Vegas call girl Michelle (Shannon Elizabeth) has caused his attention shift away from the tables, and that distraction has opened up a deep chasm between the emerging talent and the undisputed master. Later, after Alex and Tommy call off their partnership, they find themselves on opposite sides of the table at the prestigious World Poker Tour. Who will take the top prize? Will it be the old pro who promised he would never gamble again or the newcomer who learned all of his tricks from the true master of the trade? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The Travel Channel's highest rated program, World Poker Tour delivers exactly what its title promises: A tour of the top poker-playing locales and tournaments, featuring the best players in the business. Season Three deals out twenty episodes, each with commentary by pro poker player Mike Sexton, actor (Vince Van Patten), and Vince's sister-in-law Shana Hiatt. Opening the season is the fifth session of "Hollywood Home Game", featuring such celebrity poker enthusiasts as Daisy Fuentes, William Shatner, Mena Suvari, Skeet Ulrich, Kevin Wiseman and Chuck Woolery. Joining the fun in subsequent "Home Games" this season are the likes of LeVar Burton, Mekhi Phifer, Bob Eubanks, Mark L Walberg, Kathy Griffin and Jeremy Sisto. Elsewhere, the World Poker Tour players again compete at several events visited the previous seasons, including the third edition of the WPT Invitational. Among the new events covered this season are the Mirage Poker Showdown and the Doyle Brunson North American Championship. Of the occasional "special" episodes (originally telecast outside the official World Poker Tour season), the most intriguing is "The Young Guns of Poker", featuring some of the best players under the age of 25: Joe Cassidy, David Williams, Scott Fischman, Pete Lawson and Thomas Keleler. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The true story of one of the most gifted card players in history provides the basis for this hard-hitting drama. Stu Ungar (Michael Imperioli) was barely in his teens when he first discovered his talent for playing cards, especially poker and gin rummy. His father, a nightclub owner and small-time bookmaker connected with the mob, was impressed with his son's abilities but worried where Stu's reckless instincts towards gambling could take him. As it happens, Stu's father was right to worry; the boy managed to lose all his bar mitzvah money during an afternoon at the racetrack (for all his skills at the card table, Stu had no talent for picking the ponies), and by the time he was 20, Stu was deep in debt to mob loan sharks. Vincent (Michael Nouri), a mob boss who knew Stu's father, gives him a chance to pay off his debts by entering a gin rummy tournament in Las Vegas; Stu wins big and soon finds the Las Vegas lifestyle is to his liking. Stu becomes something of a celebrity when he wins the World Series of Poker tournament in 1980 and 1981, but his appetite for racetrack betting, drugs and prostitutes took its toll, and the great card shark hit bottom before returning from nowhere to win the WSOP a third time in 1996; however, Stu's comeback would turn out to be tragically short lived. High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story also features appearances by Pat Morita, Renee Faia, Joe La Due, and Vincent Van Patten. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The World Poker Tour covers a series of "elimination" poker tournaments in the top casinos throughout the world. Individual episodes boasted such colorful titles as "Bellagio Five Diamond," "Bicycle Casino," and "Ultimate Bet." The concluding program was a winner-take-all competition at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino, with each of the surviving contestants required to pony up 25,000 dollars to play against the previous year's tour winners. World Poker Tour made its Travel Channel bow on March 30, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this youthful sports drama, a former professional tennis player begins acting as a mentor for a troubled teen whose life is being destroyed by an overbearing father. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The second television film to capitalize on the classic original, The Deadly Mission concerns another team of convicts, this time assigned to rescue Nazi scientists working on a chemical-weapons project. Telly Savalas plays a different role than he did in the original (unlike Ernest Borgnine). ~ John Bush, Rovi

A young man tries to break up the oft-disparaged sport of cockfighting in a rural Southern town. He's up against a whole lot of cockfight supporters and could use a few more folks on his side. ~ Rovi

Two cultures clash when a young American man and a French-Canadian woman fall in love while studying at a Montreal college. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Melodramatic and obvious in its ploy to dampen all the handkerchiefs in the theater, Yesterday pulls it off. Gabrielle (Claire Pimpare) is a radical French-Canadian artist from one side of the economic, political, and linguistic tracks, and Matt (Vince Van Patten) is a rich American kid studying nearby at McGill university. The two meet, fall in love, and experience all the excitement of the 1960s. Gabrielle's brother is involved in a separatist fiasco, and politics as well as economic differences push and pull at the couple's relationship. When Matt finally decides he will not run away from his draft notice, he takes off for the Vietnam War leaving -- unknown to him -- a pregnant Gabrielle behind. Fate throws a few curve balls that have a chance at separating the two lovers forever, as the handkerchiefs begin their workout. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Lawrence Kerwin stars as James Hunter, a gawky Oregon teenager who moves to Boston with his family. Suffering the requisite growing pains and insecurities, James has a few problems "fitting in" with his new crowd. The boy's sincerity and likability eventually wins the day, but the ending of the film is left open-ended enough to accommodate the subsequent TV series. Linden Chiles and Lynn Carlin co-star as James' parents, while Kate Jackson plays an "older woman" art student who sets James on the right course when the boy tries to run away from home. This 2-hour pilot first aired on September 5, 1977; the series proper (its name changed to James at 16 on the occasion of the protagonist's first sexual experience!) premiered on October 27, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Finding that he hasn't much time left to live, a man makes needed changes in his life with the help of an angel in this Disney feature. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Earl Holliman and Vincent Van Patten star in the made-for-TV Disney movie The Boy and the Bronc Buster. Van Patten plays a farm kid of the 1880s who joins cowboy Holliman on the rodeo circuit. The plot thickens when the boy discovers that his mentor is a fugitive from justice, wanted for murder. Filmed in Arizona, The Boy and the Bronc Buster originated as a 2-part installment of TV's Wonderful World of Disney. It was first telecast March 18 and 25, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Filmed in Flagstaff, Arizona, The Bravos top-bills George Peppard as a frontier cavalry commander. It is Peppard's job to protect his fort, and the wagon train passengers sheltered within, from the 2000 Kiowa Indian warriors who dot the surrounding hills. This being a 1972 TV movie, the Native Americans are "savage" only when provoked. When they abduct Peppard's son Vincent Van Patten, it is in retribution for the death of their own chief's son. The Bravos was the 90-minute pilot film for a never-sold western series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi