Other Titles • Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie
Synopses for Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie (2002)
1.
Based on actual events, Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie plays like a frat-house blend of Casino and Goodfellas. Originally broadcast on FX, it's got the sanitized veneer of a TV movie, but it's an honest, R-rated appraisal of Bennie Silman, a Brooklyn-born student at Arizona State University who reaped--and lost--a fortune in 1994 by fixing basketball games with the help of star player Stevin "Hedake" Smith. Perfectly cast as Silman, the always-interesting David Krumholtz ("Bernard" from the Santa Clause movies) speaks to the camera, inviting us into his first-person account of money, girls, and the Mafia. It's a party animal's fantasy until the bloody-nosed climax, directed with edgy energy, but not enough substance, by Ernest R. Dickerson (who fared marginally better with his Showtime film Our America). Krumholtz and Tory Kittles (as Smith) make this a compelling enterprise, however, and the real Bennie Silman appears in a coda that roots the movie in harsh, cautionary reality. --Jeff Shannon
2.
Benny Silman was a kid from Brooklyn who fell in love with the culture shock he received when he attended Arizona State University. Beautiful women in bikinis, stunning weather, and the close proximity Las Vegas made Silman's new home a shangri-la. The Vegas trips became so regular that Silman eventually became the campus bookie at ASU, making money off fellow gamblers in the student body. This BIG SHOT took it too far when he began fixing Arizona State basketball games in point-shaving scandal that would stun the collegiate athletic world in 1994 as his short stint as big man on campus came to an abrupt end.
David Krumholz (SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK) is perfectly cast as the Brooklyn transplant in this made-for-cable feature. Using large doses of humor and a knowledge of sport, director Ernest Dickerson spins an entertaining tale of excess that makes a perfect companion piece for his other 2002 cable film, MONDAY NIGHT MAYHEM.
3.
When Barry Silman left Brooklyn for Arizona State University, he felt like he was stepping into a Coppertone commercial. The sun, the beautiful girls...life was good. Once he discovered the bright lights of Vegas and the adrenaline rush of gambling, things got even better. Soon he was the "campus bookie" making good cash and having a blast with his buddies. It wasn't until he began to fix basketball games that the high stakes life began to spin out of control. This is the real-life story of the 1994 Arizona State University point-shaving scandal that rocked the NCAA.
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