irivlin Review of Stacy's Knights

Stacy's Knights (1983)

Girl with amazing ability for Blackjack, breaks casino's bank.

[7/10 · 6 May 2003]

SPOILER BELOW - DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT THE PLOT RUINED! The protagonist, Andra Millian, plays a girl (Stacy Lancaster) who has a natural talent for blackjack. She starts off as a reserved girl with no confidence. Kevin Costner (Who's 27 in this 1982 film and plays Will Bonner) takes a shine to her and infuses her with confidence in herself. He encourages her to take on the casinos. After a debacle at a casino, Costner gets beaten to death by some of the casino's heavies. Anda devises a plan to ruin the casino, with the aid of some guys that she hires to play blackjack, under her watchful eyes. There are large plot holes and the film starts off quite slow. It picks up a lot of momentum and towards the end, the film is quite gripping. In some ways it reminded me of a casino version of the original "Gone in 60 seconds". - Maybe because aspects of the film appeared a little amateurish and other parts of the film seemed "reportage". I'd never heard of Andra Millian before (or since). She does have some acting skills. It was interesting to see Costner in this early film. He easily shone out from all the others in terms of charisma and acting ability. Watch this film for 90 minutes of fairly good entertainment. It's not a great film but it's a good film. Ian Rivlin