Plot

Joey is a stock trader with a gambling problem. He and his wife Ali (Kathleen Robertson

Kathleen Robertson

Kathleen Robertson is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role as Clare Arnold in Beverly Hills, 90210 .-Career:Robertson started taking acting classes when she was ten, and had roles in local theater productions...

) get in trouble with a loan shark Tony (Christopher McDonald

Christopher McDonald

Christopher McDonald is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore, Tappy Tibbons in Requiem for a Dream, and Mel Allen in the HBO film 61*.-Personal life:...

). Kelly Carlson

Kelly Carlson

Kelly Lee Carlson is an American actress and model. She is best known for her role as Kimber Henry on Nip/Tuck. In 2001 she was listed on Tear Sheet Magazines 50 Most Beautiful list.-Career:...

plays Lucy, the loan shark's blonde assistant.

The film was based on an idea of a gambler who ruins his own life and that of his family's by his ongoing addiction to sports gambling and over inflated, self-centered tendencies. Based largely on the life of one time child actor, Shawn T. Lim (whose father continuously paid for his son's owed debts) Player 5150 goes beyond the ongoing narcissistic tendencies of its producer, and creates an allegory for something much more sinister; a sad tale of a producer trying to tell his-own, over-inflated personal story at the literal expense of his cast, crew, and his associates. Insiders say, Shawn T. Lim (son of a rich North Korean window and glass manufacturer in Torrence California) had forsaken his own college education by pilfering it all away on drugs and gambling. The film some note was on track under the steady hand of writer-director David M. O'Neill but not even O'Neill could overcome Lim's self-destructive, self-important, over-grandiose tendencies. Under-financing key departments in the film, Lim did find the money enough to roll in a 25,000 dollar motorcycle to the movie's star, Ethan Embry. Embarrassing his crew yet unbeknownst to himself, producer Lim appeared starstruck with B and C-list actors. Once the majority of the work had done on the film, the narcissistic Shawn T. Lim looked to fly the plane on his own. For Lim and his own efforts, a man incessantly sprawling in vibrato but visibly parched from actual experience, sensibility and/or talent, pushed O'Neill aside to take the helm. The film itself, now flying at 35,000 feet was by the hand of Lim himslef brought down as quickly to a crashing ruin with Lim in the pilot's seat. Player 5150 is a classic case of someone with money who thought he'd get into the film business with the talents of others and his father's resources only to leave a truck-load of talented, hardworking people and their goodwill towards him, decimated. The irony of this film as with Lim destroying his own life, the actual telling of this story shares the same fate. Maybe next time, Mr. Lim will have the restraint enough to let the people make the film who are qualified to do so. What's next for Lim? I think we all hope, it will be nothing in the film business. Player 5150 was released worldwide through First Look Studios. O'Neill's next work, The Black Tulip was selected by the Afghanistan Film Commission's Select committee and was included in in 2011 Motion Picture Academy Oscar race for best Foreign Film.