Bookies is a moderately entertaining little film that made it's debut at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Driven by a likable cast led by Nick Stahl (In The Bedroom) Johnny Galecki (Suicide Kings) Rachel Leigh Cook (She's All That) and the eternally youthful Lucas Haas, this tale of collegiate entrepreneurs is a fun way to pass an hour and a half.

The guys are college roommates who enjoy making a wager or two on a ballgame. One night they show up late to make the drop on a gambling debt and in order to avoid paying a "double vig" Galecki decides to follow the bag man into his "office" and hand over the money in person. The meeting doesn't result in any bad consequences, but it gives the boys an idea and also foreshadows confrontations they would later have with these career businessmen.

Starting a bookmaking business on campus proves to be no more difficult than applying for an emergency student loan for start-up funding and weaseling their way into a frat party or two in order to drum up some clients. It all goes according to Hoyle and what follows is one of those cliched "rags to riches montages" where their success comes so fast and furious that it's all they can do to keep up with all the money suddenly falling like autumn leafs from the campus elms.

Rachel Leigh Cook plays a gal a little bit out of the boys' league, but owing to his good looks Nick Stahl is able to catch her eye and it is she who winds up being the boys ticket into the frat parties. Cook is a tomboy girl jock whose competitive nature appeals to Stahl's sense of gamesmanship, but her insistence on being a part of the action soon proves to be a bone of contention among they guys - who've sworn an oath of secrecy to protect their interests.

Their salad days are right away threatened by Galecki's cocaine habit, and the conspicuous consumption that the fellas can't resist with all of this cash now at their disposal. Things soon become too big, when a campus cop starts nosing around and the success of the venture makes it all but impossible to keep everything under wraps.

The film comes to a head when Stahl's concern over Galecki's drug problem causes him to agree to suspend their $500 betting limit, if Johnny agrees to clean up his act. Another problem arises when their activities also come to the attention of their rival bookies who we met at the beginning of the film.

Most of the film remains credible enough to stay on track and the final act proves to be well executed and exciting. It ends with a fairly well written twist that I won't disclose. Nor will I disclose whether they all live happily ever and get to take it all with them. Go check it out, Stahl is a great young actor and steals the show in just about every film he's in.