Movies about gambling are dramatic because, by definition, they are at risk. It’s not fun seeing someone attentive and alert but seeing someone online in desperate, irrational hope for the One Big Score. In many ways, players are like this experienced cop who takes One More Case before he retires. They won’t usually finish upstate with peaceful home life.
We have decided to look back over some of the best gambling movies for the Super Bowl annual bonanza. A note about the method: we tried to make sure we emphasized the film game. Few would suggest that Rounders is better than Casino accepting the deal, but Casino is less concerned with playing and more with playing.
1. Vegas Vacation (1997)
All right, so we know that’s not an amazingly good film: it’s undoubtedly the worst holiday movie following the terrible boot of Ed Helms. But give it to us because it can be the funniest, dumb joker of any casino. Clark Griswold develops a gambling problem and is tormented by the played Marty card dealer of Wallace Shawn. So low is Clark’s gambling that he is bucking about $20 in a discount casino to play a game called “Choose a number between 1 and ten” “nope, seven,” said the dealer. Just take his cash. Clark is storming away, he murmured at himself. The concept that a game like this is just a Las Vegas definition and plays in general. Maybe the most real possible card game.
2. Lucky You (2007)
Late Curtis Hanson immediately stopped her brilliant LL.A. in the heat of the now-comprehensive poker series. Curtis. – Curtis. This sometimes hackneyed story is of Eric Bana (Super Star Poker) and his even bigger superstar poker father. The latter has complicated connections confidential/Wonder Boys/8 Mile in Her Shoes (Robert Duvall). In a million sporting movies, we’ve seen this story one million times — it’s also the most significant games at the end — but Bana and Duvall remain honest. This film was a failure at the box office, and Hanson’s hot streak ended.
3. 21 (2008)
21 turns a fascinating business story and an impressive mathematical film into a stupid one, with a few beautiful young actors trying to drive Kevin Spacey (Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Aaron Yoo, Jacob Pitts, and even Josh Gad). Based on the true story for almost ten years of the MIT BlackJack Team. There are debates about Spacey, and the movie has been accused of “white washed,” with whites generally being the key players in real life in Asia. But for a short time, before Spacey is abducted and battered in a hotel room, it is a glimpse of the science behind smart gambling.
4. Let It Ride (1989)
A little comedy about the chronic loser of Richard Dreyfuss, who plays for one day per race bet on a horse. This only encourages him to drive and proceed, and although in a film like Uncut Gems, this may prove to be a cataclysm, in the 1980s, it was just a wacky comedy. Let it travel gets most of Teri Garr’s mania, of David Johansen, and Jennifer Tilly. Volatile Slot Ride has a fantastic show to show. But say they don’t display this one at anonymous gamblers conferences.
5. Maverick (1994)
Some time ago, Mel Gibson was such a light and dynamic leader that a big studio film could survive on his charm as a card-shark and a con-man. Maverick is a bit overloaded, too long, with Richard Donner’s wanted epic Western dimension, based on the 1950s popular TT.V.series (and co-starring the show, James Garner). However, the film is still delightful, notably from Jodie Foster, Gibson’s friend, who has a blow to play a role which otherwise she spent many days in her career avoiding as an evil woman. This is a giddy gas to see her.