HARD EIGHT + CASINO ROYALE + CASINO + ROUNDERS + FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS: Top Casino Movies
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Casino films have an intrinsic drama because they are, by definition, about risk. It's not fun to see someone be intelligent and careful. Still, it may be exhilarating to see someone repeatedly putting their life on the line in the desperate, illogical hope of making that one colossal score.
Casino and gambler's lifestyle films have been a staple of the business from the early days of filmmaking. Many of them are accurate representations of everything that goes on in the gambling world, such as thrill, misery, and the constant sensation that your next wager would bring you the jackpot, among other things.
Casinos and online casinos have been a part of human culture since the dawn of time, so it's no wonder that several films have been created about them throughout the years. Movies about casinos were set in a variety of historical periods and settings. Many of them whisk us away to exotic locales such as Atlantic City, Monte Carlo, and Las Vegas, to mention a few. So, let's begin our tour through the best cinematographic achievements in the casino industry. You'll have a thorough list of the best casino films ever created by the time we're done, all of which you should see.
Hard Eight
Paul Thomas Anderson's first feature, a continuation to his short film Coffee & Cigarettes, was a tremendous headache for the inexperienced filmmaker, and he almost lost the rights to it. And, while it doesn't quite measure up to PTA's masterworks, it's a fascinating debut, a portrait of a lonely man who has learned to exist in the underworld of Las Vegas by remaining quiet and unassuming until he encounters individuals who need his help. It's less flashy than you'd expect from Anderson's debut picture — he was saving his genuinely bravura material for Boogie Nights — but it's incredibly moving: the film appears to grasp Las Vegas and the men you never notice when you're there, on a transcendent level.
Casino Royale
The re-make of the 1973 film of the same name is one of the most well-liked 007 films because it portrays a sleek picture of the high-stakes world of class, risk, and riches. Follow the exploits of Daniel Craig's James Bond, the world's most famous secret agent, as he sets out on a mission to prevent Le Chiffre, the banker of multiple global criminal organizations, from winning a high-stakes game of Texas Hold'Em at Le Casino Royale in Montenegro. Preventing the terrorist from winning the poker game would spell the end for numerous groups, as they would no longer operate due to a lack of blood money.
Of course, because we're talking about Agent 007, you can anticipate a lot of violence and dirty mind games. However, it still maintains the elegant Bond movie atmosphere and portrays the world of money laundering through gaming effectively. This timeless film has sparked a lot of interest in the online gambling community since its initial debut.
Casino
Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci teamed up for the fifth time in 1995 to make Casino. It had been five years since the critically acclaimed mafia epic Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese, who had also directed Casino, had swept the globe by storm. Casino is a lesser-known gangster epic with similar themes, plots, styles, and casting, but because it is set entirely in Las Vegas, it is arguably the most well-known of all gambling films. It can be quite a hard watch at times and isn't for the faint-hearted.
Despite the absence of stressful poker hands, pool hustling, odds-fixing, or a true love tale, it is primarily regarded as one of the best Vegas films. The movie is based on actual events, including greed, deception, money, power, and murder. But such is the action-packed picture of Vegas during the final years of mobster dominance that it's easy to forget gambling isn't the film's theme; it's just the common denominator that binds everything together.
Rounders
The main character in Rounders is Matt Damon, who portrays Mike McDermott, a teenage hotshot in New York's underground poker scene. Mike loses his whole bankroll in a high-stakes poker game against Russian mobsters at the film's beginning. He swears he'll do things the right way from now on and stops playing poker for a while.
Mike's old poker partner Worm's release from prison drives him back down the path of poker and gambling. Mike is compelled to remedy Worm's blunders as they get into more difficulties with the worst kind of guys, such as Teddy KGB, once more. Rounders will see relationships fall apart and hopes revived in a drama that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the credits roll at the end. Rounders is the ideal film for any card enthusiast, and it appears that the general public enjoys it more than most other gambling films, owing to the excellent acting and relatability of the characters.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, based on Hunter S. Thompson's iconic collection of essays about a far-out, trippy, and at times dangerous road journey across the western United States, has a cult following, unlike any other casino picture. Thomson has been granted a substantial sum of money to cover a major athletic event in the desert. What better way to spend it than bringing his crazed Samoan lawyer along for the voyage, laden with narcotics and the desire to find the American dream?
Hunter and his companion may not discover the meaning of life. Still, they do come across gamblers, unscrupulous cops, drug takers and sellers, weird hitchhiker's and even some phantom bats and enormous lizards. This isn't the Vegas that the advertisements want you to see. It's scary, insane, and sinister, and it's a gloomy reflection of western culture as a whole.
