Based on the popular ’50s television series (and co-starring that show’s lead, James Garner), Maverick is a bit of a bloated contraption, too long and too overstuffed with would-be-epic-and-probably-unnecessary Western scope by Richard Donner. There was a time that Mel Gibson was considered such a light and lively leading man that a big-budget studio movie could coast on his charm as a card shark and con man. But let’s just say they don’t show this one at Gamblers Anonymous meetings. Let It Ride still gets a lot of comedic mileage out of Dreyfuss’s mania and goes a long way on some very fun supporting performances from Teri Garr, Jennifer Tilly, and David Johansen. This just inspires him to push harder and keep it going, and while this might turn out to be a disaster in a movie like, say, Uncut Gems, here, it’s just a wacky ’80s comedy. But only for a moment.Īn odd little comedy about a perpetual loser gambling addict ( Richard Dreyfuss) who, for one day, hits on every single bet at the horse races. But for a brief moment, before Spacey is being kidnapped and beaten in a hotel room, it’s an interesting look at the science behind smart gambling. Spacey is particularly checked-out here, and the movie was criticized for “whitewashing” in its casting, turning the mostly Asian-American real-life players into generic white people. This movie was a disaster at the box office, and Hanson’s hot streak was over.īased on the true (if embellished by author Ben Mezrich) story of the MIT Blackjack Team that beat the house for nearly a decade, 21 turns an interesting math and business story into a sort of dumb heist movie featuring a lot of young, handsome actors (Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Aaron Yoo, Jacob Pitts, and even Josh Gad) trying to pull one over on Kevin Spacey. We have seen that story a million times in a million better sports movies - this even has a Big Game at the end - but both Bana and Duvall find some truth in their characters regardless. Confidential/Wonder Boys/8 Mile/In Her Shoes run with this mostly hackneyed story of a superstar poker player (Eric Bana) with a complicated relationship with his even bigger superstar poker-player father (Robert Duvall). Made in the heat of the now-mercifully-cooled World Series of Poker craze, the late Curtis Hanson put an immediate halt to his terrific L.A. It’s maybe the most honest possible card game. The idea that such a game would exist basically sums up Las Vegas, and gambling in general. Clark is so bad at gambling that, at one point at a “discount” casino, he forks over $20 to play a game called “Pick a Number Between 1 and 10?” He guesses “4.” The dealer says “nope, 7,” and … just takes his money. Basically, Clark Griswold develops an addiction to gambling and is tormented by a card-dealer named Marty played - awesomely - by Wallace Shawn. But you’ll have to just indulge us on this one, because it has perhaps the single funniest, dumbest casino joke of all time. Luckily, a whole lot of them happen to be great movies all on their own.Īll right, so we know this isn’t a very good movie: It’s probably the worst Vacation movie, with the possible exception of that terrible reboot with Ed Helms. We veered more toward movies about the gambling. Few would argue that Rounders is better than Casino, but Casino is less about the gambling and more about the world in which that gambling takes place Rounders is definitely about the gambling. A note on methodology: We tried to make sure we emphasized the gambling over the movie. So, with the release of Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter, we decided to take a look back at some of the best movies about gambling. They usually don’t end up with a calm home life upstate, counting their winnings. It’s not fun to watch someone be prudent and cautious, but to see someone constantly putting his well-being on the line in desperate, irrational hope for that One Big Score … well, gamblers in gambling movies are in many ways just like that veteran cop who takes One Last Case before retirement. Movies about gambling have an inherent drama because, by definition, they’re about risk. This article originally ran in 2020 and is being republished ahead of the release of Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |