Top 10 Most popular gambling movies:
1. The Gambler - 1974
Actor James Caan was reportedly battling a cocaine addiction
while filming this classic gambling movie. Caan is Axel Freed,
a literature professor with a gambling addiction. His success
and reputation as a professor is not matched by his gambling skills
and he soon begins to attract the attention of local gangster Hips
(Paul Sorvino). Hips tries to help his new-found friend,
but even when Freed has the money to pay off his debts,
the temptation to gamble it all proves too great.
The plot follows Freed's descent into addiction,
as he steps over friends and family to pay off
his ever increasing debts. It soon becomes apparent
that Caan is too much of a thrill-seeker to ever stop,
needing to be close to self-destruction to feel alive.
Caan gives a powerful and convincing performance in a movie
where you do feel sympathy for Freed and his addiction,
despite his willingness to break his mother's heart
and gamble away the money she lends him.
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2. Casino - 1995
Gangster-guru Martin Scorsese
does gambling in this tale of the mob in Las Vegas,
which is based on true-life events. Robert DeNiro
(casino manager Sam 'Ace' Rothstein) and Joe Pesci
('enforcer' Nicky Santoro) team up again to run a Vegas Casino
owned by the Mafia. Spread out over a decade, Casino tells the inside story
of how the Mafia gained and blew, control over some of Las Vegas' famous
gambling establishments. Sharon Stone, as Ace's wife Ginger, delivers an
Oscar-nominated performance, while Scorsese's trademark violent mob-hits
play out across the desert backdrop.
A love triangle emerges when Ginger admits to being in love with her former
pimp (James Woods), adding more complications to Ace's life as he tries to
juggle a drug-addict wife with his ever-expectant Mafia bosses.
As the film progresses, Santoro grows increasingly out of control,
landing Ace in trouble and the Mafia's grip on Vegas in jeopardy. In the end,
Scorsese gives the character his due, with a grizzly baseball bat beating.
Few films portray the murky side of Las Vegas as graphically and violently
as this. Interestingly, Casino also holds the world record for the most
swear words used in a film.
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3. The Sting - 1973
Robert Redford and Paul Newman resume their
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid partnership
in this Oscar-winning tale of a classic poker sting.
Redford plays Johnny Hooker, while Newman is Henry Gondorff,
a pair of 1930s 'confidence tricksters' out to sting mob boss,
Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Lonnegan's men had earlier killed
Hooker's partner, Luther, so the pair decide to take their revenge
by humiliating Lonnegan in a high-stakes poker game. A rouse
is put in place, with a great final scene pitching a supposedly drunk
Gondorff (who replaces gin with water) cheating the cheat Lonnegan.
The Sting, which won Best Picture at the Oscars,
is famed for its stylish use of 1930s sets and ragtime music.
With so many twists and turns, especially at the end, this poker flick
is amongst one of the most entertaining. For its time, the film took
a huge sum at the box office (over $160m) and helped Redford
and Newman build on their status as Hollywood A-list legends.
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4. House of Games - 1987
Not one of the most famous films, nevertheless,
House of Games stands proud as a great depiction
of the mindset of hardened gamblers. Renowned psychologist
Margaret Ford(Lindsay Crouse) agrees to help one of her patients,
a recovering gambling addict, get out of his debt to con-artist Mike
(Joe Mantegna). Ford promptly enters the casino where all the cons of
Seattle come together, but ends up being used by Mike to look for 'tells',
or giveaway body language in his unsuspecting victims.
Director David Mamet uses the same snappy dialogue that would appear
in several of his other films, to build tense moments and keep the film
at a punchy pace. Mamet's one-time wife Crouse and co-star Mantegna
received glowing reviews for their roles, as they become an unlikely
gambling con-artist double act.
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5. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - 1998
From the glitz of Las Vegas, to the grimy streets of London,
out top 10 takes a cockney twist for our next entry. Lock, Stock
and Two Smoking Barrels is Guy Ritchie's 'piece de resistance',
a black comedy that earned its director international acclaim.
Arrogant card shark Eddie (Nick Moran)
and his three friends, Bacon, Tom and Soap
(Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng and Dexter Fletcher)
lose £500,000 to crimelord Harry 'The Hatchet' Lonsdale
in a rigged game of 3-card brag. With the threat of losing one finger
for each day the debt is owed, the gang of four set out to ambush
their next door neighbours; a gang of bumbling thieves who have
designs of robbing some local drug dealers . Soaked in urban grime,
witty one-liners and the odd violent death or two, Lock, Stock and
Two Smoking Barrels is the perfect marriage of gangsters and gambling.
Former footballer Vinnie Jones does what he does best - plays a hardman
with a soft centre, while the rest of the cast play homage to classic
British movies of the past and rock star Sting gets in on the action
as an unflappable bar owner JD.
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6. Ocean's 11 - 2001
As with Casino Royale, we've gone for the glitzier modern version,
rather than the 1960 Frank Sinatra film of the same name.
The all-star cast in this 2001 remake includes George Clooney, Brad Pitt,
Matt Damon, Andy Garcia and Julia Roberts. Clooney is Danny Ocean,
a big-time heist merchant fresh out of jail, who recruits 10 'specialists'
to help him rob 3 Las Vegas casinos in one night.
Cue the best Las Vegas heist in history, full of twists, turns
and heart-stopping moments. If you like you movies with style
and a cool soundtrack then Ocean's 11 delivers. Although the gambling
takes a back seat, you can't help but enjoy Clooney and Co
as they look to relive casino boss Terry Benedict (Garcia) of $150m.
A hit with the critics as well as box offices around the world,
the film was so successful that two sequels have been made,
ingeniously titled Ocean's 12 and Ocean's 13!
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7. Rounders - 1998
Matt Damon, even before his exploits in Ocean's 11, 12 and 13,
was no stranger to a great gambling film. As Mike McDermott,
Damon plays a gambler-turned-law student, who helps his best friend,
serial-cheat 'Worm', repay a huge gambling debt by winning
no-stakes poker games.
Damon is the reluctant hero, split between his girlfriend and new life
as a law student and his best friend and obvious natural skill for poker.
Director John Dahl goes all out to portray the seedier side of underground
poker games, showing the often brutal situations that people can get
themselves into when they are desperate.
Although Rounders was given a lukewarm reception by critics
and at the box office, the film is now something of a Texas Hold'em
cult classic. Many professional poker players, including Jamie Gold
and Chris Moneymaker, cite the film as a reason that poker has enjoyed
a huge rise in popularity over recent years. In case you were wondering,
a Rounder is someone who earns a living exclusively by paying cards.
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8. Casino Royale - 2006
The latest James Bond adventure focuses heavily around a high-stakes
Texas Hold'em poker tournament. Daniel Craig, in his first film as 007,
gets a $10milllion tab from the British Government to take on bad guy
Le Chiffre, a banker to the world's terrorist organisations,
at Casino Royale in Montenegro.
Despite being panned by the media when he was unveiled as the new Bond,
Daniel Craig does a superb job of portraying 007 as originally intended:
a cold, killing machine. His epic card game with Le Chiffre nearly results in
both men dying (at the hands of each during the intervals), while Bond loses
his initial $10 million stake after misreading Le Chiffre's 'tell' as bluffing.
Luckily, CIA agent Felix Leiter gives Bond the $5 million buy-in
so he can do what comes naturally - get the girl and beat the bad guy!
This version of Casino Royale is not to be confused with the 'original'
from 1967 - a spoof spy flick staring David Niven as Sir James Bond,
as he tries to defeat Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) at Baccarat.
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9. Viva Las Vegas - 1964
Not much casino gambling, no film better captures the bright lights
and thrills of 1960s Las Vegas than this classic Elvis Presley flick,
famed for its on- and off-screen magic. The King plays Lucky Jackson,
a racing driver who needs a new engine for his car so he can compete
in the first Las Vegas Grand Prix. To raise the cash he gets a job as a waiter
in a Vegas casino, but is soon distracted by Rusty Martin (Ann-Margret).
Jackson raises the money easily enough, but Count Elmo Mancini
(Cesare Danova) enters the picture to steal both the race and Rusty.
During filming, the movie was dogged by rumours of an affair between
Elvis and Ann-Margret and was delayed thanks to heated exchanges between
Colonel Tom Parker, Presley's manager, and the director, George Sidney.
The Colonel was unhappy over the time spent filming Ann-Margret's
musical scenes, which involved many re-takes, camera angles
and the use of several cameras for each shot.
With showgirls, some classic Elvis pelvic action, top tunes
and a stunning race around the Strip and Hoover Dam, Viva Las Vegas is
revered by Elvis fans as one of his finest and most entertaining movies.
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10. The Cincinnati Kid - 1965
King of Cool Steve McQueen stars as Eric 'The Kid' Stoner, a young
5-card stud poker player with a big reputation, who gets involved in a plan
to humiliate and 'de-throne' veteran card shark Lancey 'the Man' Howard
(Edward G. Robinson). If ever there was a blueprint for a classic card duel,
then this is it! Kid's best friend, card dealer Shooter (Karl Malden),
is blackmailed into fixing a game between the Kid and the Man.
Kid finds out about the fix and doesn't take too kindly - being a
cocky young buck he wants to beat the Man fair and square.
In the epic finale, director Norman Jewison keeps you guessing right up
to the final card turn, bringing a mammoth winner-takes-it-all session
to a thrilling crescendo. Ann-Margret provides the female distraction
as part of an all-star cast of supporting actors. With star turns from
both McQueen and Robinson, many regard The Cincinnati Kid as
one of the few films that's actually better than the book it's based on.