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Best Gambling Movies of All Time (1 Viewer)

oh my mistake. I thought it was POKER related movies. Its gamblin'. so here it goes again

1. Rounders
2. Casino Royale
3. Lucky you (for the same reason above)
4. Oceans 11
5. The grand
6. Runner runner
7. Maverick
8. National Lamp vegas vacation
 
i cant beleive that i forgot about 8 men out. thats one of my top 5 movies period.

john sayles is gr8.
 
Best gambling film of all time is The Sting, hands-down. C'mon, it was nominated for 10 Oscars and won seven, including Best Picture. It's not only the best gambling film of all time, it's one of the best films of all time, period.

Jack, I think you will really enjoy A Big Hand for the Little Lady. Solid film imo, and I typically dislike movies from that era and earlier. Incredibly talented cast and a delightful script.

@detroitdad, if you've not yet seen The Sting, sit down with the wife and enjoy a couple hours of pure audio/visual entertainment. Great stuff.

 
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The Cooler is easily top 5 for me. William H Macy is great, but Alec Baldwin steals the pic with one of his best performances ever.
 
jbutler said:
I think I heard of this one at one time, but never checked it out. Added to my To Watch list...
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Just don't have high expectations. After all Sly is in it. Also the poker scenes aren't good, either. So why the hell do I like it? Love Thandie so maybe that's why.
 
Did anybody mention Rat Race? Not greatest of all time, but compared to some of the crap mentioned here it deserves some attention; as a comedy, of course. Hilarious gambling action!
 
B.C. said:
Looking forward to your take on Mississippi Grind. Watched it today. Outside of anything else, Ben Mendelson is outstanding.
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Saw it earlier this evening and I absolutely loved it. Ben Mendelsohn was indeed outstanding and Ryan Reynolds even turned in a good performance. I don't know if it will be as frequently rewatched as California Split or Rounders, but it will definitely displace something - probably House of Games - on my top ten gambling movies in the OP.

It followed California Split's structure relatively closely, but has some seriously heavy scenes whereas Split was much more light-hearted for the most part. But it also had some absolutely hilarious scenes and lines as well. Some of my biggest laugh moments didn't seem to play well with everyone in the theater where I watched it tonight, but I think anyone with familiarity with live poker and gambling more broadly will find a ton of humor here.

Definitely worth going out of your way to see.
 
Finally got off my ass and wrote a brief little review of Mississippi Grind here in the larger movies thread. Still have this one on my mind several days later. Great movie.
 
jbutler said:
Finally got off my ass and wrote a brief little review of Mississippi Grind here in the larger movies thread. Still have this one on my mind several days later. Great movie.
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I had the chance to watch it Saturday: great, great movie!! Your review is SPOT ON Jack... It's so refreshing to watch a movie that doesn't follow the 'modern' Hollywood formula of trying to appeal to the lower common denominator in every aspect... Glad you mentioned the soundtrack of the movie as it's outstanding and it fits the style the flick perfectly... It's certainly not trying to please a large audience since it seems real blues falls in deaf years nowadays... I so wish there were more movies with that spirit... I was ready to call Mississippi Grind one of the best movies of the last few years but for one small point: Reynolds acting... I know you kinda liked his performance but for me, for some reason I cannot articulate, it felt out of place... It's not that it was bad (it wasn't) but made me not understand his character completely if that makes sense... Even with that in mind, it's easily among the best movies I watched the past couple of years...
 
ChaosRock said:
I had the chance to watch it Saturday: great, great movie!! Your review is SPOT ON Jack... It's so refreshing to watch a movie that doesn't follow the 'modern' Hollywood formula of trying to appeal to the lower common denominator in every aspect... Glad you mentioned the soundtrack of the movie as it's outstanding and it fits the style the flick perfectly... It's certainly not trying to please a large audience since it seems real blues falls in deaf years nowadays... I so wish there were more movies with that spirit... I was ready to call Mississippi Grind one of the best movies of the last few years but for one small point: Reynolds acting... I know you kinda liked his performance but for me, for some reason I cannot articulate, it felt out of place... It's not that it was bad (it wasn't) but made me not understand his character completely if that makes sense... Even with that in mind, it's easily among the best movies I watched the past couple of years...
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I'm not typically a Ryan Reynolds apologist, but consider this (spoilered because character details revealed):

Because his character is so heavily putting it on with his pseudo-charming Neal Cassady-esque persona, Ryan Reynolds' faux bravado and general douchiness actually works imo. Reynolds' facade allows the character's facade to be presented more believably, cracks in the exterior and all.

But I can understand why it would still be a little grating.
 
jbutler said:
Saw it earlier this evening and I absolutely loved it. Ben Mendelsohn was indeed outstanding and Ryan Reynolds even turned in a good performance. I don't know if it will be as frequently rewatched as California Split or Rounders, but it will definitely displace something - probably House of Games - on my top ten gambling movies in the OP.

It followed California Split's structure relatively closely, but has some seriously heavy scenes whereas Split was much more light-hearted for the most part. But it also had some absolutely hilarious scenes and lines as well. Some of my biggest laugh moments didn't seem to play well with everyone in the theater where I watched it tonight, but I think anyone with familiarity with live poker and gambling more broadly will find a ton of humor here.

Definitely worth going out of your way to see.
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Finally watched this tonite and at this point will place it at the top of the heap of my short list (above California Split and Rounders). Great performances and themes and I hadn't counted on the soundtrack being so awesome (several tunes added to degenalist). Perfectly portrays the loneliness and comradery of the degen life as a buddy movie while giving depth to each character's flaws and failures. All the while I'm rooting for both of them. My inner degen was so jealous of the epic road trip while Angel Courage was appalled and beguiled by some of the low points, moral shortcomings, and sheer disregard for self and others. Oh, and Bulleit bourbon FTW.
 
jbutler said:
And don't forget the pivotal role Woodford Reserve plays in the film...
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Absolutely, and they drank it neat as it should be. Plus, bet the ponies. It was like a DCS warm-up.
 
FYI - Mississippi Grind is now available on Amazon On Demand. Tried to convince the wife to watch it the other night, ended up vetting Tomorrowland for the kids instead.
 
snooptodd said:
FYI - Mississippi Grind is now available on Amazon On Demand. Tried to convince the wife to watch it the other night, ended up vetting Tomorrowland for the kids instead.
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My condolences for having to sit through Tomorrowland.
 
It wasn't horrible ... once again, the trailer outperformed the film and my hopes were higher than reasonable for a just-okay film.

I'm pretty sure I would have liked Mississippi Grind a lot more.
 
Toby said:
I quite liked The Music of Chance back in the day
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Never saw or even heard of that one. Will check it out.

The title reminds me of a song I like that many would probably call a guilty pleasure. Cheesy as hell, but I love it.

 
The Cincinnati Kid is showing on TCM tomorrow afternoon. Please don't call for the tournament director when they say "I'll see your ___ and I'll raise you ___" as they throw dollars onto the table.
 
jbutler said:
Yeah that's a fair view for sure. I can certainly watch segments of Vegas Vacation on a loop. Clark and Eddie in that shitty casino will never not be hysterical.

I'm not sure what it says about a movie when I can rewatch it basically infinity times, but there are definitely some in that category for me and, as you said, there's only a limited correlation between my all time favorite movies and those that I can rewatch forever. My rewatch on a loop forever list:

Rounders
Halloween
The Big Sleep
Half Baked
Do The Right Thing
Alien
The Big Lebowski
Goodfellas
Fargo
Office Space
Pulp Fiction
Prometheus
Election
Major League
Die Hard

Actually maybe there's a stronger correlation than I realized between my favorites and those I can rewatch.
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Endless loop for me:
Warriors
Point Break
Heat
True Romance
Rounders

Gambling movies:
Rounders
21
Runner Runner
Ocean's 11
The Gambler
 
-Mississippi Grind-

Ok the movie was awesome, I love the buddy adventure that you really don't know where it's headed. And I tell everyone I know to watch. But one thing that took me out right from the beginning:

Right from the opening scene. Ben comes and sits down at a table. Which seems like a cash game, but I believe later they talk about what place they finished, which makes it seem like a tournament. But thats not really important here. You see one hand play out. Gerry is at the big blind and Ben is in middle position. Preflop the action comes around to Ben and he says, "aces are good, right" and makes it $600. It folds around to Gerry and he slowly calls. Flop comes A82 rainbow. Gerry is first to act, he looks at Ben, then FOLDS!!! First to act and FOLDS! WHAT?! Anyone else catch this?? We've all played some newbie who folds in the middle of a hand with no bet to him, but not Gerry. Gerry is the hardcore grinder that listens to audio poker tells in his car...

Other than that, it was nice to see a more realistic grinder poker movie, with more realistic train wreaks like the AQ vs. AJ later in the movie. I'm always sick of the Bond Casino Royle type movies with straight flush vs. full house hands...

They really need to have some poker players review these scripts before they hit production.
 
jbutler said:
Yeah, there's a PCF at the Movies thread, but I figured people don't need to wade through my ramblings about all the rest just to get to what they really want: degens in movies.

My personal top 10 gambling films (in very rough best to worst order based on their depiction of gambling, not necessarily their cinematic qualities):

California Split
Hard Eight
Rounders
The Cincinnati Kid
The Hustler
The Sting
Let It Ride
Owning Mahowny
The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie
House Of Games

Rounders probably gets more of a bump than it should in that list, but I can't help it - too many good memories of the movie to not have it be pretty high on my list. But they all depict gambling from an honest perspective even if it's in a comedic or an overly dramatized context. I'm sure someone will remind me of one I'm forgetting since I did my list off the cuff, but those are the ones that stick out right now for me.

This thread is coming to mind now, though, because I'm very much looking forward to seeing Mississippi Grind this weekend when it finally opens in the local indie movie house. Would love for it be good enough that I would have to reorganize my above list.


And thankfully it looks to have overall positive reviews, currently at 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. I'm glad because while I'm not the biggest Ryan Reynolds fan, I love Ben Mendelsohn and I love that they chose to set a gambling movie outside of Vegas. They even had casting calls at a dog track in Mobile, AL (reminding me of this guy's insane degen tales), so you know they're getting some legit dirty degen faces in this thing.

Plus, look at that fucking poster - beautiful!

4KDb64f.jpg
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Why have I never heard of California Split?
 
mkiefer009 said:
Why have I never heard of California Split?
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It was never extremely popular and what slight amount of popularity it did have wasn't sustained. It's a Robert Altman film, so it has a lot going for it apart from the gambling and Elliott Gould and George Segal are both great, but ultimately it's probably too specific and too dark to be broadly appreciated.
 
Let it ride is by far my favorite gambling movie.

Movies I watch over and over

Good Fellas
Shawshank
Hunt for Red October
Platoon
Slap Shot
Titanic ( I have know Idea why I watch it so many times but I do so its on the list)
Then there are the comedies from the eighties

Caddy Shack
Vacation
Stripes
and so on
 
mkiefer009 said:
-Mississippi Grind-

Ok the movie was awesome, I love the buddy adventure that you really don't know where it's headed. And I tell everyone I know to watch. But one thing that took me out right from the beginning:

Right from the opening scene. Ben comes and sits down at a table. Which seems like a cash game, but I believe later they talk about what place they finished, which makes it seem like a tournament. But thats not really important here. You see one hand play out. Gerry is at the big blind and Ben is in middle position. Preflop the action comes around to Ben and he says, "aces are good, right" and makes it $600. It folds around to Gerry and he slowly calls. Flop comes A82 rainbow. Gerry is first to act, he looks at Ben, then FOLDS!!! First to act and FOLDS! WHAT?! Anyone else catch this?? We've all played some newbie who folds in the middle of a hand with no bet to him, but not Gerry. Gerry is the hardcore grinder that listens to audio poker tells in his car...

Other than that, it was nice to see a more realistic grinder poker movie, with more realistic train wreaks like the AQ vs. AJ later in the movie. I'm always sick of the Bond Casino Royle type movies with straight flush vs. full house hands...

They really need to have some poker players review these scripts before they hit production.
Click to expand...

I don't think that was bad writing. I haven't seen the movie in a while, but I remember Gerry being kind of a hapless guy. You've never been in a situation where you knew your cards weren't going to win a hand, and you knew it wasn't a hand you were gonna go after anyway? I could totally see a guy like Gerry laying it down right there, especially with that flop.
Good writing, I say!
 

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