The Best & Worst Gambling Movies

I live in Las Vegas, so people ask me my opinion on gambling movies all the time.  When I taught classes at the Le Cordon Bleu Culinary College here in Las Vegas, one of my students actually won $100,000 gambling on the Strip!  Gambling as a concept has had quite the history when it comes to its representation in film.  With new films in this broad category coming out just about every year, quality has varied wildly, with some being smash hits or cult sensations, and others disappointing or little-noticed flops. Here, we’re looking back on a few installments on both ends of the scale, and why they ended up where they did.

The Best

Casino Royale

Perhaps the most well-known of modern gambling movies, Casino Royale marked the start of the wildly popular Daniel Craig series of James Bond films. Agent 007’s resume in cinematic history is an extensive one, with several actors having taken on the part (and a female lead set to jump in next), but Casino Royale essentially reset the franchise around Craig, with a caper revolving around a high-stakes card game among wealthy and dangerous figures. Bond’s mission is to ensure that the terrorist loses the game, and therefore his funds, such that they can’t be put toward nefarious means.

The film goes to great lengths to establish the tension and stakes involved in gambling games such as this one, and of course, injects some extra drama via the vague threat of future terrorism.  It was also perfectly timed. Casino Royale came out in 2006, at the tail end of the televised poker boom, just when the general public was perhaps at its most knowledgeable about the game. This cultural relevance, combined with Craig’s brilliant blend of tension and playfulness, helps the poker steal the show even in a film that was primarily a spy drama.

Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

This one’s probably stretching it a bit, but it’s such a good movie that it’s worthy of inclusion despite not being a traditional gambling film. Indeed, the film’s entire plot revolves around a casino heist, rather than casino games. After Danny Ocean (George Clooney) wraps up a prison sentence related to a prior theft, he immediately starts to put together his dream team of thieves and specialists to pull off the biggest heist of his career. The film pulls off a masterful balance of lovable characters, tense and exciting crime scenes, and humor to create a joyous and memorable ride. And though there’s relatively little actual gambling in the movie, there is a fairly strong poker scene in which Brad Pitt’s character is teaching B-list celebrities how to play. And beyond this, so much of the movie takes place in the presence of twinkling casino floors and jingling slot machines that you practically feel like you’ve taken your own trip to Vegas after you watch it.

The Worst

Runner Runner

Runner Runner hit theaters with a sleek and sexy look to it. It starred Ben Affleck at an interesting point in his career and Justin Timberlake just when it looked like he might become a movie star, and it took a more modern approach to gambling, with a plot about online gaming as opposed to in-person casino activity. The trouble was that it wound up portraying a ludicrous view of the online industry, framing it as some sort of mafia-esque crime web rather than the thoroughly regulated business it is in real life. Protagonist Richie First (Timberlake) uncovers shady details about a major online poker site, and winds up stumbling into an over-the-top action plot as he seeks to expose the truth.

It’s also worth noting that something like it could be attempted again, potentially in a more careful and realistic manner. Since its release in 2013, the online gaming industry has become more familiar to more people, and with the U.S. now hosting online casinos as well, Hollywood’s audience would relate more to this sort of subject matter. There would just have to be a more believable plot and a less sensationalist approach.

21

Like Casino Royale, 21 revolved around card games, and specifically blackjack, in this case. I really liked this movie and thought it was a lot of fun, but it changed what actually happened in real life to make it more Hollywood-friendly.  The film was a highly dramatized adaptation of a real-life story about a college professor using brilliant math students to essentially establish a weekend card-counting gang. But while that’s a fairly intriguing setup, it was clear 20 or 30 minutes into the film that it didn’t really have the juice to support a Hollywood project. Vague attempts at snappy dialogue, stylish scenery, and ultimately sex appeal came across as rather blatant efforts to keep things interesting.  On top of that, the studio also made the rather unfortunate decision to alter the ethnicities of the characters during the adaptation process. In real life, the blackjack players were mostly all Asian-American, whereas the characters in the film are white and British. Throw in the involvement of the later-disgraced Kevin Spacey as the lead character (the professor), and this film is continuing to drop in the gambling movie ranks.

How would you rank some of these casino films?  Have you ever been to Las Vegas?  I don’t actually gamble so people think it’s funny that I live here.  Vegas has some of the best entertainment in the world, fantastic restaurants, a surprising number of excellent festivals, tons of parks, great hiking and rock climbing, and awesome conventions that come to town.

For about a ten-year span, the casinos in Vegas added kid-friendly features to turn Las Vegas into a family destination.  My kids were young, so it was great.  Casinos had fun game arcades, kid-themed restaurants, and clean attractions.  It didn’t take long before they realized kids don’t gamble and bring in very much money, so they decided to fully embrace what Vegas is really known for and the motto “What Happens In Vegas, Stays In Vegas” was born.