Poker is about sweet excitement, it’s about mathematics, cold-bloodedness, a duel of wits, and the ability to deceive your opponent by deviously laying traps. Poker is life in miniature. The hardest thing for a poker player to do is to stop in time, but if you’re watching a movie, you don’t have to. So here are 7 awesome poker and casino movies:
1. Molly’s Game (2017)
Meet Molly Bloom, an American who dreamed of making the Olympic team, but left professional sport because of an injury and became a poker tournament organiser. Not a bad counterargument to parents frightening their children with a career as janitors: firstly, janitors are important guys, and secondly, the same Molly Bloom got into the gambling business by working as a maid.
Leonardo DiCaprio, the Olsen sisters, Tobey Maguire, the inseparable Damon and Affleck — such are the characters Bloom entertained with her tournaments, and the list is actually much longer. On the other hand, the ending to this story of the successful maid is not at all like Cinderella: Bloom was arrested for organising illegal gambling, and things aren’t so straightforward with the wealth in this area of the event. But Molly has released a book, which was adapted by Aaron Sorkin – the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Social Network. Not a bad achievement either.
2. The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
This is the film where poker is really the main character. Most of the timing is at the table, combinations forming close-ups, a whole deck of players of different stripes (from human calculator to those who bet on luck and charisma), confrontation between an acknowledged virtuoso of bluffing and a young talented dreamer — this is “The Queen’s move” in its genre. With the Great Depression in the background and high hopes in the foreground, the tension only grows from such a contrast.
3. Cards, Money, and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
More than a classic in the crime comedy genre, this is brutal storytelling seasoned with unparalleled wit and a hint of British swagger. In Guy Ritchie’s first film, Eddie and three of his friends decide to cash in on Eddie’s poker skills, except for the fact that criminal bosses don’t do anything for nothing. At the end of the game, they owe Harry the Axe Lonsdale half a million pounds, and he has that name for a reason. It’s a film with a gripping plot, inimitable humour, colourful characters and a distinctive and talented direction.
4. The Grand (2007)
A pseudo-documentary about a poker championship. A bored old man, a rocker in a pirate armband, a confident chubby boy in a nerdy waistcoat, a quiet curly-haired smart guy, a sarcastic bearded man in tracksuits and a blonde with a violent facial expression – all the different types of players are brought together and the psychology of the players is worked out to the maximum. Only one will win, but a lot of experience viewers will bring each. Characters count each other out and troll each other, communicate during breaks with their support groups, and commentators and credits with the cards of the players help the audience to follow the game with maximum comfort. Live poker in a feature film is a rarity.
5. Rounders (1998)
Mike is a law student who spends his evenings playing Texas no-limit poker in a location that bears little similarity to a posh casino. He doesn’t simply want to make money; he wants to win the World Series of Poker, period. Mike loses all of his money, quits poker, and pledges his fiancée not to touch the cards since he was thinking with his heart instead of his mind.
But when Worm, Michael’s high school friend whom he owes a lot of money, is released from prison, all of those pledges are broken. Worm’s goofy hairdo and arrogant look reveal why you shouldn’t anticipate anything positive from him.
6. California Split (1974)
The characters in this film want to be followed not with a poker face, but with a facepalm. Bill and Charlie, outside the poker table, are like children who haven’t figured out the rules of adult life. However, in cards, the heroes also often bluff, bet inappropriately, and succumb to the manipulation of the more experienced guys. But failures do not stop the guys, because forever standing up from the table would be to come face to face with his utter unfitness for life. The moral from The Rounders repeats itself: the worst thing here is winning again. One win ruins the one thing Charlie and Bill have managed to build — a friendship. But until the tragic denouement, the film successfully hides its sad motifs behind jokes and first-rate acting, so you shouldn’t bet on dejection alone — a smile will also play.
7. The Gambler (2014)
By day, Jim Bennett is a professor of literature at a good university and author of a notorious book. By night — a gambler unable to keep his unhealthy gambling under control. Jim already owes the casino owner a six-figure sum, but the only way to get the money back is for the man with a steady job and a social package to borrow again and bet again. But even this risk is not enough for Burnett, and the professor has an affair with a student. The clearly socially disapproved character has folded and is ready for a major mining of his life.
The film, in general, is not so much about poker as it is about the consequences of excessive fascination with the game: Jim endangers his own life and the lives of his loved ones, frequently visits the same rake, gets more people involved in his problems and consistently disappoints his family and the audience with his irresponsibility and gambling thirst. This one would have had a Scorsese ending to the story, but here William Monahan has decided to end the story in a different way.
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