Hollywood has dabbled in the casino world over the years with many casino games appearing in various movies. The most obvious is the 1995 Martin Scorsese movie Casino, which starred Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci, but what about other casino themed movies, and what films are influenced by which casino games?
Let’s take a look.
Poker
Well, let’s kick things off with poker and perhaps the greatest poker movie of modern times, Rounders. Starring John Malcovich and Matt Damon, the film revolves around a reformed gambler who must return to playing big stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks. Edward Norton and Gretchen Mol also starred in the film, which was released in 1998. Another mention is this year’s Mississippi Grind, which stars Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn as a couple of gamblers who take to the road to win big in a high-stakes poker game in America’s deep south.
Las Vegas
Casinos and online casinos have become very popular over the years, particularly in Sweden and the rest of Europe. If we track back to the beginning of the new millennium, we find another Matt Damon casino-themed film, this time with the added star-power of George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Now, this one doesn’t feature a specific casino game, but there’s quite a few seen within it. Ocean’s Eleven was in fact a remake of an old Rat-Pack movie, and saw a gang of criminals attempt to rob not one, or two, but three Las Vegas casinos. The film was a massive hit, and spawned two more sequels, and there’s even a female-led remake in the works that will star none other than Sandra Bullock.
Blackjack
In 2008, another casino themed film, 21, made its way into cinemas. Starring Kevin Spacey and Jim Sturgess, the film took over $80 million around the world, proving once again that casino movies are a huge box-office draw. The film’s title obviously refers to another casino game, this time Blackjack, and revolves around a group of six MIT students who are trained to become experts in card counting. This true story shows how the group of youngsters took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings.
Those are three of the casino movies that best represent casino games in films, with Hollywood often turning to perhaps the oldest past-time in the world.
