Everyone loves a good action-filled movie that takes us on an unexpected ride. But you don’t need explosions and high speed car chases to get that big screen excitement. Famous scenes featuring intense gambling showdowns can be a great source of entertainment and there are some fantastic efforts out there that have honed these features in order to produce quite remarkable, interesting, and dramatic and thoroughly engaging movies.
CASINO
This gritty and often excessively violent mafia-related offering from award-winning director Martin Scorsese was based on the novel ‘Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas’ by Nicholas Pileggi and real-life characters associated with organized crime and mob ties in Vegas feature heavily. Robert DeNiro plays Sam “Ace” Rothstein who is hired by the mob to run the fictional Tangiers casino in Vegas. The movie is a great, albeit fictional, look behind the scenes at just how the mob controlled many casinos across Vegas which resulted in skimming and killings and helped fund organized crime around the country.
21
Heist drama ‘21’ was also based on a book and told the story of a group of MIT students who attempt to bring down the house in Vegas. Ben, a senior math major, is desperate for money in order to pay his fee into the Harvard Medical School to which he was recently accepted in to. He is spotted by MIT professor Mickey Rosa, played by Kevin Spacey, who then discreetly coerces him into joining his blackjack team. The team work a card counting system that allows them to have the edge over the house and win thousands in casinos across the gambling capital. But due to plenty of back-stabbing, manipulation and plain bad luck things soon start to go awry for young Ben.
CROUPIER
Actor Clive Owen starred in the title role of this rather interesting little British thriller which really helped to launch the Brit stars career. Its neo-noir style added to the atmosphere and there is plenty of mystery and character development to keep audiences interested. What’s more is that its portrayal of a casino was one which was well praised and thoroughly believable.
CASINO ROYALE
In Daniel Craig’s first outing as secret agent James Bond we got to enjoy just as much excitement outside of all the general 007-based action and thrills we have come to expect from the long-running franchise. There was plenty of poker action on show that pitted Bond against the movies main antagonist Le Chiffre in a high-stakes Texas hold ’em tournament. Bond has to deal with many violent distractions in between table time but ultimately comes out as the victor winning a $115-million-dollar hand.
RAMPAGE
If you happen to watch only one scene from this movie then you will no doubt be enticed to watch the rest to find out what all the hype is about. Rampage’s most memorable scene begins when a man walks into a day time bingo club to find a number of pensioners around the room imitating sky bingo. The character is dressed in a Kevlar suit and some it becomes evident that he is a supervillain intent on revenge. He marches over to the food counter where he orders a sandwich and iced tea, takes a seat and nonchalantly places his two semi-automatic weapons on the table in front of him. Nobody bats an eyelid as until he walks up to the bingo caller and grabs a ball out of her hand, calls the number, the makes his way to the door. Confused? Maybe. Intrigued? Definitely.
