Gambling has been Hollywood’s one of most sought-after topics for the past century or so. The tension and drama happening in a casino translate well into the silver screen. Thus directors have always loved adopting these settings into their products with minor tweaks to give viewers a nice adrenaline rush.
People always enjoy a good Hollywood adaptation of a popular casino incident just like they enjoy gambling on spin palace NZ. Here’s a list of 5 gambling-based Hollywood films you should definitely check out if you haven’t seen them already.
21
Release Date: 28th March 2008
Production Cost: $36 Million
Box Office Collection: $160 Million
IMDB Rating: 6.8/10
This movie is based on the book “Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions” written by Ben Mezrich. This movie depicts the real-world story of six MIT students turned card counters who looted Vegas casinos with their special skills.
When 21 was released, the story of MIT-going card counters was already in pop culture. So, people flocked in the theatres, making it a huge blockbuster, earning nearly five folds of the initial investment. It does an exemplary job of depicting and explaining the decade’s old approach of card counting. So, if you’re a Blackjack fan, you’ll have a good time watching 21.
Casino Royale
Release Date: 14th November 2006
Production Cost: $152 Million
Box Office Collection: $600 Million
IMDB Rating: 8/10
Casino Royale belongs to the famous British spy franchise James Bond. In this film, Daniel Craig made his first appearance as the titular character which he has done four more times since then. Casino Royale changed the approach of the Bond franchise by focusing more on badass villains and less on gadgets, which movie buffs loved by the way.
A substantial portion of Casino Royale took place at a casino of the same name. There, Mr Bond showed his Poker playing skills in a high-stakes game against the main villain of the film Le Chiffre. He also did a great job explaining the importance of identifying the tells of an opponent during Poker. If you love the action of both physical nature and on a Poker table, this movie will keep you stuck to the screen for two and a half hours.
Maverick
Release Date: 20th May 1994
Production Cost: $74 Million
Box Office Collection: $184 Million
IMDB Rating: 7/10
The film adaptation of late 50’s tv show of the exact same name, Maverick shows the story of a con man as he tries to make an entry into a high stake game of Poker. Mel Gibson played the lead role and did a stunner of a job. What this film did best is, it showcased the life and operations of a 19th-century card shark and how he used cheats and cunning to gain a huge fortune.
Although Maverick portrayed the 19th-century Poker scene decently, the ending is a bit controversial. It showed a series of implausible hands which made the ending cartoonish. If the ending was done in a more climactic fashion, then it would have made this film one of the greatest gambling-based movies of all time.
Ocean’s 11
Release Date: 7th December 2011
Production Cost: $86 Million
Box Office Collection: $450 Million
IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
The multi-starrer movie Ocean’s 11 is the remake of yesteryear’s classic that featured the Rat Pack. Even the Ocean’s 11 had a solid lineup including Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Julia Roberts, to name a few. It shows a team of extremely courageous people trying to pull a heist on Bellagio Hotel during a top-tier boxing match, taking place at the same venue.
Ocean’s 11 is an exceedingly over-the-top storyline when you can just sit back and enjoy without using your brain much. Everything about this movie is fun, including the script, the storyline and the action scenes. It also shows a realistic portrait of a casino’s operation so it should be exciting to watch for gamblers.
Rounders
Release Date: 11th September 1998
Production Cost: $12.5 Million
Box Office Collection: $23 Million
IMDB Rating: 7.4/10
Rounders is a Poker-based movie that shows World Series Poker, and it’s players like Johnny Chan & Doyle Brunson long before they gained popularity. Rounders may not be commercially successful, but it’s definitely a cult classic. Here the lead character didn’t accomplish something huge, instead went through a couple of character developing events.
If you can ignore the couple of Poker mistakes this movie showed, Rounders is a pretty darn good movie. It used the now popular poker lingo so subtle that most people didn’t understand them back then. Unlike a few movies, It didn’t show any flood of unbelievable hands. If you like Poker, you should give it a watch.
Final Verdict
Apart from these five we mentioned, there are a number of other casino-based movies which could not make it to our list. We’ve created our list considering all the factors like box office revenue, cool factor, popularity, screenplay and storyline. If you like to add a movie to our list, let us know by leaving a comment in the comment box.
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