Movies celebrating the casino capitals of the world

When the Hollywood Reporter asked everybody from film studios, agencies, publicity firms and production houses in Tinsel Town Hollywood to choose the best movies ever made in an online ballot, they received mixed feedback. Vince Gilligan, the creator of HBO hit show ‘Breaking Bad’, lamented that it was an impossible task and compared it to being faced with a party-sized bag of Nacho Doritos while being told to eat only five.

In the end, and notwithstanding the above, he decided to participate in the poll alongside industry representatives from Disney and Fox, attorneys, filmmakers and producers. Among the movies chosen as favorites, one finds classic Tarantino flick Reservoir Dogs, Ang Lee’s Academy Award-winning masterpiece Brokeback Mountain (featuring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger in the lead roles), and French cult movie and festival darling, Amélie.

At times, the professionals who participated in the ballot were in disagreement regarding their choice for the greatest movie of all time. While directors, writers and agents concluded that The Godfather was the winner, cinematographers chose 2001: A Space Odyssey. In light of this, we thought we would continue with the movie theme in this post – this time focusing on three movies with the casino world as the backdrop.

Casino

The first picture on our list of movies with the casino world as a backdrop is, of course, Scorsese’s Casino featuring Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci. Released in 1995, Casino is a film based on Nicholas Pileggi’s book ‘Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas’ and revolves around Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a gambling expert. Ace is commissioned to oversee the operations of an upscale casino and experiences a range of personal and professional problems (mafia involvement and so on) throughout the film. Casino is well worth a watch and, for those who haven’t had enough of the glitz and glamour after the film finishes, we recommend visiting one of many online platforms featuring classic casino games such as poker. It’s wise to choose a site offering solid advice on state-specific platforms, like Pennsylvania poker sites, for example, where poker has actually been legal since 2017 for those who might not be aware.

Ocean’s Eleven

Star studded movie Ocean’s Eleven has an impressive cast (Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Julia Roberts just to mention the leads), and revolves around Danny Ocean and his ten accomplices’ plan to rob three casinos in Las Vegas at the same time. The movie is based on a classic from the 60s which featured singer-turned-actor Frank Sinatra and has a score of 7.7 on movie site IMDB, along with some pretty decent reviews.

Casino Royale

In this movie directed by Martin Campbell and released in 2006, Daniel Craig plays James Bond, agent 007 in a re-make of the movie with the same title from 1973. Bond’s mission in this picture is to stop Le Chiffre, who is banker to various international criminal organizations, from winning a game of high-stake classic Texas Hold’em at Le Casino Royale in Montenegro. As can be expected, this movie is full of action and classical traits typical for Bond movies, and has created a hype within the casino community since it was released.