by Deke Rivers
From the outer space milieu of Star Wars to the outback splendour of Crocodile Dundee, the setting is everything.
21
Aussie-gone-Hollywood filmmaker Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde) took Ben Mezrich’s non-fiction book Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, and bent it into a decidedly more Hollywood affair with his 2008 film 21. Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) wants to become a doctor, but the $300,000 he needs for the required five years of school is way, way out of his reach. Ben’s skills with figures, however, eventually put him on the radar of Professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey), who moonlights as a kind of mathematical grifter. He runs a crew of equally gifted students, and pools their considerable talents to create a team capable of “counting cards” on Las Vegas’ blackjack tables, similar to https://real-money-casino-au.com/. Ben soon becomes Mickey’s star pupil, and the money starts tumbling in. Ben is quickly corrupted by all of the cash that’s coming his way, much to the consternation of fellow student Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth). Meanwhile, circling the group is casino security expert Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne). 21 is a slickly entertaining drama that makes the most of its casino settings.
CASINO ROYALE
Sceptics initially cried foul about the choice of British bad boy Daniel Craig (Layer Cake) to play James Bond in the 21st official film in the series. 2006’s Casino Royale, however, was superb – if unconventional – and clearly rated as the best Bond in many years. To take nothing away from Pierce Brosnan’s previous playboy assassin, the producers moved away from his slick portrayal in the gritty new millennium of Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie and The Bourne Identity, and crafted a darker, more realistic leading man, and Daniel Craig rose to the occasion. Stellar moments came fast and early, including a truly memorable chase sequence featuring French “traceur” (urban acrobat) Sebastien Foucan), and pretty much every scene prominently featuring the blood-weeping bad guy Le Chiffre (Dane Mads Mikkelsen). The casino-set card table confrontation between Bond and Le Chiffre is unquestionably one of the film’s highlights, with the coolly glamorous luxury of the casino the perfect background for Daniel Craig’s classy but edgy James Bond.
CASINO
Produced and directed by the great Martin Scorsese, 1995’s Casino captures Las Vegas, aka Sin City, in all of its slick, stylish, over-the-top, glittery, dark-hued wonder. Robert De Niro is Ace Rothstein, a smart mafia-related handicapper recruited to undertake a task for the family, which see him running The Tangiers, one of The Strip’s earliest casinos. A neon beacon of style, The Tangiers may as well have been a SkyCrown Online Casino in the way it made the lifestyle and experience so appealing. Despite his mob connections, Ace Rothstein is not a mafioso himself, so he is offered “assistance” in the terrifying form of professional career criminal named Nicky Santoro, played with incredible gusto by the great Joe Pesci. With Sharon Stone’s beautiful but dangerous Ginger McKenna thrown into the mix, the stage is well and truly set for a classic Las Vegas crime drama. Without question, Casino is one of the best films ever made about the dark magic and majesty of Las Vegas’ casinos.
THE COOLER
In the annals of America’s casinos, a “cooler” is a mythical figure supposedly employed by casinos to make punters’ winning streaks turn bad. Taking this legend as its launch point, 2003’s The Cooler stars William H. Macy as Bernie Lootz, a man whose bad luck is so acute that it’s actually contagious…literally! Lootz spends his days employed by casino boss Shelly (Alec Baldwin) to simply touch high rollers making big bucks and their fortunes soon turn sour. This somewhat dire situation is improved dramatically when Bernie meets Natalie (Maria Bello) who is surprisingly charmed by him. Set largely within the four glittery walls of an old-school casino, The Cooler expertly depicts both the adrenalized thrill of the win, and the bottomed-out bum-trip that is a big loss.
LAST VEGAS
2013’s rollicking comedy Last Vegas fits the prescription for a happily undemanding piece of entertainment. Boasting A-list Hollywood leads of the first order, the film follows four senior buddies who hit Las Vegas for an over-the-top, later-in-life bachelor party. The bachelor is Billy (Michael Douglas), who’s set to wed a much younger woman. The buddies, who became friends in fifties New York, are heavy hitters Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline and Robert De Niro. Together, they have a wonderful comic chemistry, and are terrific fun at all times, especially when proving that age is no barrier when it comes to having a good time at a casino. The boys look right at home amongst the glitter and neon, and the whole film has been made with a very effective light touch.
