Top Three Gambling Movies
Here are our picks for the top three gambling movies for today.Welcome to my page of the latest Feature Movie Reviews. This page will be constantly updated with three new movie descriptions for those of you who don't really know where to start when looking for a gambling movie. Here, you'll find three great gambling movies, picked from the extensive list of gambling movies on this site. Hopefully this short list will at least give you at starting point if you want to watch a gambling movie. On the other hand, you might just be looking for a new gambling movie to watch, and this page might just give you the title of one you've never watched before. Or you saw it long ago, and have forgotten about it until now, that is. So have a look at this list of gambling movies, and if you have a gambling movie in mind that you think should be featured on this page. I'll definitely take your suggestion into account when I'm renewing the information on this page. Enjoy!
| The Gambler - 1974 | |
 | THE GAMBLER, directed by Karel Reisz, stars James Caan in a difficult role as Alex Freed, a compulsive gambler with many inner demons, who is completely out of control. He can't resist a bad bet because that's where the "juice" is. While his irrational rationalizations--largely influenced by Dostoyevsky, whose novel, THE GAMBLER, he teaches to his students at City College--might seem like a lot of existential hot air, they are well dramatized, making his descent downward believable even as his actions become increasingly frenetic. Reisz provides a sound realism to the THE GAMBLER's settings both in Las Vegas and on the streets of New York. Made at the same time as Robert Altman's CALIFORNIA SPLIT, which attempted to visually create the internal world of the compulsive gambler, here Reisz presents a gritty realism to the world of bookies, loan sharks, and their violent enforcers. He relies on Caan, generally a more physical actor, to portray the cultured intellectual who loves Mahler, but is obsessed with danger. Caan starts slowly, and with the help of Lauren Hutton in a good performance as Billie, his predictable blond girlfriend, he illuminates the world of gambling in this tense, realistic film. |
| Factotum - 2006 | |
 | The life of celebrated wildman Charles Bukowski has been brought to the big screen on a number of occasions prior to this adaptation of his book, FACTOTUM. Most notably, Mickey Rourke played Bukowski's alter-ego Henry "Hank" Chinaski in 1987's BARFLY, while 2004’s BUKOWSKI: BORN INTO THIS was a fascinating documentary on the alcohol-fueled writer. This Norwegian production from director Bent Hamer sees Matt Dillon taking on the role of Chinaski. Dillon gets the character just about right, subtly perfecting the deadbeat behavior that leads to innumerable firings from menial jobs, while also offering a persuasive depiction of a man lost in the throes of an addiction to booze, women, and gambling. The crumbs of plot that do exist in FACTOTUM find Chinaski enjoying the sexual wiles of poverty-stricken Jan (Lily Taylor) and rich-girl Laura (Marisa Tomei), but essentially the film is all about one man's long, low meander through a sedentary life. The alcohol frequently gets the better of Chinaski, destroying his chances of becoming a writer, obliterating his job prospects, and curtailing his relationships. But Hamer is careful never to judge Chinaski's habits, simply depositing them on screen and weaving them into the story as if they were as essential to the human condition as breathing or eating. The film progresses at a leisurely pace, Dillon's cigarette-and-alcohol-soaked vocal chords provide voiceover narration at appropriate times, and Hamer carefully crafts one of the finest portrayals of Bukowski yet. Set in Minneapolis-St. Paul, which overflows with the depreciated low-rent apartments and cruddy, soul destroying workplaces Bukowski thrived upon, FACTOTUM is an arresting depiction of humanity at its lowest ebb. |
| Junk Food - 1997 | |
 | This gritty crime drama takes place in the underworld of contemporary Tokyo, following a young woman who gives up her job as a successful computer programmer and her stable lifestyle for the downward spiral of drugs and dangerous sex in the Tokyo fringe. Along the way, director Masashi Yamamoto uses a mix of widescreen cinematography and digital video to provide documentary-style images of this dark subculture -- from gambling to murder to gang violence, Yamamoto vividly captures this degrading, demoralizing lifestyle. |