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!
| Poker for Dummies - 2004 | |
 | Poker, the mainstay game of card sharks throughout the US and the world, has gained immense popularity as more and more people play casual games with their families, compete in local tournaments, and become enthralled by televised professional and celebrity tournaments. For beginning players, and more advanced players who want to sharpen their game, POKER FOR DUMMIES offers solid instruction on different types of games, including Seven Card Stud and Texas Hold'em, and tips from professional players. |
| Croupier - 1998 | |
 | "You have to make the choice in life: be a gambler or a croupier, and then live with your decision," says Jack Manfred, the writer/croupier in director Mike Hodges' (Get Carter) terrific film noir-ish character study that gives us a peek at the London gambling scene. There's no flashing neon, Elvis impersonator or choreographed water fountain in the high-roller casino where unsuccessful author Jack (Owen) toils. In fact, with its mirrored walls, cheesy carpeting and outdated furniture, this joint looks more like a New Jersey wedding reception hall than a typical casino. But the lure of the lifestyle is the same, and despite Jack's choice to stick with dealing blackjack and other card games and steer clear of gambling beyond his job, life deals him another hand. Jack's voiceover--usually an annoying movie device that's actually very effective here--reveals much more than his steely outward demeanor does, including his plans to turn his experiences at the casino into a book that eventually becomes a best seller. He also begins to immerse himself into his book's plot, to the point of losing his girlfriend, breaking the workplace rules against sleeping with co-workers and fraternizing with the patrons, and gambling himself. Just as Jack's casino is not the flashing gambling hole we're used to seeing on the big screen, Croupier is not the flashy gambling thriller we're used to seeing on the big screen. And that's a good thing. The jackpot scene: Jack's croupier audition. In one slick scene, he deftly and quickly separates a pile of casino chips and susses out the fact that his boss can't count while showing his own card dealing proficiency. It's quietly exciting in the movie's trademark understated tone. |
| Dr. Mabuse the Gambler - 1922 | |
 | Includes both parts of Fritz Lang's Masterpiece! PART 1: Fritz Lang deftly evokes the soiled and shoddy world of crime-infested and inflation-racked post World War I Berlin in the first episode of his masterpiece, DR. MABUSE THE GAMBLER, PART I. Using special effects, extremely complex editing, fade outs, animation techniques and superimpositions, Lang took the lessons he learned in the supernatural films of German expressionism and applied them to this epic story of the underside of Germany. Employing his supreme powers of disguise and hypnosis, Mabuse surrounds himself with loyal servants and criminal henchmen who assassinate his rivals, manipulate the stock market and seduce wealthy citizens out of their riches. In a seedy underground cabaret, Mabuse, with the help of beautiful dancer Cara Carozza, hypnotizes a bored, wealthy man named Hull. After losing large sums of money to a disguised Mabuse, Hull is warned by police detective Wenk that he has been the victim of a master criminal. Hull ignores the warning as he has been seduced by Cara into thinking it was an honest game. Meanwhile, Wenk solicits the assistance of rich Countess Told in his endless attempts to capture Mabuse and his gang. When Cara is arrested, Mabuse retaliates by kidnapping Countess Told and eluding Wenk and the police once again. PART 2: The dark and mystical adventure of criminal mastermind Dr. Mabuse careens towards its stylized climax in the final episode, which is subtitled THE INFERNO. Part two delves further into Mabuse's maniacal manipulation and dastardly forays into illegal business, as he holds the wealthy Countess Told against her will and conspires against her husband by posing as a psychiatrist. Elaborate costumes and sets--as well as special effects and editing techniques that were well ahead of their time--lend DR. MABUSE DER SPIELER PART II an air of doom and mystery, as Detective Wenk follows Mabuse's wild goose chase further into the underworld of Berlin. Unable to convince Mabuse's former assistant, dancer, Cara Carozza to reveal his whereabouts, Wenk is fooled by a disguised Mabuse, to attend a hypnotism show by master hypnotist Weltman. The pace of the film mimics Wenk's speeding car as the police race to save Wenk from Mabuse's insidious plan and attempt to capture him at his headquarters. Using Countess Told as a shield, Mabuse attempts one last escape from the police. As the showdown erupts in a hail of bullets, leaving Mabuse's survival and ultimate legacy in question, Fritz Lang uses this complex tale of power and evil as a thinly veiled metaphor for the political state of 1920's Germany. |