Win, lose or draw, casino movies have it all

It's hard to think of many locations that can match up to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood other than Las Vegas, so much that it's proved such fertile ground for screenwriters that they keep coming back for more time and time again. Although, it's not just the glitz and glamour that keep on providing grist for Hollywood story-mill; it's something more than that, it's the place itself. The place where dreams can simultaneously be made and broken, a place where a person can be made a beggar or a king with the roll of the dice or spin of the roulette, a place of danger and adventure. Obviously, when it comes to finding the epicentre of that Vegas roller coaster a person doesn't have to look much further those temples and monuments to glamorous glitz, Casinos.

Casino films have been a staple for the movie going public ever since old Blue Eyes and his eleven Rat Pack rogues took on the house and won. Whether it be Terry Gilliam's adaptation of Fear & Loathing or Soderbergh's slick re-packaging of Ocean's 11 there's a casino movie out there for everyone. In fact I'd hazard to guess that there isn't a movie fan out there that doesn't have at least one favourite casino film, so I thought I'd give you a run down of a couple of mine.

For me top of the list has to be, the capo di tutti capi, Martin Scorsese's epic masterpiece Casino. For me this has to be hands down the best of the bunch and perhaps (dare I say it) Scorsese's last decent film. You can keep his, Di Caprio vanity projects, his Oscar grabs and wistful fairy tales, for me if this had been his final film it would have been his oeuvre complete, a magnum opus. De Niro's Sam 'Ace' Rothstein is without a shadow of a doubt one of the actors finest moments. Pesci's at his bone chilling best as Nicky Santoro, who can forget 'that' scene in the bar with the pen, and let's just say I can't think of a decent role he's had since, at least nothing that comes close. Sharon Stone as the gold digger with a heart of lead most certainly earned her the Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for best actress she received that year. But it's not just about the cast, it rarely is. Scorsese does what he does best, he takes us into the heart of the casino world (and underbelly), he chronicles the end of a glorious era, warts and all. No surprise that Nicholas Pileggi, author of the book on which Goodfellas is based, co-wrote the film with Scorsese, it reeks of the authentic nature of it's predecessor.

Next on my list has to be Wayne Kramer's The Cooler starring William. H. Macy. This dreary tale of the inner workings, or perhaps more accurately in-house scams, of the casino world takes us down the rabbit hole. We see Macy as the 'Cooler' of the title a person with such poor luck it quite literally rubs off on those around him, which is exactly what he's employed to do, stand next to hot players and contaminate them with his poor fortune until they stop winning. Alec Baldwin gives a stellar performance as the malevolent boss, Shelly, whose plan to keep Macy on the casino floor backfires when the woman he hired to sleep with him turns out to be lady luck incarnate. Changing both Macy and Baldwins fortunes irreparably. If Casino chronicles the end of a glorious era then this movie gives us its aftermath, a grim hinterland between the glamorous 60's Vegas and the corporate wonderland of the mega-casino.

And of course no article of this nature would be complete without that icon of the gaming tables, 007 James Bond. Casino sites such as Lucky Nugget recognise that inextricable link between Bond and the casino with games like Agent Jane Blonde; and with Spectre in theatres now that indelible image shows no sign of fading. I can't think of a Bond movie that doesn't feature the nations favourite hero donning his tuxedo and taking to the tables across from some sultry vixen. It could be said that Bond is the embodiment of the casino experience. For me though the finest example has to be the rebooting of the franchise Casino Royale, in which we see Bond battle the powers of evil not with guns or gadgets but his prowess at the gaming tables. A true battle of the wills, a game of wits!