When Was The Last Good Casino Movie – And Is There An Appetite For More?
Here, we will be taking a look at when the last good casino movie was and if there’s an appetite for more of these movies.
Some of the most popular movies of all time are, in fact, casino-themed movies or gambling-themed movies. They have made millions in revenue for the studios that made them, and they are often ranked extremely high at some of today’s most reputable movie review websites, such as IMDB (the Internet Movie Database), Roger Ebert, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic, to name just a few.
It’s hard to determine exactly which casino movie is the best because each person has different preferences about what makes a good film. For example, some people prefer comedies and can’t stand violence, which means they might prefer The House movie (2017) with Will Ferrell over the iconic Casino movie (1995) with Joe Pesci and Robert de Niro. Others prefer action and adventure movies, such as the Game Night movie (2018), over rom-coms, such as What Happens in Vegas (2008) with Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz.
When was the last good casino movie?
When you ask the question, ‘when was the last good casino movie,’ you also need to ask the same question, ‘when was the last good gambling movie?’ For some people, one of the best casino movies in recent times is the 2015 movie Mississippi Grind, which starred Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds. Others will tell you that you have to go slightly further back to 2010 when the Casino Jack movie, which starred Kevin Spacey, was released. For others, though, The Hangover trilogy, which started with The Hangover in 2009 and was then followed by The Hangover Part II (2011) and The Hangover Part III (2013), are the best casino-related movies.
You also have the 2008 fact-based movie 21, which is about six MIT students who were trained to become experts in card counting and subsequently ended up winning millions at Las Vegas casinos. This one also starred Kevin Spacey. For some movie buffs out there today, the greatest casino movie is the Casino Royale movie from 2006, which starred Daniel Craig as 007, and for others, it’s the Ocean’s Eleven movie (2001) with George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
A closer look at the 21 movie – a casino classic
People have often asked, is online blackjack rigged or not? The best thing to do would be to look at the movie ’21,’ which shows you that it isn’t rigged. The lead character Micky, played by Kevin Spacey, is an MIT maths professor who recruits five of his brightest students to win at blackjack, proving that the game is not rigged. He teaches them how to count cards and when to place bets, and they end up making millions from certain iconic Las Vegas casinos before their plot is rumbled.
The best thing about this movie is that it’s based on a true story, and it raked in $159.8 million at the box office. The story was written by Ben Mezrich, and the movie was released in March 2008. It was adapted from the book ‘Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions,’ and it also starred Jim Sturges as Ben, Kate Bosworth as Jill, and Laurence Fishburne as Cole.
Top 10 casino movies and gambling movies of all time
Here are the top 10 casino movies and gambling movies of all time. They include the following iconic titles, which many of you will already be familiar with by now:
- The Sting (1973)
- Casino (1995)
- Casino Royale (2006)
- The Hangover (2009)
- Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
- Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
- Rain Man (1988)
- The Hustler (1961)
- Rounders (1998)
Other honourable mentions
After you’ve finished watching these top 10 best casino movies and gambling movies of all time, then you may also want to check out some of these other honourable mentions, too, if you haven’t already. They include hit titles, such as Swingers from 1996, Hard Eight from 1996, The Cincinnati Kid from 1965, The Killing from 1956, and RocknRolla from 2008. There’s also House of Games from 1987, The Gambler from 1974, California Split from 1974, and Croupier from 1998.
If that’s not enough to keep you going, then you may also want to keep an eye out for Owning Mahowny from 2003, Ocean’s Thirteen from 2007, The Cooler from 2003, Bugsy from 1991, Ocean’s Twelve from 2004, The Good Thief from 2002, and Revolver from 2005, to name just a few great films. Some of these movies are available to watch on Amazon Prime, and others are currently available on Netflix. Some of the other popular movie streaming sites that are also now showing one or more of these casino movies are HBO Max, BBC iPlayer, Peacock, Disney+, and Hulu.