ROTTEN TOMATOES: Total Recall: Go All In with These Gambling Movies Comments

Total Recall: Go All In with These Gambling Movies

by Sara Schieron | March 26, 2008

Summary

Gambling is a great central theme for a film, if for no better reason it's full of drama, deceit, and the occasional reason to look at someone (hopefully someone hot) under a table. With the appearance of 21 in theaters, we thought it time to run through some of our personal highlights in the universe of gambling movies. Back to Article

(1-15 of 15 posts) | Reply

walkingdead09 writes:
on Mar 26 2008 06:34 PM

Rounders in my opinion is the ultimate gambling movie as Worm gambles his friendship, Mike gambles his relationship and in the end they play for money, and ultimately his life, kinda, not only that but it shows the noble causes for gambling and the not so noble. All good movies, good list, of course a bunch of retards are going to come on here and argue about why something is on here and why something isn't.

JD

(Reply to this)

AnthonyDidge writes:
on Mar 26 2008 07:14 PM

Well let us "retards" continue what you, the OR, started WalkingDead. Rounders is a damn good movie. I generally end up watching it at least once every couple, few months. But how 'bout a little Cincinnati Kid, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch. I'm just saying, but of course we all are just "retards."

(Reply to this)

mouse_clicker writes:
on Mar 26 2008 08:08 PM

I love how RottenTomatoes is doing all of these list articles instead of things that are interesting! Keep it up!

(Reply to this)

LinoBrocka writes:
on Mar 26 2008 09:58 PM

In reply to this comment (#1654770)
what do you mean mouse_clicker? I thought the artile was interesting and it wasn't a straight up list where al you see are titles of films.
Thanks RT!

(Reply to this)

danielfrohlich writes:
on Mar 26 2008 11:24 PM

In reply to this comment (#1655016)
It's a list just without the numbering.

(Reply to this)

unbreakable_samurai writes:
on Mar 27 2008 08:50 AM

The Killing was a pretty damn solid film, one of Kubrick's best. Just watched Even Money which I thought was pretty good, better than the horrible critical response it got that's for sure.

(Reply to this)

vitajex writes:
on Mar 27 2008 10:21 AM

Yeah, "Cincinatti Kid"! Great gambling movie.

What about 'Shade'? I actually liked that film.

"Owning Mahowny", a fantastic (true) story starring Philip Seymour Hoffman as a gambling loser.

"The Cooler" Maria Bello? Bellisima!

"The Hustler" and "The Color of Money" for gambling on pool.

And didn't "The Good Thief" have a bunch of gambling in it?

Oh, what about "Hard Eight"? That's a great one, too.

This list is just not fleshed out enough.

(Reply to this)

RT-Ryan writes:
on Mar 27 2008 01:17 PM

The list is sort of the point of Total Recall. Each week we take one of the movies that are opening and use one of its themes or distinguishing characteristics to highlight some older films that are similar in those respects. For example, for moviegoers who might be interested in watching 21, this list is a way to introduce them to a few related movies that they may have either never known about or forgotten about completely. We try to toss in some variety, but we also don't want the list to be overwhelming, so there will inevitably be a handful of movies that will be left out. Simply take it as a mere sampling of similarly themed films, not a comprehensive compendium.

(Reply to this)

vitajex writes:
on Mar 27 2008 01:29 PM

In reply to this comment (#1655916)
*It should be noted that I am willfully being an a-hole in this post... for comic effect... yeah, that's the ticket...*

If it's not a comprehensive compendium, then wouldn't the title, "TOTAL Recall", be inaccurate?

Damn, where's my smileys?

(Reply to this)

RT-Ryan writes:
on Mar 27 2008 01:47 PM

In reply to this comment (#1655980)
Touche, good sir. Touche.

But if we called it Partial Recall, it would lose that snazzy association to Ahnuld's crazy movie.

(Reply to this)

mouse_clicker writes:
on Mar 27 2008 02:12 PM

In reply to this comment (#1655916)
So it's actually someone's job to make these lists? Every week someone picks a new release and then goes through the Rotten Tomatoes database and finds some movies that are sort of tangentially related, and then puts it up on the front page with the tagline "Hey, these movies are sort of cool, too!" How much does that job pay?

(Reply to this)

RT-Ryan writes:
on Mar 27 2008 02:28 PM

Yep, we've got people who do it, but there's nobody whose sole job it is to write each week's Total Recall. It's just one of a thousand things we all do here.

(Reply to this)

alsanali writes:
on Mar 27 2008 02:51 PM

In reply to this comment (#1656110)
Stop complaining about people who have more fun jobs than you.

For the record, I think Total Recall is a great feature. Cinema Obscura on the other hand......

(Reply to this)

schwal writes:
on Mar 27 2008 07:19 PM

there was only boxing betting in snatch, which in my opinion just didn't have the effortless style of lock stock and two smoking barrels. not that it's a bad movie, just not as good.

(Reply to this)

schwal writes:
on Mar 27 2008 07:25 PM

there was only boxing betting in "snatch", which in my opinion just didn't have the effortless style of "lock stock and two smoking barrels". not that it's a bad movie, just not as good.

"rounders" and "casino" were classics of course (i didnt even realize it was john malcovitch playing kgb in rounders until the credits he was that good). but how could you leave out "the hustler" and "the color of money", they were far more about gambling than "the sting" all staring paul newman.

(Reply to this)

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