5 Movie Characters Crying Out For A Casino Scene

Casino scenes are a mainstay of cinema, modern or old. Synonymous with glitz, glamour and the high-rolling lifestyle, not to mention the hazy drunken antics that go along with them. Some of our favourite characters miss out on all this fun though, they have a hard time struggling against the every day grind of life, crying out for a release. Let’s send them to the casino.

Harry and Ron Do Vegas

These boys don’t have an easy life at all. Perhaps the most famous wizard of all time, second only to Merlin, and his hapless ginger companion spend their days battling the forces of evil. Their only escape is sneaking a cheeky Butterbeer or Dragon Barrel Brandy down at The Three Broomsticks, hoping not to be discovered by Professor McGonagall. JK Rowling missed a trick in not sending them to Vegas, age wouldn’t have been an issue, they’re wizards! With their talents they’d have made enough to earn themselves a Black Card at Gringott’s. The two could have had some serious fun; magicking themselves a royal flush or 21 at the tables, shotgun weddings to muggles, all the while sipping away on Firewhiskey in crystal glasses. Shame Mrs Rowling, shame.

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Ante Up: My Favorite POKER MOVIES

There have been countless movies made about poker; there’s a machine in Hollywood just making movies about the game and its players.  Poker tournaments are now on par with major sporting events, it’s a part of the mainstream now more than ever.  We cheer for the heroes and even the degenerates from time to time; it’s a great game that can make for a great film.  Here are my favorite movies to feature the game, sound off in the comments below and share your own.

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Casino (1995)

In Vegas, everybody’s gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I’m watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all. – Ace Rothstein

If we learned one thing from Goodfellas, it was that when you team up the likes of Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro, and Joe Pesci, something magical happens. 15 years have passed since it’s release in 1995 and that shovel scene at the end is still a cause to cringe. The cinematography, the acting, the premise; all felt very gritty. I mean this movie holds a Guiness World Record for most swear words feature length film. The “F-Bomb” is dropped 422 times, that’s an average number of 2.4 times per minute (thanks IMDB for that interesting statistic). Casino is more of a, ‘remember the good ole days’ cautionary tale of what mob life did to the Vegas strip. It’s a story of one man’s rise from complete obscurity to take a city by storm, only to lose touch with the ever changing moral foundation of a city with a lack there of. (more…)

Scorsese and De Niro to re-team for mob movie

We might have picked the best time ever to do Scorsese week, the news coming out of Reuters is that Martin Scorsese and Robert Di Niro are planning to re-team once again on a new project that will take place in the mobster world, a world that these two talents are very familiar with. Scorsese recently revealed in a interview”

“Bob De Niro (and I) are talking about something that has to do with that world. There’s no doubt about that. We’re working on something like that, but it’s from the vantage point of older men looking back, none of this running around stuff.”

These two have made some of the best films of all time; Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Cape Fear and the last movie the worked together on was Casino in 1995.  I heard De Niro say in an interview once that they don’t always have to discuss a shot because they are so in tune with one another.  That or Scorsese is scared of De Niro like everyone else.