Introduction
Molly’s Game is a 2017 biographical movie directed by Aaron Sorkin and based on the real-life Poker princess Molly Bloom, a 26-year-old woman behind the most exclusive underground Poker Game globally. Molly was arrested with 30 other players as part of a gambling and money Laundering operation and was sentenced to jail time. This is largely set in pre online casinos days, and during the Winter Olympics (very pertient to these times, as the event is currently again taking place).
The Main Story
Molly’s Game follows the story of Bloom, who becomes the target of an FBI investigation when her underground Poker empire she runs for Athletes, Hollywood celebrities, business moguls and the Russian mob is exposed.
Bloom is a world-class skier with Olympic aspirations, however, in a qualifying event for the 2002 winter Olympics, she is severely injured ending her career. Molly then decides to put her law career on hold for a year and moves to LA. This is where her exposure to the underground Poker world begins. Dean employs her as his office manager where she is exposed to the games and is soon running the show which does not sit well with Dean, leading him to fire her.
Molly moves to New York and starts her own underground poker games successfully; however, she becomes addicted to drugs as a way to cope with the increasing toll the games are taking on her. She is attacked in her home after she declines an offer from the Italian Mafia to extort money and as she is about to return to her Poker games the FBI conduct a raid on a tip-off by one of her players who is an FBI informant. All her assets are seized, and she moves back in with her mother.
The Ending
Two years later Molly publishes a book and names a few of her players leading to her arrest in illegal gambling with the Mafia. She enlists the help of Charlie Jaffey who negotiates a deal for Molly whereby she receives no sentence, and her money be returned in exchange for all her digital evidence on the gambling ring. Molly declines the deal and pleads guilty receiving only 200 hours community service, one-year probation and a $200,000 fine. The movie is generally well received, with high ratings on the Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB movie review sites.
Introduction
The Big Town is a 1987 American neo-noir thriller movie based on the novel “The Arm”. It is about a country boy that turns crapshooter in Chicago in the 1950s. It was directed by Ben Bolt and starred Matt Dillon as JC Cullen, Diane Lane as Lorry Dane. Other cast members are Tommy Lee Jones, George Cole, and a mighty strip joint owner with some shady connections.
The Main Story
Cullen, a farm boy from Iowa, arrives in Chicago with a talent for winning at craps and becomes a constant winner at the craps tables because he knows the odds and has lady luck on his side. Many playing on the best australia online casino no doubt feel the same way. In the movie, Cullen breaks the bank at a private craps game at the Gem Club owned by George Cole. As time passes, he becomes the pawn of two high rolling professional gamblers Mr. & Mrs Edwards. Added to this, he also becomes involved in two torrid relationships. One with Lorry Dane the embittered stripper wife of Cole and the other with the nice girl Aggie Donaldson. Cullen nearly loses his life at one point in this gambling film when he lands up in the middle of a feud between Edwards, Cole and Carpenter, the man suspected of blinding Edwards.
The Ending
The Big Town is somewhat ‘by numbers’. The bad girl is rejected, the good girl is embraced, the villain is defeated, and Cullen wins back his independence. It’s a great-looking, stylish movie, and the cast never put a foot wrong wrong in bringing this era to life on the big screen. Although the storyline is predictable, the style will have viewers on their edge of their seats waiting for outcomes at the craps table and more. A brilliant gambling movie and a definite must-watch.
The movie was ironically something of a box office flop and earned less than $2 million. This can often be the case with movies though, especially when they are niche, and certainly doesn’t mean that they aren’t much appreciated in the years following.
Two for the Money is a 2005 USA sports gambling film directed by D. J. Caruso and starring Matthew McConaughey, Al Pacino, Armand Assante, Rene Russo, and Carly Pope.
The Main Story
Brandon Lang ( Matthew McConaughey ) is a former football star who suffers a career-ending injury and is forced to take on a job handicapping football games. He has a tremendous hit rate when it comes to selecting winners, and due to this, he catches the eye of Walter Abrams ( Al Pacino ). Abrams is the head of one of the biggest sports consulting firms in the USA.
He takes Lang under his wing, and soon they are making big money, and Lang starts leading the good life with a new car, new look and wardrobe.
However, things start going South when Lang starts playing his hunches instead of doing his homework. He starts to lose his all perspective and gets beaten by thugs hired by a gambler who lost a large sum of money due to his bad advice. Abrams and Lang’s relationship soon starts to sour as Lang’s new high rolling lifestyle and erratic predictions do not go down well and begin to cause problems.
The Ending
By the time Lang places his last bet there are millions at stake, making Abrams a recovering alcoholic and gambling addict extremely unstable. However, Lang’s predictions come true in the final game, determined by flipping a coin in the bathroom for both games.
He eventually leaves New York taking a job as a coach for a junior league football team, and this is how the film concludes, rather profound and thought-provoking in terms of its ups and downs.
The movie received average reviews from the critics as they felt that the story played out in a somewhat disjointed fashion. Still casino fans and visitors to https://www.gamblingsitesreview.com/ review sites and the like love a gambling movie or two, so there’s certainly an audience for this. The box office takings at the time were $35 million (under the movie’s budget), but on account of its theme and household name actors, it’s not uncommon to see shown on TV and available on streaming services.
