Best Blackjack Movies
In the past, I’ve written several posts right here on this very blog about stuff like the best casino-themed movies and other similar topics. As you probably know by now, I’m a pretty big gambler with a huge passion for online casinos, and ever since I started this blog I’ve found that while my love for kung-fu movies is still there, my interest in gambling has increased dramatically, which is why you see so many of these articles popping up recently. Honestly, I was fairly certain that I’d lose the audience I’d gained over the months (all three of you), but surprisingly, judging by your messages, you guys seem to be digging the new direction of the blog, which works out for me quite well! And yes, of course there’s going to be articles themed around kung-fu movies in the future, that goes without saying! But for now, let’s take a look at something that I’ve wanted to talk about for a while, namely – blackjack movies!
Now, keep in mind that there aren’t really all that many blackjack movies around, and thus just because I say that they’re the “best blackjack movies” that doesn’t mean that they’re actually great. Still, I don’t think that any of them are bad, but who knows, you might enjoy them! All that I’ll ask of you going in is that you don’t expect them to be realistic. Those movies mostly tend to focus on the spectacle of card counting and what not, so if you’re looking for a scene where one of the characters is scrolling through this top 10 list of the best blackjack sites in the UK then you’re gonna be disappointed! With that said, let’s get started!
Rain Man (1988) – I have a very complicated love-hate relationship with this movie, though that has nothing to do with its quality. It mostly has to do with the portrayal of autistic people, which is… Well, how should I say it… Inaccurate. On one hand, the fact that Dustin Hoffman’s character Raymond is explicitly stated to have autism brought a whole lot of attention to the condition, which is one of the reasons why diagnoses of it increased (no, it’s not because vaccines cause autism, it’s just that psychiatrists are now way better at diagnosing it than they were in the past). But on the other, for the longest time everyone thought that Rain Man was the archetypal autistic person, and that everyone with autism can count cards at a casino and be a blackjack prodigy when obviously that’s simply not true. Ah well, I can’t hold it against the movie too much, especially considering the fact that it came out almost 30 years ago. Its message still rings quite clear, after all – accept your friends and family for who they are without judging them for their quirks and oddities.
21 (2008) – In many ways, this is the ultimate blackjack movie. Remember how I told you about unrealistic card counting movies focusing on spectacle? Well, that definition applies to “21” better than to any other movie on this list! And the kicker is that it’s actually based on the true story of Jeff Ma, an MIT student who broke numerous blackjack tables alongside his fellow MIT friends with his awesome card counting skills. And sure, many of the events depicted in “21” are heavily exaggerated in order to make for a more entertaining narrative, but who cares, it’s one hell of a ride from beginning to end, especially if you, like me, are a fan of blackjack!
The Gambler (2014) – This is one of those extremely rare casino movies that doesn’t use casino as a metaphor for the decadence of the human soul or whatever, nor does it portray it as a rocking place of high-life and good-looking women. Instead, “The Gambler” deals with a problem that millions of people worldwide also need to deal with – gambling addiction. Its main character, played by Mark Wahlberg, often spends whatever little cash he has playing blackjack. The negativity in his life doesn’t inherently come from casino itself – it comes from his persistence to feed his addiction, which range from dealing with loan sharks to taking money from his mother only to spend them on gambling. And sure, the movie isn’t exactly great (it only had a score of 55 on Metacritic), but my God, it’s one of the most human representations of gambling I’ve ever seen in a movie, and for that alone it’s worth being on this list!