Jon Favreau Poker
I'm not the biggest gambler. Sure, I do it for fun every now and then when I'm passing through Vegas, and I always seem to come out ahead, but I don't want to push my lock, so I gamble sparingly. It's always fun when I do, though, and I love the adrenaline rush!
In perhaps the finest movie about Las Vegas ever, Swingers, Jon Favreau’s character says, “The trick is we gotta look like we don’t need the stuff, then they give us stuff for free.” He says this to a friend right before they enter a casino dressed to the nines, lose at blackjack after doubling down, get breakfast in the Age of. Director Jon Favreau, left, actor Jason Alexander and musician Meat Loaf (back to camera) chat at the World Poker Tour Invitational at the Commerce Casino on Feb. 22, 2006, in Los Angeles.
There have been some great scenes that revolve around gambling. I thought it'd be fun to point out awesome gaming scenes from ten different films. Not all of the films I pulled these scenes from revolve around gambling. This is just a collection of scenes that I've enjoyed watching over the years.
Look over the list and let us know what some of your favorite movie gambling scenes are!
Swingers
Vegas, Baby! One of my favorite scenes from Swingers is when Trent (Vince Vaughn) forces Mike (Jon Favreau) to go to Vegas to get him out of a funk. Mike goes over the the Blackjack table trying to act like a high roller, buying in for $300 at a $100 minimum bet table. This scene hilariously plays out as Trent is coaching Mike through the process telling him to always double down on 11. To this day, I always quote this scene when I play Blackjack, and I always double down on 11.
Rounders
I was nervous as hell the first I watched Mike (Matt Damon) sit down at the poker table against Teddy KGB (John Malkovich) in the final Texas Hold'em showdown. Acting out of desperation to repay Worm’s debts, Mike borrowed $10,000 from his old professor to buy in to the game. The scene plays out brilliantly, the intensity is through the roof, and the outcome is all you could ever hope for.
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
The stakes get insanely high during this game of Three Card Brag between Fast Eddy (Nick Moran) and Hatchet Harry (P.H. Moriarty). During the game Eddy opens with a $20,000 bet, Harry raises to $30,000, Eddy re-raises to $50,000, Harry then takes it to $80,000, Eddy comes back with $100,000, Harry explodes up to $250,000. Eddy wants to call but he doesn’t have the cash to do it! So Harry offers to loan him the money at the same time he tells him it’ll be an additional $250,000 to see the cards—$500,000 all day! Holy shit! Watch the scene.
Tombstone
Tombstone is one of my favorite westerns of all time. They just don't make good, classic style westerns like this anymore. Val Kilmer's Doc Holiday is one of my favorite one screen characters, too. In this scene Doc finds himself all liquored up and in good spirits after 36 straight hours of poker. He's still sharp as a knife, though, and quick witted. 'Let's have a spelling contest.'
Goodfellas
“So he got shot in the foot. What is it? A big fuc*in deal?”
The character that Joe Pesci played in this movie, Tommy DeVito, was one of the most terrifying loose cannons ever put on film. I also think it's one of the best performances of Pesci's career. This is a character that you don't want to piss off, even if it's just an honest misunderstanding.
Toy Story 3
The last thing I expected to see in Toy Story 3 was a gambling scene, but here it is, and it's great. They have several characters sitting around a See 'N Say, betting on where the spinner will stop. I loved that they took that toy and turned it into a gambling game. I'd love to walk into a casino one day and see that.
Ocean's Eleven
The poker scene at the beginning of the movie with Brad Pitt and George Clooney is just classic Hollywood. In the scene Pitt is teaching a small group of actors how to play poker, and it's so freakin' funny. There's a lot of great quotable lines in it, one of my favorites being, 'I'm not sure what four nines does, but the ace I think is pretty high.' I also love 'All reds.'
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
I loved it when Austin Powers (Mike Meyers) sat down with Number Two (Robert Wagner) to play a round of blackjack. It was such a ridiculously funny scene with the whole liking to live dangerously aspect of it. I love it when Powers sticks with his fives. I also like that they are playing the game wrong. For example, at one point Number Two is asked if he wants to hit before Powers even gets his second card.
Run Lola Run
This whole movie is great, but the scene where the main character goes into a casino is so awesome. To save her boyfriend, Lola needs some really quick cash, and in an attempt to get it she enters a casino and drops down all that she has on a roulette table, ultimately putting it all on 20 black. Sure the odds are 1,296-to-1, but when you're in a movie, odds don't mean a thing.
Cool Hand Luke
Because Paul Newman is the man, the guy wins for having the best poker face of all time, and “Sometimes nothin’ can be a real cool hand.”
| Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Alan Rudolph |
| Produced by | Robert Altman |
| Written by | Alan Rudolph Randy Sue Coburn |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Mark Isham |
| Distributed by | Fine Line Features |
| |
| 126 minutes | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7,000,000 |
| Box office | $2,144,667[1] |
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle is a 1994 American biographicaldrama film written by screenwriter/director Alan Rudolph and former Washington Star reporter Randy Sue Coburn. Directed by Rudolph, it starred Jennifer Jason Leigh as the writer Dorothy Parker and depicted the members of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of writers, actors and critics who met almost every weekday from 1919 to 1929 at Manhattan's Algonquin Hotel.
The film was an Official Selection at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. The film was a critical but not a commercial success. Leigh won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress.
Peter Benchley, who played editor Frank Crowninshield, was the grandson of Robert Benchley, the humorist who once worked underneath Crowninshield. Actor Wallace Shawn is the son of William Shawn, the longtime editor of The New Yorker.
Cast[edit]
- Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dorothy Parker
- Campbell Scott as Robert Benchley
- Matthew Broderick as Charles MacArthur
- Peter Gallagher as Alan Campbell
- Jennifer Beals as Gertrude Benchley
- Andrew McCarthy as Eddie Parker (Edwin Pond Parker II)
- Wallace Shawn as Horatio Byrd
- Martha Plimpton as Jane Grant
- Sam Robards as Harold Ross
- Lili Taylor as Edna Ferber
- James LeGros as Deems Taylor
- Gwyneth Paltrow as Paula Hunt
- Nick Cassavetes as Robert Sherwood
- David Thornton as George S. Kaufman
- Heather Graham as Mary Kennedy Taylor
- Tom McGowan as Alexander Woollcott
- Chip Zien as Franklin P. Adams
- Gary Basaraba as Heywood Broun
- Jane Adams as Ruth Hale
- Stephen Baldwin as Roger Spalding
- Matt Malloy as Marc Connelly
- Rebecca Miller as Neysa McMein
- Jake Johannsen as John Peter Toohey
- Amelia Campbell as Mary Brandon Sherwood
- David Gow as Donald Ogden Stewart
- Leni Parker as Beatrice Kaufman
- J. M. Henry as Harpo Marx
- Stanley Tucci as Newt Hunter
- Mina Badie as Joanie Gerard
- Randy Lowell as Alvan Barach
Given the historical impact of many of the people portrayed in the film, the ensemble nature of the cast led to opening credits displaying all 30 actors listed above. Other historical characters, in brief appearances, included portrayals by Keith Carradine as Will Rogers, Jon Favreau as Elmer Rice, lead character Robert Benchley's grandson – Jaws author Peter Benchley – as Frank Crowninshield, Malcolm Gets as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gisele Rousseau as Polly Adler.
Development[edit]
Director Alan Rudolph was fascinated with the Algonquin Round Table as a child when he discovered Gluyas Williams' illustrations in a collection of Robert Benchley's essays.[2] Speaking in 1995, he said 'the Algonquin Hotel round table, what it symbolised, and the ripple effect that went out from it, was probably up there in the 50 most significant events of the century'.[3] After making The Moderns, a film about American expatriates in 1920s Paris, Rudolph wanted to tackle a fact-based drama set in the same era. He began work on a screenplay with novelist and former Washington Star journalist Randy Sue Coburn about legendary writer Dorothy Parker. In 1992, Rudolph attended a Fourth of July party hosted by filmmaker Robert Altman who introduced him to actress Jennifer Jason Leigh. Rudolph was surprised by her physical resemblance to Parker and was impressed by her knowledge of the Jazz Age. Leigh was so committed to doing the film that she agreed to make it for 'a tenth of what I normally get for a film'.[2]
The screenplay originally focused on the platonic relationship between Parker and Robert Benchley, but this did not appeal to any financial backers.[2] There still was no interest even when Altman came on board as producer. The emphasis on Parker was the next change to the script, but Rudolph still had no luck finding financing for 'a period biography of a literate woman.'[2] Altman used his clout to persuade Fine Line Features and Miramax—two studios he was making films for—to team, with the former releasing Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle domestically and the latter handling foreign distribution.[2] Altman claimed that he forced the film to be made by putting his own money into it and 'I put other projects of mine hostage to it. I did a lot of lying'.[4]
Rudolph shot the film in Montreal because the building facades in its old city most closely resembled period New York City.[2] Full financing was not acquired until four weeks into principal photography.[5]
The film's large cast followed Leigh's lead and agreed to work for much lower than their usual salaries. Rudolph invited them to write their own dialogue, which resulted in a chaotic first couple of days of principal photography. Actor Campbell Scott remembered 'Everyone hung on to what they knew about their characters and just sort of threw it out there.'[2] Actress Jennifer Beals discussed this in her appearance on the Jon Favreau documentary program Dinner for Five, where she stated that much dialogue was improvised in the style of the real-life characters actors were playing, but that many of those characters were not integral to the plot. As such, many of the actors had much larger parts that were edited to nearly nothing. The cast trusted their director during the 40-day shoot. They stayed in a run-down hotel dubbed Camp Rudolph and engaged in all-night poker games. Leigh chose not to participate in these activities, preferring to stay in character on and off camera. She did a great amount of research for the role and said 'I wanted to be as close to her as I possibly could.'[2] To this end, Leigh stayed for a week at the Algonquin Hotel and read Parker's entire body of work. In addition, the actress listened repeatedly to the two existing audio recordings of Parker in order to perfect the writer's distinctive voice. Leigh found that Parker 'had a sensibility that I understand very, very well. A sadness. A depression.'[2]
Reception[edit]
A rough cut of Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle was screened at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival where it divided film critics. It was rumored afterwards that Leigh re-recorded several scenes that were too difficult to understand because of her accent but she denied that this happened.[5] The film was an Official Selection at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Palme d'Or.[6]
Jon Favreau Poker Game
For her performance in the film, Leigh was nominated for both the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.
Year-end lists[edit]
- 4th – Michael Mills, The Palm Beach Post[7]
- 6th – Desson Howe, The Washington Post[8]
- 10th – Scott Schuldt, The Oklahoman[9]
- Top 10 (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Jimmy Fowler, Dallas Observer[10]
- Top 10 (not ranked) – Betsy Pickle, Knoxville News-Sentinel[11]
- Honorable mention – Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News[12]
- Honorable mention – Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News[13]
- Honorable mention – Michael MacCambridge, Austin American-Statesman[14]
References[edit]
- ^Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle at Box Office Mojo
- ^ abcdefghiCarpenter, Tessa (August 29, 1993). 'Back to the Round Table With Dorothy Parker and Pals...'The New York Times. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
- ^Johnston, Trevor (March 10, 1995). 'Living by her wits'. The List. Retrieved August 26, 2020.
- ^Weinraub, Bernard (July 29, 1993). 'Robert Altman, Very Much A Player Again'. The New York Times. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
- ^ abAppelo, Tim (December 23, 1994). 'Finding Dorothy Parker's Voice'. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
- ^'Festival de Cannes: Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle'. festival-cannes.com. Retrieved August 30, 2009.
- ^Mills, Michael (December 30, 1994). 'It's a Fact: 'Pulp Fiction' Year's Best'. The Palm Beach Post (Final ed.). p. 7.
- ^Howe, Desson (December 30, 1994), 'The Envelope Please: Reel Winners and Losers of 1994', The Washington Post, retrieved July 19, 2020
- ^Schuldt, Scott (January 1, 1995). 'Oklahoman Movie Critics Rank Their Favorites for the Year Without a Doubt, Blue Ribbon Goes to 'Pulp Fiction,' Scott Says'. The Oklahoman. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
- ^Zoller Seitz, Matt (January 12, 1995). 'Personal best From a year full of startling and memorable movies, here are our favorites'. Dallas Observer.
- ^Pickle, Betsy (December 30, 1994). 'Searching for the Top 10... Whenever They May Be'. Knoxville News-Sentinel. p. 3.
- ^Simon, Jeff (January 1, 1995). 'Movies: Once More, with Feeling'. The Buffalo News. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
- ^Lovell, Glenn (December 25, 1994). 'The Past Picture Show the Good, the Bad and the Ugly -- a Year Worth's of Movie Memories'. San Jose Mercury News (Morning Final ed.). p. 3.
- ^MacCambridge, Michael (December 22, 1994). 'it's a LOVE-HATE thing'. Austin American-Statesman (Final ed.). p. 38.
External links[edit]
Jon Favreau Poker Show
- Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle on IMDb
- Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle at Rotten Tomatoes