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Considered one of first Bombay Noir films, 'Baazi', follows Madan who falls on hard times and takes up gambling to support himself and his sister. His skills lead him to dark side of the city where he starts working for the master at the Star Hotel and get entangled in a web of deceptions.
In this weird Chinese film, Chow Yun-fat (known for 'The Killer' and 'Hard-boiled') plays Ko Chun, the God of Gamblers. He accidently gets hit on the head and regresses to a childlike state and his nemesis, Knife, starts taking advantage of him by using him to play games.
While this classic Hollywood film is an allegory for the Second World War, it is set mostly in the space of 'Rick's Café Américain', a bar and a gambling den which becomes the space where everyone, no matter the nationality, comes to drink or gamble. The idea of taking chances and gambeling with lives acts as a theme in the film.
Axel Freed, an ivy league professor, is a hardheaded and self-destructive gambler, who in contrast to his name, is a prisoner to his addiction which leads him to a very convoluted week of misery and thrill.
Safdie Brothers' frantic and suffocating film about an ambitious and optimistic New York Jewler, Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), explores the anxieties and psychology of putting everything at stake to get something you truly desire.
In Martin Scorsese's 'Casino', the casino run by 'Ace' (Robert De Niro) serves as a metaphor for his life. Ace keeps winning at the beginning, but he cannot leave the casino, he has to keep playing until he loses it all.
Observant, damning and hilarious in true Robert Altman fashion, this film about a gambling streak of a man, is a great satire on American greed.
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