Blackjack is the world's most popular casino table game. He has been portrayed in movies over the years. Its popularity is due to the fact that its rules are easy to understand from the start, while more advanced strategies can be developed with experience..
Blackjack is popular in the movies as a game of skill where the rules are the same everywhere which has created some of the best blackjack movies you have to watch..
21 (2008) by Robert Luketik
The film follows six MIT students who become experts in card counting.
Based on a true story, 21 is the only hollywood movie where blackjack is the main topic. The film follows six MIT students who become experts in card counting and decide to test their skills at casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
It all starts when gifted student Ben Campbell (Jim Sturges) is accepted into Harvard medical school, but can't afford tuition.
MIT professor Micky Rosa invites Ben to join his blackjack team of other students.
By counting cards and giving secret signals, the team strives to win big.
The Last Casino (2004) by Pierre Gill
The predecessor of the most famous 21, The Last Casino, directed by Pierre Gill, has an almost identical storyline.
In the film, math professor Doug Barnes is kicked out of the casino. Barnes then sets up a team of blackjack card counters, recruiting three of his smartest students to teach them what he claims is a low risk plan..
The Canadian framework is also an interesting contrast with Las Vegas movies.
Casino (1995) by Martin Scorsese
Casino is a dazzling gangster epic that tells the story of Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro), who oversees a casino in Las Vegas.
Sam doubles the casino's profits and is soon joined by his friend Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci). Blackjack is at the center of a memorable scene in which Santoro catches players cheating, with a person standing behind the dealer and relaying the information to his associates at the table..
Santoro catches the cheater and gives him the option to forfeit his winnings or walk away with it, but with serious consequences.
Rain Man (1988) by Barry Levinston
Awarded four Oscars in 1989, including Best Picture, Rain Man is a film classic with Tom cruise as Charlie Babbitt, a selfish and unscrupulous man, and his brother Dustin Hoffman as Raymond Babbitt, an autistic scientist, who reunite after their father's death when Charlie settles his estate.
This story of family, ambition and card counting also won the Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Hoffman..
