The Cooler

This may very well be the last movie of the break...

Starring: William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, that guy from OFFICE SPACE, and even one-fifth of NSYNC...sorry, not Justin Timberlake.

THE COOLER is a movie about this guy who works at a Las Vegas casino whose sole job is to "cool down" gamblers on a roll. How does he do this? He simply goes to their table or slot machine and stands there. Yup, the premise is that he's such a loser, his loser-ness rubs off on people. Apparently, this may have been an old school Vegas casino practice.

William H. Macy plays the loser and his boss and only friend is played by Alec Baldwin. Baldwin's boss methods are also old school. He rules with some old-fashioned Vegas physicality. He disturbingly beats on people. He seems to be fighting his own demons.

The movie gets interesting when Macy's about to retire. You get to see the inner workings of an old Fremont-style casino and see Macy's luck turn as he meets his very own Lady Luck. All of a sudden, he can't do his job effectively. This puts his boss/friend in an awkward position.

This is a character-study type movie. Surprisingly, I'm liking these types of movies lately. You can only watch so many popcorn movies. Once in awhile, I gotta get all deep on you. That's what she said.

Any movie in Vegas always draws me in, but in contrast to the bright lights of the strip, the down-and-out, depressing characters also intrigued me. This stark contrast between Vegas mirage and real people is what gives this movie a unique feel. It's like eating chocolate pretzels. What??

Anyway, good movie. Do I ever watch any bad movies? How can that be? I give this movie two more round-trip tickets to Viva Las Vegas to renew our vows every year...