Bernie Lutz is the unluckiest man in Las Vegas. That’s what the first line is in the description of “The Cooler”. This was one of the movies that Denis wanted to add to the Netflix list. He claims all the time that I never put his “kind” of movies on the list, but that’s just not true – it just takes a while for them to come up on the list since there are so few movies that Denis truly WANTS to watch.
But “The Cooler” was one of those few films, and it was worth the wait. Starring William H. Macy and Alec Baldwin (in an Oscar nominated turn), it’s the story of how Bernie works for the casino as a cooler – turning gamblers’ good luck into bad luck by merely showing up at a hot table in the casino.
But then he meets Natalie, a cocktail waitress in the casino. And suddenly his luck changes and people around him start winning. A lot. And Shelley (Baldwin as the casino owner) isn’t happy about that at all.
This was a good movie, and I enjoyed it. At about the halfway point I turned to Denis and said, “This movie is just not going to end well. I have a bad feeling about it.” Well, all I can say is watch the movie for yourself – Macy is fantastic, Baldwin was great, and the story interesting and well-written.
3 1/2 stars out of five.