SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

deemo31 This movie is sort of like a train wreck. You have to watch it but you really don't want to. The acting is far from wonderful. Macy is just not believable in this part. Bello is beautiful and probably does the best acting job, but the character just isn't believable either. Baldwin plays all the cliché's you could think of as the Casino manager. In fact the entire movie is one big cliché on the Vegas experience.BUT...I really like the movie. I've actually watched it several times. So, in spite of Macy's pasty butt, Baldwin's terrible attempt at a gangster accent and Maria Bello's character's improbable attraction to Macy's, the story is entertaining enough to make the movie worth watching. Oh, and Ellen Green's cameo role as the coffee waitress is a hoot. Not a "must see" movie, but one I think you can enjoy on an otherwise slow night.

daddyofduke The Cooler is the movie "Casino" with heart. Bernie Lootz, the main character in The Cooler, has such bad luck that he can make your great luck instantly go bad. All he has to do is touch a hot gaming table to make it go cold. Really cold. Lootz lives by himself at the cheap in every way Better Life motel where his cat runs away, his flowers always die, and he has to listen to the guy next door screwing a hooker. The poor guy can't even get cream for his coffee when he works.Bernie gets paid to spread his miserable luck to the gaming tables at the Shangra-LA Casino, an old school, downtown casino that is out of touch with the business plan, and profits, of the contemporary Disneyland, family vacation style of Las Vegas. Shangri-La is run by Shelly Kaplow, a ruthless, mob-linked manager whose utter lack of ethics has no bounds.Things change because Bernie is going to leave Las Vegas in a few days. Turns out Shelly and Bernie go back decades, all the way back to when Shelly broke one of Bernie's knees over a gambling debt. They have remained partners and as close to friends as either man can stand. Shelly hires Natalie, a cute cocktail waitress and once in a while hooker, to lure Bernie to continue to work at Shangri-La.The performances in this film are extraordinary. William H. Macy as Bernie offers as brilliant a performance as an actor can achieve in any role. I had never head of Maria Bello until I saw this film for the first time a few years ago. Her Natalie is stunning, absolutely stunning. It includes nuances few actresses can accomplish, plus she has that smile, that gorgeous, gorgeous smile. Alec Baldwin gives perhaps his best performance ever as the thoroughly amoral casino manager who has no qualms about breaking knees or serving fatal doses of heroin to his lounge singer. He deservedly achieved an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor. Ron Livingston, who gained fame as Capt. Nixon in Band of Brothers, plays Harvard educated Larry Solokov, a whiz kid who is going to transform the Shangri-La into a Steven Wynn type casino.The Cooler is a special film, in part, because of the themes it successfully addresses, and the manner in which it addresses them; friendship, child abandonment, the true definition of luck, and what constitutes love. The lighting, cinematography, and music all contribute significantly to the film's essence. The screen literally lights up when Bernie and Natalie feel their connection.There is a scene in which Shelly catches Bernie's appalling son, Mikey, convincingly played by Shawn Hatosy, cheating at the craps table. Shelly violently maims Mikey the same way he permanently injured Bernie. It's as brutal a scene as it is effective. But there is also a very touching love scene is which Bernie and Natalie connect in every way lovers can.

evanston_dad Decent enough film about a man who's luck is so bad (William H. Macy) he's hired as a "cooler" for a casino, someone whose mere presence near a gaming table can put the kibosh on a winning streak.A bit of good luck drifts into his life in the guise of Maria Bello, who would be good luck for anyone, but a big slice of bad luck hounds him in the shape of Alec Baldwin, a gangster thug who would be bad luck for anyone. Things go from bad to worse in a mildly engaging but not very memorable movie.Baldwin received an Oscar nomination for his performance and Bello was considered a sure thing for a nomination, but she was strangely left off the shortlist when nominations that year were announced.Grade: B

blanche-2 William H. Macy is "The Cooler" for a Vegas casino in this 2003 film also starring Maria Bello and Alec Baldwin. Macy is Bernie Lootz, whose job it is to go from table to table and ruin the luck of winners on a hot streak just by standing there and letting his negative energy flow. He's a born loser, and his job is actually an arrangement to pay off his own gambling debts to the despicable Shelley (Baldwin). Shelley runs the casino, priding himself on the fact that it's out of the "Disney" and family/Steve Wynn loop, an old-fashioned establishment. When the big mob bosses come in and want some changes, Shelley resists.Bernie falls for a beautiful waitress Natalie (Bello) and finds his luck suddenly changing. He's quitting the casino anyway - now he wants Natalie to come with him. Then something happens that seems to tie Bernie to Shelley again.This is a very violent film with lots of bad language and good performances, particularly by Macy, who gives us a totally sympathetic character we can feel for and root for.I can't say this is my type of thing, but it's worth seeing for Macy.