I love to gamble, and it would be easy to recommend Rounders, but I think many here will have at least herd of it, if not seen it. My choice is a little-known movie starring Richard Dreyfus, Teri Garr, David Johannson, Jennifer Tilly, Cynthia Nixon, Alan Garfield and Robbie Coltrane: Let it Ride a 1989 flick. It is funny, entertaining and no other flick has ever captured the "feelings" of the small-time degenerate losing gambler. If you love to gamble, but more so if you love the track, it is amazing. Yes, my favorite scene in Goodfellas is at the track .... This is better.
Front Room
31 comments
Recommend a Movie Most Here will not know
Jan 8, 2026, 8:58 PM
comments (31)
Jump to latest
I would recommend
My Demon Lover, a 1987 horror comedy. Overall, it's pretty silly, but if you go in expecting that and expecting the 1980s low budget SFX, it works. imdb.com
More recently, an excellent indie film: Good Boy. this is more serious supernatural, and a very emotional film. Get your CF or SO to watch it with you, and there's a 95% chance you'll get laid with a 100% opportunity for deep, philosophical discussion. imdb.com
I remember a very young Studme thinking Teri Garr was hot when she was on of the variety players on the Cher show. Cher was pretty hot too. tiktok.com
I find Teri Garr wicked hot, and she has that sleepy/sexy vibe too. Fucking funny too if you watch young frankenstein. Amen to Harold and Maude. Great flick. Good mention.
Probably Aguirre the Wrath of God from 1972. Werner Herzog is a genius.
I wished they made more movies like that. I'll be on an airplane nowadays and there is NOTHING. It's in total bullshit. I'm not doing it, perfectly fine sitting alone in my thoughts instead.
"Greetings and salutations."
If that sounds familiar, you might already know my movie recommendation, which is the 1989 film "Heathers".
Wait, what??? You haven't seen it???
"Well, f*ck me gently with a chainsaw."
If you like gambling movies, check out Croupier. Came out in 1998, staring Clive Owen as a casino dealer in London. I am interested in the gaming business, and casinos myself, and really enjoyed it.
Layer Cake (2004) with Daniel Craig and Sienna Miller.
Classic: The African Queen (1951) Humphrey Bogart Katharine Hepburn
^ African Queen is excellent.
Granted, many are really old however excellent 1977 - Looking For Mr Goodbar (Diane Keaton) 2002 - Standing In The Shadows of Motown (The Funk Brothers story) 1975 - Rollerball (James Caan - way better than the cheesy remake) 1971 - Brian's Song (James Caan) 1925 - Battleship Potemkin (based on the 1905 Russian battleship mutiny) 1924 - Sherlock, Jr (Buster Keaton - arguably his best) 1927 - Metropolis (amazing) 1925 - The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin) 1923 - Safety Last (Harold Lloyd - classic hanging from a clock) 1927 - Wings (Clara Bow, very hot, and 1st Best Picture Oscar) 1936 - The Shape Of Things To Come (HG Wells story - visionary) 1950 - Summer Stock (Gene Kelly - just fun) 1951 - An American In Paris (Gene Kelly) 1952 - Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly) 1984 - The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension 1977 - Annie Hall (Woody Allen) 1975 - Love and Death (Woody Allen - my favorite Allen movie) 1982 - A Midsummer's Night Sex Comedy (Woody Allen - just hilarious)
1959 - Jazz on a Summer's Day - very early Newport RI Jazz Festival & America's Cup.
This documentary became the standard on how to film concerts. Also, no narration, just film & excellent jazz (Gerry Mulligan, Thelonious Monk, Jimmy Stitt, Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry, and more.)
1984 -- Night of the Comet: A comet wipes out almost all life on Earth, and among the survivors are a couple of Valley girls. 1981 -- Time Bandits: a young British boy joins a band of dwarves traveling through time and stealing things. Includes Sean Connery, Shelly Duvall, and David Warner. Terry Gilliam at his best.
Two more: "A boy and his dog" starring Don Johnson of Miami Vice fame. 1975 flick about the post-nuclear world (it takes place in 2024) and the dog has a special power all PLs will appreciate. If you have not seen "ideocracy" starring Luke Wilson, a 2006 flick, you are missing out. The most average man on earth is cryogenically frozen (with a hooker) waking up in a future where he is the single smartest person on earth by far. When I first saw it I found it humorous. Now I find it very funny, but get a sick feeling that what was originally written as satire, now appears to be a documentary on the devolution of society.
^ I had forgotten about "A Boy and His Dog"
Spy Game, probably not an unknown, but one of my favorite sleepers.
Relay - a smart movie on Netflix.
So much stupid shit out there.
@Studme53. I saw that one recently. I agree, smart.
Cedar Rapids” w/Ed Helm, Ann Hesch (rip) and a John C Reilly. I’ve promoted this independent film several times as a quirky comedy of a small town guy (Ed Helms) going to the big city Cedar Rapids where he meets a fast moving married mother (Ann Hesch) looking for a fun time away from her family. John C Reilly is a hilarious loud mouth straight shorter who gets drunk and tells Ed Helms how the real world plays out. You want to zone out and laugh for 90 minutes this is your ticket.
Bacon!!
Last night I watched Pickup on South Street (1953), a tension filled film noir starring Richard Widmark. The night before I saw Kiss of Death (1947) another good noir in which Widmark made his film debut that had him nominated for best supporting actor. It's worth watching to see Widmark's performance as Tommy Udo, a giggling, psychopathic mob hitman. I love noir! I've seen hundreds of them and find it hard to find any decent ones that I haven't seen. If you like crime dramas film noir is for you.
I should have mentioned that I have seen both of those movies a couple times before, most recently several years ago. They were better this time around. Some others to see are Gun Crazy, Frenzy (Alfred Hitchcock), Brute Force (Burt Lancaster) and The Narrow Margin (!!).
Hawmps, a fictional story of the U S. Cavalry's experimentation with camels. It starts with all of the soldiers waiting for their "Arabian mounts" at the riverboat dock, and the expressions on their faces when the ramp drops onto the dock are priceless. Great comedy
The Villain. Kirk Douglas, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ann Margaret. A human roadrunner movie with Douglas as the coyote, Ann Margaret as the sexually repressed (but eager) ingenue and Arnold as the naive Handsome Stranger, named after his father. Paul Lynde also makes an appearance as Indian Chief Nervous Elk. One of my favorite movies ever.
^ The Villain. I need to look into it. Never heard of it.
Focusing on the more obscure: Arlington Road(1999)-noirish paranoid thriller starring Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins. Evokes The Parallax View (1994) with Warren Beatty, a very solid below the radar flick in its own right. The Conversation (also in 1974) with Gene Hackman is in the same vein but is better known. The Guard (2011) an improbable, understated buddy cop movie with Don Cheadle and Brendan Gleeson, set in Ireland.. In Bruges (2008) an improbable, understated buddy hit man movie with Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell set...in Bruges Local Hero (1983) with Peter Riegert and a bunch of Scottish people set on the Scotland coast, with Burt Lancaster popping in and out. More of a vibes movie which usually doesn't work for me but does here because the characters are so likeable
On the gambling note, Skibum have you seen Molly's Game? Starring Jessica Chastain (who looks amazing in this movie btw) based on the 2014 memoir by Molly Bloom.
My other recommendation would be "Dragged Across Concrete" starring Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn as two cops who get in trouble.
Speaking of hero -- "Hero" with Dustin Hoffman. Bernie la Plant (Hoffman) is a low-life loser and small-time criminal who happens to rescue the passengers of a crashed plane. Step in Andy Garcia who takes the credit and Geena Davis, a passenger of that plane and a reporter caught up in Garcia's charms. Just a really hilarious show.
To Live and Die in LA. Very 80s but really hard edge.
^Sexy informant works at Shipwreck Joey’s, an actual sex business (anyone familiar?) near the Port of LA that closed years ago.
^ it’s interesting you mention to live and die in LA. A few months ago I was listening to 80s on 8 on Sirius XM (I’m a big 80s music fan) and they played “to live and die in LA” which was by the band Wang Chung. I never was much of a Wang Chung fan but I loved this song which I never heard previously. Turns out Wang Chung did the entire soundtrack for that movie, to Live and die in LA. It’s on my “to watch list” which is currently about 75 movies deep!
Great soundtrack. You hear Wang Chung pulsating music kick in about 2 minutes into this amazing counterfeiting scene with Willem Dafoe. I’m surprised US Secret Service let them include it. It’s a sophisticated how-to. The book was written by a Secret Service agent. google.com
The first and only movie my wife and I have ever seen in a theater in the last 36 years was to live and die in LA.
Harold and Maude is pretty hilarious.
en.wikipedia.org