Big Jackpots

1. The Cincinatti kid

Steve McQueen brings his cool fire to the role of the Cincinnati Kid a small-timer eager to take his chances in high-stakes poker. He gets his chance. Regal ruthless Lancey Howard (Edward G. Robinson) the elite gambler called the Man accepts the Kid's challenge. Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night Moonstruck) directs this taut exploration of back-room gaming building suspense with each turn of a card. And Ann-Margret Karl Malden Rip Torn National Board of Review Best Supporting Actress Award winner Joan Blondell and many more comprise a full house of talent

2. Casino

Martin Scorsese's movie about Las Vegas in the seventies and early eighties clocks in at close to three hours, and the epic running time is absurdly disproportionate to the stature of the main characters: a mob-connected casino manager (Robert De Niro); his wife (Sharon Stone), a former hustler; and a vicious gangster (Joe Pesci). These insectlike figures play out a petty drama of greed, jealousy, and depraved indifference to human life, while voice-over narrations try strenuously, and unsuccessfully, to persuade us that something weighty and tragic is going on. Individual sequences-mostly brief documentary-style passages-are lively and superbly edited, but none provides more than a momentary rush. The picture circles its empty center endlessly: around and around it goes, and where it stops nobody knows. Scorsese certainly hasn't forgotten how to make a movie; what he appears to have forgotten is why.

3. Lock, Stock and two Smoking barrels

Cockney boys Tom, Soap, Eddie and Bacon are in a bind; they owe seedy criminal and porn king "Hatchet" Harry a sizeable amount of cash after Eddie loses half a million in a rigged game of poker. Hot on their tails is a thug named Big Chris who intends to send them all to the hospital if they don't come up with the cash in the allotted time. Add into the mix an incompetent set of ganja cultivators, two dimwitted robbers, a "madman" with an afro, and a ruthless band of drug dealers and you have an astonishing movie called Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Before the boys can blink, they are caught up in a labyrinth of double-crosses that lead to a multitude of dead bodies, copious amounts of drugs, and two antique rifles.

4. Oceans Eleven

Ocean's Eleven improves on 1960's Rat Pack original with supernova casting, a slickly updated plot and Steven Soderbergh's graceful touch behind the camera. Soderbergh reportedly relished the opportunity "to make a movie that has no desire except to give pleasure from beginning to end", and he succeeds on those terms, blessed by the casting of George Clooney as Danny Ocean, the title role originated by Frank Sinatra. Fresh out of jail, Ocean masterminds a plot to steal $163 million from the seemingly impervious vault of Las Vegas's Bellagio casino, not just for the money but to win his ex-wife (Julia Roberts) back from the casino's ruthless owner (Andy Garcia). Soderbergh doesn't scrimp on the caper's comically intricate strategy, but he finds greater joy in assembling a stellar team (including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Carl Reiner) and indulging their strengths as actors and thieves.

5. The Sting

George Roy Hill again joined forces with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, who star as con men Henry Gondorff and Johnny Hooker in THE STING. In the Chicago of the 1930s, Johnny's partner, Luther (Robert Earl Jones), is fatally wounded by a victim of one of their scams who turns out to be powerful syndicate boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Eager for revenge, Johnny takes a tip from his dying partner and seeks out mutual friend Gondorff, a consummate master of the long con. Gondorff rouses himself from his alcoholic inertia and agrees to help Johnny take down the despicable Lonnegan, conscripting an army of grifters ready to avenge their friend's death. The labyrinthine plot, which is stuffed with false leads, red herrings, and a double-cross-a-minute, involves a fake bookie joint, a very persistent FBI agent, a bunch of corrupt cops, and one shifty dame.

6. Maverick

7. Rounders

8. Honeymoon in Vegas
9. Casino Royale
10. The Gambler
11. Rain Man
12. The Hustler
13. The Colour of Money
14. Lucky Town
15. Las Vegas
16. Snake Eyes
17. Croupier
18. The Music of Chance
19. Havana
20. Face