The Cooler

Cast View all

	William H. Macy	Bernie Lootz
	Alec Baldwin	Shelly Kaplow
	Maria Bello	Natalie Belisario
	Shawn Hatosy	Mikey
	Ron Livingston	Larry Sokolov
	Paul Sorvino	Buddy Stafford
	Estella Warren	Charlene
	Arthur J. Nascarella	Nicky Fingers Bonnatto
	Joey Fatone	Johnny Cappella
	M.C. Gainey	Highway Officer
	Ellen Greene	Doris
	Don Scribner	Lou
	Tony Longo	Tony
	Richard Israel	Marty Goldfarb
	Timothy Landfield	The Player
	T.J. Gioia	Bulldog
	Jewel Shepard	Hooker
	Gordon Michaels	Mr. Pinkerton
	Doc Watson	Morrie
	Dan Lemieux	Suburbanite
	Larry Elliott	Floor Manager
	Joe Conti	Pit Boss
	Chris Platt	Dealer
	Norbert Ganska	Stickman #1
	Mitch Samboceti	Player

Crew View all

Director	Wayne Kramer
Writer	Frank Hannah, Wayne Kramer
Producer	Andrew Busey, Alessandro Camon, Bryan Furst, Sean Furst, Robert Gryphon, Joe Madden, Chris Miller, Brett Morrison, Michael A. Pierce, Edward R. Pressman, Elliot Lewis Rosenblatt, John Schmidt
Musician	Mark Isham
Photography	James Whitaker

Personal

Notes

Story Synopsis:
When things get hot on the craps tables at the Shangri-La Casino in Las Vegas, all it takes is a visit from The Cooler to stop a winning streak. Bernie Lootz (Macy) is working off a debt at the casino by “cooling” winning tables with his extremely bad luck. When the debt is nearly paid off, Lootz meets a sweet cocktail waitress named Natalie (Bello) and his luck strangely begins to change. But the Shangri-La’s mob boss owner, Shelly Kaplow (Baldwin), isn’t about to let Bernie go on a lucky-streak with Lady Luck at his side. (Suzanne Hodges)

DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced DVD picture is quite satisfying, with images that are nicely detailed and sharp and exhibit pleasing contrast and shadow delineation. Colors are well balanced, with accurate fleshtones and generally deep blacks. The picture can have a dim appearance that is complementary to the mood of the older casino setting of the storytelling. Sometimes the picture has a “flat” appearance, with images that lack dimension. Edge enhancement and pixelization are infrequent for a picture that is suitable for the genre. The disc is framed at 2.40:1, not 1.85:1 as indicated on the jacket. (Suzanne Hodges)

Soundtrack:
Old Las Vegas-before the days of the mega-casinos like The Mirage and Bellagio, before the city was reimagined into more of a “family” town, and when “whacking” someone was done to make a very serious point-is brought vividly to life in this dynamic, although mostly subtle and quiet, sounding Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack. The familiar sounds of Las Vegas that permeate the soundtrack-like the subtle murmur of casino sounds in the background-are very accurate in their reproduction. The quiet moments throughout the presentation set up the more hard-to-watch violent outbreaks that really make the listener cringe, due to the harsh nature of the sonic proceedings. The musical soundtrack, that combines a very nice original score and old classics, also sounds great. The front three screen channels handle most of the audio information, where the surrounds and LFE channels contain just enough sonic information to present to the listener a holosonic™ soundfield. (Jeffrey Kern)

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