Starring: William H. Director: Wayne Kramer. No hidden fees, equipment rentals, or installation appointments.

The Cooler. Start Your Free Trial. You May Also Like Details. Crazy Heart. Marvin's Room. The Good Shepherd. Urban Cowboy.

May 3, Rating: D Full Review…. June 16, Full Review…. November 7, Full Review…. December 20, Full Review….

May 11, Rating: B Full Review…. April 29, Full Review…. December 28, Rating: B Full Review…. View All Critic Reviews Sep 12, I liked this movie a lot.

Solid performances all around, particularly from Alec Baldwin. The actual premise is pretty unrealistic: William H. Macy plays a man who goes around from table to table in a Vegas casino so he can bring bad luck down on a player who's winning too much.

Things get really interesting when his son comes into the mix and asks him for money so he can support his pregnant wife. Things get out of control when Baldwin and his son collide in a shocking, jaw dropping, and incredibly well done scene.

Character development is noticeably present, as Macy's luck changes when he falls in love with a waitress at the casino maria Bello.

Her acting is fantastic as well. If it weren't for these great performances, The Cooler would have been dragged down, but luckily the acting fleshes out the plot.

With excellent performances and an awesome original score, The Cooler works quite well. Final score: 8.

Kevin M Super Reviewer. May 08, In some ways, the film can be seen as a fairy tale. The protagonist is weak but at the end becomes something beyond human with the help of his muse.

Beautifully shot and captures the spirit of Vegas after dark very well! Jan 07, Bernie Lootz has perpetual bad luck, so he makes his living at a Vegas casino as a cooler- the guy they send in to end a gambler's hot streak.

Bernie is great at his job, but his life and his luck begin to change when he meets and subsequently falls in love with Natalie, an utterly gorgeous waitress co-worker.

This wouldn't be so bad if this change didn't also have an effect on Shelly Kaplow, the last of the old time gangster casino owners who is trying like hell to escape the Disneyfication of Vegas and keep things from changing.

Filled with a great jazzy score from Mark Isham, a new twist on an old plot, decent writing, and terrific acting from a first rate cast, this is an exceptional romantic dramedy.

Well, mostly drama, since the bulk of the humor is rather dark and melancholy. Indeed, there are actually some really dark moments throughout, but it's nothing as downbeat as Leaving Las Vegas.

Macy is perfect as Bernie, and his weary facial expressions and impish mannerisms really nail the type of guy Bernie is. In many ways, this character is comparable to Macy's other perfect character Jerry from Fargo.

MAria Bello is quite excellent as Natalie, and this film really helped her career take off. Turning in one of his last truly menacing dramatic performances is Alec Baldwin in an Oscar nominated turn as Shelly, the no-nonsense ruthless casino boss.

Ron Livingston also is good in a supporting role as an Ivy League young gun trying to put Shelly out ot pasture. This is some really great stuff.

It's sometiems rather uneven with the mix of wry romance with the dark underside of Vegas poking through, but in the end it all comes full circle and ends as it should, though you do need to be cool with Deus Ex Machina type stuff in order to accept the climax.

Give this one a shot. It's a shame it's not as revered as it nees to be. Chris W Super Reviewer. Dec 12, Maria Bello and Bill Macy are solid as always, but the movie overall was a letdown.

Wu C Super Reviewer. See all Audience reviews. Shelly Kaplow: This is not a movie. Croupier Bryon Baker Stickman 6 John Kozeluh Man as John T.

Kozeluh Cherilyn Hayres Woman Jim McCarthy Televangelist Frank Hannah Manicurist uncredited Dee Bradley Baker Mike Donnato uncredited Portia Dawson Waitress uncredited Stephen Halbert Carnie uncredited Michelle Lopez Vana Travis Zariwny Martin II Javier M.

Hernandez Tateum Kohut Kathryn Landholt David Fred Masselink Arnold David Blundell Reed Koppen Shawn Lacy The unluckiest man in Vegas - a guy whose bad luck is contagious - is used by the last of the old time mob run casinos to kill high rollers' action.

That is, until he falls in love with a cocktail waitress and gets "lady luck," which throws the situation into reverse.

Things turn nasty when the casino director tries to break up the romance. Written by Anonymous. The Cooler is an odd but ultimately satisfying mixture of real feelings, unexpected violence and improbable situations set against of the backdrop of a Las Vegas nearly gone from this world.

William H. Macy plays Bernie, the Cooler of the title. He is a man whose luck is so bad that it not only infects his own life, but can be rubbed off on unsuspecting gamblers at the Golden Shangri-La casino where he works.

By merely touching the table where a winner is betting he can change their luck to bad, thereby cooling off their winning streak.

It is in this capacity that he meets a cocktail waitress named Natalie Maria Bello who begins a relationship with him after he cools the luck of a customer who gets fresh with her.

As the unlikely couple begin to form a strong bond, Bernie's luck begins to change. It is when Shelly Alec Baldwin , the casino manager and boss to both Bernie and Natalie imposes his will on the situation that Bernie's newfound luck and love are tested.

Macy has spent his career playing hapless losers and hard luck characters. In Bernie, he hits the jackpot, delivering a well modulated, brave performance.

Brave because he allows Bernie to be shown for what he really is, a not overly attractive, middle aged loser in both body and spirit.

Macy shows us a lot of himself both literally and figuratively and it is that which brings a sense of truth to the performance.

Baldwin, who is being billed as a mere co-star is actually a major player in the story. Shelly is a character who utilizes more brute force than the usual steely-eyed verbal barrages that Baldwin excels at.

But Shelly is a great character for Baldwin, a man so sure of his place in life and even in Vegas history that he will not bend under any amount of pressure.

The proposed remodel of the casino threatens Shelly at a deep level, making him all the more inflexible. This is definitely bad news for anyone Shelly comes into contact with who would try to thwart his will in any way, including Bernie and Natalie.

It is a tribute to Baldwin that the Shelly is someone the audience can never find it in their hearts to dislike completely, despite his intolerable actions.

If in the end, the improbabilities of the story overshadow the ending, it is a fairly minor consideration. This is a movie of performances more than storytelling.

Macy's performance is so fine and delicate that one is hard pressed to see how difficult it must have been to do. Bello, as Natalie, shows an underlying fragility that draws the viewer to her and shows us why Bernie would love her.