In preparation for my upcoming viewing of Quantum of Solace (mmmm, Daniel Craig), I rewatched the 2006 remake of Casino Royale over the weekend and was reminded of how intense those casino scenes are. Bond practically being back from the dead and going face to face with a creepy Frenchman with bleeding eyes just sorta added to that.

Saying nothing for the swimsuit shots earlier in the movie, of course…

Of course. He can gamble with my chips any day…

Anyway, so I got to thinking about the stylishness that the 007 franchise brought to the cinema-style casino setting, and then thought about just how many casino movies there are. Never mind all the detractors who try to paint real-world Las Vegas as a garish sea of neon lights, hookers and depravity — of course, it is that if you want it to be, but what these films emphasize is that casinos are signs of big money and high class. And are they ever! (Trust me, I’ve been to Vegas. There’s nothing like the sight of the city from your hotel room at night, all lit up down below. Amazing!)

Let’s go through a few of them together:

Diamonds Are Forever - Keeping in tune with the 007 theme, here’s foxy Sean Connery as Bond going up against a villainous millionaire casino owner (as if there are any other kind). Girls love casinos and girls love diamonds — what better combination for a movie? Oh yeah, did I mention Sean Connery?

21 - One of the newest on the list got sorta panned at the box office, but it’s a fascinating (true) story nonetheless: MIT math geniuses are trained to become card-counting experts and, subsequently, win millions from Vegas casinos. The movie, being Hollywood, is full of beautiful people, romance, action, intrigue, and Kevin Spacey.

Casino - You just can’t go wrong with the premise of this Scorsese thriller: mobsters meet Vegas. It also provides a look at how deep the mob was involved with casinos in the 70’s and 80’s, as well as the perfect casting of Sharon Stone as a gold-digging trophy wife.

Rounders - Eye candy for the ladies all over the place with this one! Matt Damon and Edward Norton give Daniel Craig a run for his hot-bettor money as a pair of gamblers - one reformed and one deep in debt - putting it all on the line for one last world series of poker game. Funny how Damon’s longtime buddy Ben Affleck is a real-life poker champ.

Ocean’s Eleven - You want more eye candy? You got it with this one: George Clooney, Matt Damon (again), Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck (wonder if he picked up big bro’s talent?), and a cast of stars lead this caper about a group of eleven hucksters out to rob three Vegas casinos at once. More humorous than the last few movies on the list, plus there’s the 1960s original to check out if you want some retro hotness from the good ol’ Rat Pack.

Lucky You - Another newer flick, this one didn’t take all at the box office but had a great pair of stars nonetheless in Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore. With Bana as a hotshot poker player (again, is there any other type?) trying to rebuild his life in Vegas and Barrymore as the woman who falls in love with him, there’s plenty of drama and intensity in this one. Get a few tissues though, just in case.

13 Tzameti - Okay, this one doesn’t take place in a casino, but it definitely is about gambling — with human lives. A good cautionary tale thriller for those who get too into wagering. A person ain’t a poker chip!

But for those of us who enjoy checks as much as chips, there’s some bodily harm on the way tonight in the form of Monday Night Football betting — specifically, Packers vs Saints odds. Although we all know Ms. Kardashian will be cheering for her man Reggie Bush, who’s recently returned to the Saints, the Packers still make a better pick. They’ve got both defence and offense locked up tight, and no celebrity girlfriend can work as a good luck charm against that. Just ask Tony Romo.

If you happened to live in any sort of metropolitan city that has anything resembling a megaplex movie theatre, chances are you saw a phenomenon last night that’s usually relegated to Star Wars fanatics and Harry Potter lovers: Day-long lineups for a midnight screening. The movie in subject is, of course, the ubiquitous Twilight.

Twilight, for those not under 15, over 35, or male, is a literary quadrilogy about the heartwarming saga of a clingy, vapid, obsessive teenage girl and her possessive, over-protective, domineering vampire boyfriend. It’s a love story for the ages, really. But somehow, something in there clicked with the minds, hearts and wallets of millions of readers out there (mostly, as aformentioned, the under-15-over-35-not-male crowd), and the entertainment business, savvy beast that it is, capitalized almost immediately by making a movie adaptation — one that’s currently sitting at a 44% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics can be so cruel.

The entertainment business, however, is also smart in the way of oddsmaking — Twilight opening box office odds are -115 for both over and under $52 million, and there’s also picks for how many weeks it’ll be at number one in the domestic box office. Your best odds there are to bet on two weeks — it’s a reasonable amount of time for a (*cough*) masterpiece such as Twilight to stay at #1, and at +200, there’s some good value in that pick. Will it be the new Titanic, with months and months at the top? Probably not, but at least you can try to rake in James Cameron-level dough.

Hang on, wait a sec — what about that boy wizard I mentioned earlier? My girl Summer’s got that covered for ya with her Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince betting odds. She makes a pretty good argument for HP’s three-day opening to be bigger than Iron Man, taking into account the plunging American economy as well. But hey, if we can’t lose ourselves in one young wizard’s epic bildungsroman of a movie series, then what, really, can we find escape in? Look for all the unabated and unimpressed non-Twi-hards to keep their cash for their beloved Harry and friends, and the rest of us to use our dollars to bet exotics online.

(By the way, Angel >>> Edward. No question!)