We watched the Cooler primarily for William H. Macy and Alex Baldwin. They did not disappoint. Maria Bello was a pleasant surprise and equal to the others.
I hate the real Las Vegas, Nevada, and almost every depiction of it. It’s an awful town. This movie touches on the dead-end, endless night aspects of the place. The caricature of mob involvement is a bit old, of course. The fresh aspect is in the notion of the “cooler” himself: a man so unlucky that just being near him ends any lucky you have at the moment.
The violence is at the edge of my tolerance. I understand why this created some buzz for Alec Baldwin, who is a very good bad guy.