You have to wonder what percentage of the budget for High Rollers was spent on John Travolta. I’m guessing a fairly sizeable chunk. Having said that, it was worth it! I wouldn’t say that I was a huge fan of Mr Travolta but I have seen a fair few of his films and enjoyed them all…well, apart from Battlefield Earth. The funny thing is that I haven’t seen what are probably his most famous films! Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Staying Alive, and the Look Who’s Talking franchise have all passed me by.
But Carrie, Swordfish, Face/Off, Broken Arrow, I Am Wrath, Phenomenon, Micheal, Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, Bolt, The General’s Daughter and more have all been watched and enjoyed. The Taking Of Pelham 123, Be Cool, and the aforementioned Battlefield Earth have all been sat through with varying degrees of disappointment. The one thing that, consistently, wasn’t a disappointment though is the performance of Mr Glom Gazingo himself.
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And so that continues in High Rollers. Now, before going much further I’ll just point out that someone, somewhere must really like Mason Goddard (John Travolta), and his cohort made up of Shawn Goddard (Lukas Haas), Amelia Decker (Gina Gershon), Link (Natali Yura), Anton (Quavo), and Hector (Noel Gugliemi). Mason is a master thief and the rest of the team are his gang. I suppose I should describe Mason as a former master thief as he starts High Rollers as a retired thief.
High Rollers starts with the gang relaxing on a beach when a rival gang pitches up and kidnaps Amelia who is now Mason’s love interest thanks to events in the previous instalment, Cash Out. The reason for the kidnapping is revealed as the incentive for Mason to come out of retirement and carry out a particularly tricky heist inside of a South American casino. Obviously there is more to it than that but, you know, spoilers. Just think of the various machinations in things like Ocean’s Eleven, Inception, Layer Cake, Now You See Me, etc.
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Now why do I think that someone, somewhere must really like Mason Goddard and his cohort? I said earlier that High Rollers is, in effect, Cash Out 2. Well they liked it so much that Cash Out 3 has already completed principal and location photography. It will doubtless follow the trajectory of the first two instalments and go along the straight to video (streaming?) route and I’ll be intrigued to see if there’s a fourth instalment.
So, besides the efforts of Mr Travolta, how does High Rollers hold up? To be honest there are a few low points. Some lacklustre acting from other cast members and a few cinema tropes that I now find so ludicrous that they pull me out of the action; walking away from high speed crashes despite not wearing seat belts, highly fragile gloves that are as tough as Marigolds, and lifts that are inaccessible the second the doors start to close. But if you can ignore the hiccoughs the actual heist set pieces are delightfully gripping. High Rollers gets a digital release on 16th June 2025 courtesy of 101 Films.
Independent Film Grade: C+
Former teacher, lecturer, homelessness administrator, pharmacy dispenser now happily retired, happily married, and a very happy granddad. I live next to the Mersey but on the side Daniel Craig and Taron Egerton come from rather than the side the Beatles came from!