‘High Rollers’ VOD Review
Stars: John Travolta, Gina Gershon, Lukas Haas, Quavo, Noel Gugliemi, Natali Yura, Danny Pardo, Demián Castro | Written by Chris Sivertson | Directed by Ives
High Rollers is the sequel to 2024’s sleeper B-movie Cash Out (which I did see but barely remember) reuniting audiences with John Travolta’s slick criminal mastermind, Mason Goddard. Directed by the enigmatic “Ives” (which I guess is Randall Emmett hiding behind a pseudonym). This casino-heist actioner aims to up the ante from its predecessor’s modest thrills, trading small-time bank jobs for the neon-lit excess of a Louisiana gambling empire. With a bigger budget (while still constrained) and a glossier sheen, High Rollers wants to be the Ocean’s Eleven of the straight-to-streaming world. With this entry it could quite possibly hit that mark. Still, on first watch it’s somewhere between a guilty pleasure and a really enjoyable watch, a film that’s sporadically entertaining but often falls foul of its own ambitions and could never really convince me Quavo is an actor of any merit.
The story kicks off with Mason and his crew basking in the spoils of their last score. Travolta’s Mason is all swagger and suntan, sipping cocktails on a tropical beach alongside his girlfriend Amelia Decker (reuniting Travolta with Face-Off co-star Gina Gershon, replacing Kristin Davis), his loyal brother Shawn (Lukas Haas), and a posse of familiar faces including rapper Quavo as the tech-savvy Anton, Noel Gugliemi as muscleman Hector (is this guy always called Hector in movies?), and Natali Yura as the sharp-tongued safecracker Mia. This idyllic retreat is short-lived when actual military helicopters storm the beach (that’s the budget gone). Enter Salazar (Danny Pardo), the vengeful kingpin from Cash Out, who kidnaps Decker to lure Mason into one last job. The target? A sprawling casino owned by Zade Black (Demián Castro), a sadistic tycoon with a penchant for garish suits and a vault stuffed with dirty money. With the FBI closing in and double-crosses lurking, Mason’s crew must pull off the heist of their lives to save Decker and walk away clean.
At its best, High Rollers leans into Travolta’s magnetic charm. He’s clearly having a blast as Mason, channelling the roguish cool of his ‘90s heyday with a wink and a grin. Whether he’s bluffing his way through a poker game or barking orders during a firefight, Travolta carries the film on his shoulders, elevating clunky dialogue into something almost palatable. Travolta is one of the few “Straight to Bargain Basement Actors” who actually still seems to care and it always shows.
Lukas Haas (remember when Haas had a ton of prospects) gets a rare chance to shine as Shawn, bringing a quiet intensity to a subplot about sibling loyalty that hints at deeper emotional stakes although the script never fully commits. One of the film’s highlights is a tense, well-staged sequence where the crew breaches Zade’s high-tech vault, complete with laser grids and a ticking clock. It’s a fleeting nod to classic heist cinema that suggests what High Rollers could have been with tighter execution and more time to breathe.
High Rollers is full to the brim with promise. However, the budget, which must be a step up from Cash Out’s shoestring origins, still feels a touch short for the scale it’s chasing. The Scarlet Pearl Casino Resort in Mississippi stands in for Zade’s empire. The budget is smartly worked around with some choppy editing and interesting choreography, gunfights are loud and the soundtrack helps it punch, but there is a car chase that feels a tad rushed, as if the filmmakers realized too late they needed a bigger set piece. The score, a mix of synth beats and generic hip-hop, injects energy but often drowns out the tension it’s meant to amplify.
The screenplay by Chris Sivertson is slightly weak, prioritizing all-too-pleased-with-itself plot mechanics over character depth. Decker’s kidnapping kind of reduces Gershon to a thankless role, her steely edge wasted on pleading looks and a single escape attempt. Quavo, Gugliemi, and Yura are given flashes of personality, Anton’s quips about crypto, Hector’s love of vintage cars, Mia’s disdain for amateurs—but they’re sidelined as the heist takes over, relegated to background players in Mason’s world. The villains don’t come off much better. Salazar’s revenge feels hamfisted and really just serves as connective tissue to Cash Out, and Zade Black is a caricature of a crime lord, all sneers and no substance. A late twist involving a mole in the crew could’ve landed with impact, but it’s so clumsily foreshadowed that it barely registers as a surprise and our cast is over the reveal before the character has even left the room.
Thematically, High Rollers flirts with ideas about greed, loyalty, and the gambler’s rush, but it never really digs beneath the surface. Mason’s arc, forced to choose between freedom and family, does have potential, yet the film settles for a predictable resolution that undercuts any moral ambiguity. There’s a sense that it wants to say something about the seductive pull of risk, especially in its casino setting, but it’s too busy juggling explosions and one-liners to explore it.
Still, High Rollers isn’t without its charms. Fans of Travolta’s late-career renaissance will find plenty to enjoy in his larger-than-life performance, and the heist itself has an unpolished, underdog appeal that might resonate with viewers who don’t mind a little roughness around the edges. At 1 hour and 41 minutes, it’s brisk enough to avoid overstaying its welcome, even if it drags in spots. Compared to Cash Out, it’s a definite step up, not a big step up but a step up nonetheless. It’s louder, sexier, flashier and carries much more swagger.
In the end, High Rollers is better than your average straight-to-DVD fare, a film that swings for the fences and clears the bleachers. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a slot machine: fun for a spin or two, but narrowly misses the jackpot, but you never know, one more spin might just be the winner! Cash Out 3 anyone? Stream it on a lazy night when you’re craving action without much thinking needed. Just don’t bet on it sticking with you.
*** 3/5
High Rollers is available on digital platforms now.
