The Cooler (2003)

The Brothers Grimm take on Las Vegas
I loved the fairy tale genre when I was a little kid. It took me a while to realize that The Cooler is a (semi) modern fairy tale. It has a prince (of a guy) played by Bill Macy who is in thrall to an evil demon (played by Alec Baldwin). The poor prince is rescued by a brave maiden (Maria Bello).

As in all fairy tales, the demon is destroyed by his own evil. The price and maiden leave town, richer than before, ready to start over in a distant land.

Two main themes: luck, and the struggle between the Old and New Vegas
The Cooler stars William H. Macy the loveable loser Bernie Lootz, a downtrodden Las Vegas resident with a bad streak of luck at gambling. In order to pay off a debt to the crooked thug manager of the Shangri-La casino (played by Alec Baldwin), Bernie works for seven years as a casino "cooler." He's a man of such bad luck that the manager pays him to visit tables and kill large winning streaks. Just Bernie's presence is enough to ruin anyone's luck.

When Bernie's time is up, he plans to leave Las Vegas for good. The Shangri-La manager has other plans--how could he let his secret casino moneymaker walk? Manager Shelly conspires to keep Bernie around with a love interest, a cocktail waitress with a checkered past (played by Maria Bello). When Bernie and the waitress fall in love, his luck changes, throwing the world of the Shangri-La in turmoil.

The Cooler is about two main themes: luck, and the struggle between the Old and New Vegas. The idea that one man can ruin anyone's streak is ridiculous, but it plays out well in the movie, and Maria Bello's character fits as a fairy tale princess who changes Bernie's outlook on life. Throughout the movie, Shelly is struggling with new casino management who want to modernize the Shangri-La, stop using coolers and back room thugs to keep the action in line, and move into more subliminal marketing strategies. Shelly has a fantasy about the elegance of Old Vegas and is unwilling to give up his kingdom in the Shangri-La.

William H. Macy and Mario Bello deliver top-notch performances in this dark romantic movie. Alec Baldwin overacts at times, but still captures the essence of a man unwilling to give up the only world he knows, that of the Shrangri-La.

and what was the name of that little guy with the cloud over his head in "lil abner"?
one of the themes here is akin to that of "casino", i.e. the end of the old las vegas. much like movies that bemoan the passing of manhattans deuce, i guess you had to be there to get it. otherwise this is a turgid soap opera/fantasy about william macy, professional loser who is used by casino owner alec baldwin to serve as a hex on gamblers who are winning too big. until the day he falls in love and loses his sprcial skill. the movie should have been better than it is, but a screenplay that reads like it came out of a college "how to write a screenplay" course just brings it down to a tad below mediocre.