Rating: Summary: Rolling life's dice Review: Croupier enthralls with its slick humor and enigmatic presence. The inner workings of Clive Owen's Jack, a person torn who learns to live the life he might write about even as he keeps the pages coming, are on transparent display, as his witty aphorisms yield insight as often as laughs. The film loses a little steam towards the ending, but it nonetheless remains a first rate tale of enlightened cynicism seen through the eyes of the world's most discerning casino dealer.
Rating: Summary: Great Film - Bad DVD !! Review: Croupier is a fantastic film, but, this DVD has been edited for content to the degree that the story doesn't make sense. Also, the DVD version has been formatted to fit your television screen. I was very disappointed in the DVD release of this otherwise absolutely superb film
Rating: Summary: A lot of hooh-hah about nothing Review: Didn't get this at all. Must be a jazz thing, about the apotheosis of cool. Owen is not a hard man, he is your best friend's kid brother. He is milk and cookies.This film got a retrospective showing at a West End indy rep with director Hodges pencilled in to talk about the trials and tribulations of getting the film made and distributed. I didn't attend. That's the kind of existential guy I am.
Rating: Summary: I can't believe this movie wasn't huge at the box office. Review: Don't miss this movie. It is unpredictable; the characters are interesting, and just when you think you know what's going on, you find out you don't. The humor is not so stiff as one might expect from a bunch of Brits. The star is not quite as monotone as Steven Wright the comedian, but he is what I call "level" almost all the time. I found it interesting to see "behind the scenes" of casino action, and it was fun to watch this guy deal cards. This movie is very entertaining, and I intend to get my copy of the DVD as soon as I can.
Rating: Summary: Don't buy this DVD Review: I am a Clive Owen fan and first saw Croupier in the theatre when it was released and I have been eager to own a copy on DVD ever since. I just bought the DVD listed above and to my complete disgust, this version of Croupier has been both edited for content and formatted to fit the television screen. The content editing is so severe that it leaves the story without a plausable ending. I was so disappointed because Croupier is indeed a five star story and I had waited some time to get this film on DVD only to feel utterly .... DO NOT BUY THIS DVD...you will be sorely disappointed.
Rating: Summary: Dark, Brooding and Fabulous Review: I am not one to normally write reviews, but I felt I really had to,even though there are over 40 people who have written in about this movie alread. It's a great movie I had no knowledge of until a few weeks ago, and it's a perfect little movie that is just thrilling to discover. Clive Owen is utterly perfect as our "hero." Clive is so compelling, it's like we got sucked into this house of torment along with him. His staring bright eyes convey someone who is searching into the souls of those in his life, partly to try connect with people and partly to study them, find their weaknesses, and exploit them for his own use.
This ain't no happy movie, but it's well worth watching, and then rewatching. It's a movie most of us missed the first time around, but luckily with Clive Owen becomming more well known, it may get a second life.
Rating: Summary: existential joe says: great lil indie sleeper Review: i first saw mike hodges wonder croupier back in early 2001. it was released over in the states by the shooting gallery film series along with other lil gems like judy berlin, orphans, a time for drunken horses, etc. i really enjoyed all these films, but none more than croupier. this is some great neo-noir. dark, twisted, bleak; the setting is london, its seedy-underbelly, and i ask you, what better than a casino to illuminate a fake, phony, and fixed world...an apathetic one? clive owen IS jack manfred, a struggling writer, jobless, who, on the advice of his down-in-his-luck-gambling father, takes a job at the golden lion casino, a middle-of-the-road establishment catering to all sorts of punters. at first, jack is hesitant. he's seen the casino life before, he's known all the punters, and as his monologues would suggest, he's a great chronicler of his surroundings. but he's wary at first, even if he knows he's the one controlling the game. he wants to be a writer. he quotes hemingway ('the world breaks everyone, and afterwards many are stronger at the broken places') and has a romantic girlfriend who wants to 'LIVE WITH A WRITER'. it seems everyone wants a little bit of this enigmatic man, jack manfred, or everyone wants to use him. and it becomes almost pointless to hate his detached voyeurism, his demeanor, because really, he seems the most honest man here. in films the hero is a gambler, sticking out his neck out for whatever purpose is popular: justice, freedom, religion, truth...whatever. do you know any heroes like this; can you really see the difference in such a vain, phony world? the best people i've known have been either crazy or too depressed for words. and they aren't exactly a caterable bunch, eh? in jack's world, the real gritty one, conscience can't exist. only in the poor world can it thrive and only jack perhaps knows the price of money. but really, he's the most likable one here. he's honest. incredibly well-acted, small budget indie sleeper. clive owen will stop your heart. nurtured by mike hodges, croupier is one of the best english films of the nineties and is reminiscent of another abrasive brit movie, naked (mike leigh). can you be a gambling winner? can you be a conscientious croupier? or are they polar opposites until death?
Rating: Summary: british surpass us in film and story in the movies Review: I have seen this film a million times, I got it one day just browsing through a hollywood video! Clive Owen, how cool is this guy, and he holds your interest as Jack, who is too cynical and burned out to care what anyone thinks or feels. Jack becomes a black jack dealer to make himself be a writer, but in a way, you never really know what his heart really longs for. British movies in my opinion are better written and the the characters are more interesting. Check this film out if you like dark and moody!
Rating: Summary: Re:Review from Mr. Bullock from Austin Review: I have the DVD, it's a great quality picture and sound and no the film is not edited. The DVD is 94 minutes as is the official running time of the movie. If you didn't understand the ending, you just didn't understand the ending! So it's fullscreen, big deal, put a soother in your mouth and go to bed. A fabulous movie and DVD all around, nuff said!
Rating: Summary: Enthralling story, surprising ending Review: I loved it! Having enjoyed Clive Owen from Second Sight and the new BMW films I thought I understood this subtle actor, but he has such a calm outer demeanor it can be impossible to predict the inner turmoils. Intrigueing and complex for a small film that 's a big thrilling journey.
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