Croupier [IMPORT]

Rating:
Summary: Oh no ! Will I be sad if I watch the DVD version ?
Review: I rented this film as a VHS and was astounded ! It is definitely one of my all time favorite movies. I added the DVD to my collection right away -- but I haven't viewed it yet. (I thought I'd save it for a special treat.)

After reading the reviews at Amazon, I'm scared to look at the DVD version, lol. Who could have toyed with the sequence of scenes that unfold one after another like cards being upturned on the table ?

I'm not one to latch on to a movie star, but I am a big fan of Clive Owen after seeing this and "Gosford Park". I can't wait to see "Beyond Borders", too. (The Paramount site for that film isn't working right, does anyone know how to email Paramount ?)

Also, does anyone have specifics on what was lost in the transfer to DVD ? Sounds like I'll have to purchase the VHS. Thanks for your reviews of this one of a kind enthralling movie experience.

Rating:
Summary: I am SO frustrated!
Review: I watched this movie and really, really, really loved it - except for 2 things: the flat response of the lead character during and after viewing the dead body of someone very important to him, and THE END. I mean, what? I just didn't get it at all, at all. Neither did 2 people with whom I was watching the movie. Afterwards, we went to these reviews and other stuff online about the film, looking for a friggin' explanation of what happened - and flat out couldn't find enough information for it all to make sense to me. Nobody wants to be the spoiler, so nobody told enough for me to figure out how the heist ended. Did they get away or were they arrested by the Asian man's bodyguards? Why the fake black eye? How did the father end up where he was in the final scene? Huh, huh. Huh??? Would some kind soul please email me and explain all this. It's disturbing my sleep.
Thanks: [e-mail]


Rating:
Summary: Clive Owen's debut finally re-released in the US!
Review: I've been looking for a commerically available Region 1 version of Croupier for quite some time now. I was so excited to see that its being re-released that I had to check other sources to make sure its not a glitch. But, yes indeed, Croupier is scheduled to be re-released March 9, 2004!

As for the film itself, this film introduced Americans to Clive Owen. It opened the doors for Clive's recent film roles in the BMW Films "The Hire," "Gosford Park," "Bourne Identity," "Beyond Borders" and upcoming starring role in "King Authur" (not to mention the James Bond rumors. I've also heard good things about the Brit TV miniseries "Second Sight.") Don't expect a Hollywood thriller here. This modern update of the film noir genre is shot to create disconnect and confusion, and the characters are gritty and flawed. The film centers around Jack Manfred, a struggling-writer-turned-card-dealer. Jack moves through his life like a ghost, detached and disinterested in the events of his own life. Alex Kingston's character Jani de Villiers enters his life and adds color to Jack's dark world. Jani is the femme fatale to Jack's postmodern hard-boiled hero, but I love that Jack and Jani's relationship does not develop in the way you would expect. Overall, an enjoyable film for indie film lovers and a must for Clive Owen fans.

Rating:
Summary: Existential Thriller... Clive Owen's Showcase
Review: If Clive Owen is chosen to trade his "casino dealer's license" for 007's Licence to Kill,it will because of his superb performance as "Underground man",Jack Manfred in Mike Hodge's existential thriller.CROUPIER has everything going for it as PM-noir classic Clive Owen's Dostoyeskian doppelganger incarnates New Age lost soul trying to forge morality and character among other lost souls, self-condemned to THE CASINO,"the house of addiction. "The alluring, ultimately treacherous,Alex Kingston; Kate(Bella Lugosi)Hardie;and "pure of heart"(therefore,destined for betrayal and death)Gina McKee each offer Croupier Jack possiblities for death or redemption. Like JACK CARTER,Mike Hodges'other great existential anti-hero,Jack-the-Croupier-Owen is fascinating to watch as, without appeal to pity or applause" he destroys himself.

Ending to CROUPIER is nowhere near as grim as GET CARTER! But a viewer deceives himself thinking this Jack-of-the Clubs is any less a loser or Hollow Man than his PM-aged "living dead" peers. Clive Owen made his bones in this airless;colorless[photographed shadow-world black;grave-yard green and toilet-tile white, with NOT ONE SINGLE SHOT OF SUNLIGHT allowed Owen's character]; anti- world where "children of the night" wail and THE CROUPIER'S roulette ball roll is really a death knell.Yet Owen displays "the right stuff" that could make him the best Bond since Connery. Hopefully we'll see him emerge from the Croupier's tomb,going for the gold as Ian Fleming's premier superhero in CASINO ROYALE...


Rating:
Summary: "Welcome back, Jack, to the House of Addiction."
Review: In the film, "Croupier" Jack Manfred (Clive Owen) is a writer--well he would be if he could come up with anything to write after the title. Jack, a former croupier from South Africa, is living with store detective, former police officer Marian (Gina McKee) in a cramped basement flat. While staring at his typewriter one day, Jack receives a phone call from his ne'er-do-well dad who gives him an 'in' to a London casino. Is it boredom, addiction, poverty, or just the need for book material that drives Jack back into the casino world? Perhaps those are all possible reasons for Jack's swift acceptance of the high-paying job as a croupier--a profession Jack emphatically says he loathes. But while Jack may loathe the job, he's also undeniably good at it--that much is apparent when he deals cards--but he is also especially satisfied when he scoops up the money from all the losers who play at his table. Jack is at home in the casino. It's a world he's very familiar with, and once he accepts the job, he becomes increasingly more comfortable with his role. Jack feels that "now he had become the still centre of that spinning wheel of misfortune."

Jack's career move causes trouble on the domestic front. Marian, who states "she wants to live with a writer--not a croupier" feels threatened by Jack's new life, and it's true that their schedules conflict, but she also senses that there's a whole side to Jack that she doesn't understand or accept. Jack remains impervious to Marian's complaints, and as he's started to actually write a novel, he can't very well give up the casino at this point. But further complications loom on the horizon--the casino maintains very strict rules about friendships between casino employees, and casino employees are not allowed to socialize with casino guests. Jack proceeds to quietly violate all these rules. He establishes relationships with a female croupier, Bella, and a mysterious South African gambler named Jani de Villiers. In flouting casino rules, Jack gambles with more than just his job.

Clive Owen is always interesting to watch, and the role of the disaffected Jack Manfred is perfect for him. An actor with less talent would play this role as a zombie, but Owen merely seems rather removed and cold about it all. Gina McKee as Jack's girlfriend, Marian was marvellous. At first, as a couple they seem quite well-matched, but then a seamless shift occurred, and Marian is seen as Jack's intellectual inferior. Gina McKee plays her role well as the power centre in Marian's relationship with Jack shifts, and she adjusts from being the understanding, supportive girlfriend to the accusatory whistle-blower. I know nothing at all about gambling, casinos, etc, and so this fresh background was fascinating for me.The film kept me riveted to the edge of my seat, guessing to the end--displacedhuman

Rating:
Summary: A witty sparkling gem of a film.
Review: Jack is a loser by all measures of success; a failed author, unemployed, lives off his girlfriend's expense and ends up selling his only possession - a sports car given to him by dad. But Jack does have a talent: he's a gifted Croupier (a dealer - an attendent who collects and places bets). When his gambler/con-artist father arranges an interview with the head of a Casino, Jack reluctantly agrees only because he needs the money. But once behind the gaming tables, Jack is in his element and reigns supreme. Here every gambler loses because the odds are always stacked against them, and Jack "never gambles." The rush Jack gets from his job energizes everything else in his life and becomes the inspiration for the Novel he always wanted to write, but soon Jack will experience what he's always known: "hold on tightly, let go lightly" - everything has a consequence. Since he is no longer dependent on his girlfriend Marion, she feels threatened. His success has also made him a target of temptation, and the man who "never gambles" may become the biggest gambler of them all. The acting by Gina McKee as Marion is outstanding, and Clive Owen, who also narrates this film in the third person, was perfectly cast as Jack, the Croupier. He plays the role with a detached, cool and calculated sense of irony that makes the character facinating to watch. When Owen made this film he was a virtual unknown, but three years later fortune would find him as "the driver" in series of excellent short films sponsored by BMW as part of a marketing strategy for the auto maker. And now he's been nominated by the Academy!

Rating:
Summary: Clive Owen steals the show
Review: Jack Manfred is a writer seeking to find the elusive inspiration required to pen his first novel. He hasn't always been a writer, however. Before sitting down in front of a word processor he experienced first hand the lure of the casino; his father traipsed around the world gambling away everything he had and often alienated his young son in the process. Now Manfred has settled down with his store detective girlfriend Marion and his Duran Duran hat and spends his time trying to put it all down on paper. The casino has different ideas for Jack, calling him back when his father pulls some strings and gets his son a job as a croupier in a London gaming house. Much like the alcoholic who continually hears the siren sound of the liquor bottle and the neighborhood bar, Manfred initially fights the impulse to return to dens of iniquity full of roulette wheels, chips, and lost souls looking to buck the odds. As much as Jack hates to admit it, he does have a mathematician's mind for gambling. During the interview for the job, he pulls chips off the felt and stacks them with the precision of a surgeon. Manfred can keep track of multiple bets with cool ease; can analyze the motives and psychologies of the gamblers sitting down at the table, all while keeping his mask of exterior detachment firmly in place. Obviously, and agonizingly, he gets the job.

It quickly becomes apparent to Jack that returning to the "house of addiction" poses numerous difficulties. Marion, at first enthused about her boyfriend's new job and big paycheck, begins to notice subtle changes in Jack after he begins work. Other employees at the casino exert their own nefarious influences on our hero, with one of the female croupiers luring Jack in with her wiles while a male croupier tempts Jack in a different way. One immutable rule of the house applying to all employees concerns gambling: don't do it. Obviously, the owners of the gaming house don't want chronic gamblers as employees because debts accrued at the tables will ultimately lead to stealing or cheating. Another rule concerns fraternization with customers and employees outside of the casino: again, don't do it. Knotty relationships with fellow workers can cause one to lose concentration or lead to nasty emotional blowups. Mixing things up with the punters can lead to scams and cheating.

Manfred, essentially an honest guy, manages to break nearly everyone of these rules in record time, although he does keep himself out of serious trouble until he meets a beautiful gambler by the name of Jani de Villiers. This woman attempts to lure Jack into a situation that could, and does, have serious and lingering problems of a decidedly life threatening nature. Through it all--the eventual blowup with Marion, the increasing problems with fellow employees, and the lure of Jani--Jack Manfred finally writes. He writes about his job as a croupier, about the lost souls swirling about the gaming tables, and he does it so well his book must surely lead to success and fame. Maybe.

"Croupier" is a wonderful effort from director Mike Hodges, the same bloke who did "Get Carter" way back in the day. The movie boasts Clive Owen as Jack Manfred, the stunningly gorgeous Alex Kingston in the role of punter supreme Jani de Villiers, and Gina McKee as Jack's straight arrow girlfriend Marion. Owen steals the show, as he should, in his role as the cynical, icy Jack Manfred. Our hero has a lot of personal problems--from his childhood difficulties dealing with a father addicted to gambling to attempting to change course and earn a living as a writer--and Owen believably pulls it all off. I read somewhere this actor is on the shortlist to fill the role of James Bond when Pierce Brosnan steps down, and I couldn't agree more with the choice. In fact, I noticed a striking resemblance between Owen and Sean Connery while watching "Croupier." Maybe it was some of this guy's mannerisms or his subtle charm, but whatever it was the comparison is a valid one. Heck, some of the interior shots of the casino where Jack works reminded me of an early James Bond film, with the snappy dialogue and expressive eye contact. I don't want to overemphasize Clive Owen, though. Alex Kingston does a bang up job as de Villiers, a woman so beautiful you can barely look at her without sunglasses. Even better, we get to see A LOT of Kingston in this role.

Performances are key to this film because the plot tends to confuse at points. After awhile, I quit trying to piece it all together and just sat back to enjoy Owen as he navigated through a host of personal problems. I wouldn't want to call "Croupier" a "slice of life" film, although it certainly fits that bill nicely. The movie isn't primarily about casinos either even though it does give the viewer great insight into the sordid world of gaming houses. "Croupier" is a film about Jack Manfred's personal pain and how he attempts to deal with it as an adult. He's an arrogant guy who thinks he can remove himself from the real world and its attendant problems--his voice-overs and mannerisms hint at his personal belief that HE is above petty problems faced by the mere mortals staring back at him over stacks of chips--but ends up enmeshed in numerous difficulties nonetheless because while he won't gamble at the tables, he does gamble in his personal life. Watch the movie to find out how Jack's risks lead to a major plot twist at the end of the film, and figure out for yourself whether he wins or loses.

Rating:
Summary: How did it get to be a hit?
Review: Mike Hodges and Paul Mayersberg's "Croupier" was released in Britain as a low-budget sleeper and went on to do some serious business in the USA, based on some very high-powered reviews and, presumably, audience loyalty.

Yes, Mike Hodges directed that camp classic, Flash Gordon. He also directed one of the finest British gangster movies, Get Carter, with Michael Caine, many years ago. Paul Mayersberg's script for Croupier must have tempted him somehow or other, but frankly, it's hard for this viewer to see how.

It's not that Clive Owen doesn't bear up manfully as the eponymous novelist/casino dealer of the title. It's not that Gina McKee isn't good as his long-suffering girlfriend, or that Alex Kingston isn't luscious as a mysterious South African woman, or that Kate Hardie doesn't bring her own brand of weird hoydenish charm to her role as a fellow croupier (croupiette?) with a "troubled" past. It's that this film sucks. And the fault can be slapped in the face of the writer.

The plot, insofar as there is one, is pretty risible - Owen plays a novelist, Jack Manfred, who has worked as a croupier in his homeland of South Africa. Down on his luck, he takes a job in a London casino. Here he meets a Ruthless Casino Owner, a Breezily Amoral Fellow Croupier who takes him to a Decadent Nightspot, and after a while he gets involved with a Luscious Femme Fatale (Kingston) who has a bizarre nude scene - she walks into a room without a stitch on and proceeds to put on a nightgown before going to sleep with Jack, who is in the room already, and I mean Sleep. Why did this happen? Did we just totally have to see a naked woman at some point in this film? Not that Alex Kingston isn't exceptionally easy on the eye, cause she is - but the scene makes no sense, as we are led to assume that the two characters don't ever actually have sex.

Meanwhile, Jack tries to write his novel about an Amoral Croupier, but his Life Is Becoming Like His Book. Whatever chance this film had of being interestingly nuanced and ambiguous is steamrollered by a galumphing voice-over of stunning literal-mindedness. Just when we can see Owen thinking "What an interesting woman", the voice-over says "Jack thought, what an interesting woman", and so on.

Most of the time frame of the film is compressed into the last ten minutes. The voiceover is so boringly obvious, the dialogue so cheesy, that you wonder why this wasn't a novel, just as you wonder why Owen's character wasn't a screenwriter. I'm prepared to believe that Mayersberg knows a lot about the business of casinos, but it doesn't make him a writer.

The original audience for this movie knew what they were doing when they let it die. What Americans have since seen in it frankly escapes me. Croupier is a bunch of fine actors and a good director struggling to polish a lump of tacky, third-rate coal. It was never going to be a diamond. Let it go. Unless you fancy a giggle at the badness of it all.

Rating:
Summary: How did it get to be a hit?
Review: Mike Hodges and Paul Mayersberg's "Croupier" was released in Britain as a low-budget sleeper and went on to do some serious business in the USA, based on some very high-powered reviews and, presumably, audience loyalty.

Yes, Mike Hodges directed that camp classic, Flash Gordon. He also directed one of the finest British gangster movies, Get Carter, with Michael Caine, many years ago. Paul Mayersberg's script for Croupier must have tempted him somehow or other, but frankly, it's hard for this viewer to see how.

It's not that Clive Owen doesn't bear up manfully as the eponymous novelist/casino dealer of the title. It's not that Gina McKee isn't good as his long-suffering girlfriend, or that Alex Kingston isn't luscious as a mysterious South African woman, or that Kate Hardie doesn't bring her own brand of weird hoydenish charm to her role as a fellow croupier (croupiette?) with a "troubled" past. It's that this film sucks. And the fault can be slapped in the face of the writer.

The plot, insofar as there is one, is pretty risible - Owen plays a novelist, Jack Manfred, who has worked as a croupier in his homeland of South Africa. Down on his luck, he takes a job in a London casino. Here he meets a Ruthless Casino Owner, a Breezily Amoral Fellow Croupier who takes him to a Decadent Nightspot, and after a while he gets involved with a Luscious Femme Fatale (Kingston) who has a bizarre nude scene - she walks into a room without a stitch on and proceeds to put on a nightgown before going to sleep with Jack, who is in the room already, and I mean Sleep. Why did this happen? Did we just totally have to see a naked woman at some point in this film? Not that Alex Kingston isn't exceptionally easy on the eye, cause she is - but the scene makes no sense, as we are led to assume that the two characters don't ever actually have sex.

Meanwhile, Jack tries to write his novel about an Amoral Croupier, but his Life Is Becoming Like His Book. Whatever chance this film had of being interestingly nuanced and ambiguous is steamrollered by a galumphing voice-over of stunning literal-mindedness. Just when we can see Owen thinking "What an interesting woman", the voice-over says "Jack thought, what an interesting woman", and so on.

Most of the time frame of the film is compressed into the last ten minutes. The voiceover is so boringly obvious, the dialogue so cheesy, that you wonder why this wasn't a novel, just as you wonder why Owen's character wasn't a screenwriter. I'm prepared to believe that Mayersberg knows a lot about the business of casinos, but it doesn't make him a writer.

The original audience for this movie knew what they were doing when they let it die. What Americans have since seen in it frankly escapes me. Croupier is a bunch of fine actors and a good director struggling to polish a lump of tacky, third-rate coal. It was never going to be a diamond. Let it go. Unless you fancy a giggle at the badness of it all.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best noir films in a long time...
Review: Saw this when Shooting Gallery released it State-side in fall 2000. One of my favorite movies of that year. Despite the disappointing ending (it wraps things up too nice and neat -- I was hoping for a more ambiguous ending), I still recommend people seek this title out. Clive Owen, depending on his role choices, has "it" -- that quality that makes for a huge star. Should be interesting to watch his career progress. The supporting cast is also superb (esp. Alex Kingston, who's been a regular cast member on "ER" since 1997).

If you enjoyed this, I recommend you check out BEST LAID PLANS, another good modern noir thriller.