Croupier

I respect Mike Hodges, and liked Get Carter immensely for it's bleak outlook, but The Croupier just seems like a particularly dull ITV drama. The reserved, cold acting isn't just the preserve of the lead character, it's spread to the entire cast, meaning there is nothing to contrast Owen's character with. None of the characters evoke any kind of feelings at all, except boredom. The ending of the film is also untidy at best. The camera work etc is fairly good, but if you want to see Hodges best watch Get Carter, don't bother with this uninteresting, unimaginative trawl through emotions he covered better 20+ years ago

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source: Croupier

Jack Manfred is an aspiring writer who can't think what to write about. His father, a gambler, tells him he has managed to get him an interview at a London casino. He takes the job and it is immediately clear that he is familiar with the way casinos work. The casino discourages friendships between staff, bans relationships and has a rule about not interacting with customers outside work. These are rules that are inevitably broken without initially effecting his work. Then one day a female client he has befriended asks him to do something to help facilitate a robbery at the casino. All the while Jack is providing a third-person narration that could come from a book inspired by his experience in the casino. I found this film surprisingly gripping despite the fact that for the most part we are just seeing Jack going about his life and working at the casino. This was largely down to Clive Owen's commanding performance as Jack; he makes the character utterly believable. Rather than feeling cliché his narration provides a vital insight into what he is thinking and explain certain details of a croupier's job that might not be obvious to non-gamblers. The rest of the cast impress too, even the very minor characters who populate the casino add to the realistic feel. There is a small amount of violence and action but this is short and fairly matter of fact. There is a bit of a twist at the end that some viewers might find a little irritating but I enjoyed it. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to somebody looking for something rather different.

I recently watched this film for the sixth or seventh time. When referring to the IMDb file, I noticed that I had never voted or commented on it. I have given it an extremely rare (for me) 10 vote. Clive Owen is now big news, but his talent has never shown more brilliantly than in this film. His subtle use of gesture and eye movement is masterful. I find him riveting in this character. The rest of the cast is also evenly talented. I especially enjoy Kate Hardie as Bella. This is one of the moodiest films I have ever seen. It sucks you in and holds you. The beauty of it for me is that the arc of Jack's character is not in the least bit flat, despite the blunt darkness of the film. It is the closest thing in quality to Michael Caine's early angry-young-man flicks. Mike Hodges directed Caine in "Get Carter", which was retooled by Hodges with Clive Owen as "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead", another wonderfully moody film. Clive Owen has the potential to be one of the very few male superstars of our age.

Clive Owen looks like a cross between Dylan McDermott and Richard Burton. His gaze is mesmerizing and I shudder to think of anyone else playing his role. I read one of the reviews that said the best actors don't need dialogue and cited his performance as an example. Right on...words don't always cut it in movies, and his face says more than words could anyway. Great work by an actor I hope to see more of. I loved the movie as much as I loved Clive. I loved the contradictions of him..he's not a gambler, yet he is a gambler. Very interesting stuff, a real person in the real world is on the screen and that is much appreciated by the thinkers in the audience. I was slightly taken aback by the ending, which rung a little false. Something about it was inconsistent with everything else so that was a disappointment, but did not ruin the rest of it by any means. 9/10.

Croupier is a film that shouldn't work. It doesn't have a conventional plot, doesn't seem to be about anything, (it's got gambling in it and is set inside a casino, but isn't really about gambling.) and the main character seems to have no clear desire for anything. I'm still wondering why I enjoyed it so much. Perhaps the absence of these motifs that you'd expect in any conventional film is what makes it special, I suspect that they add to it's originality, but what really makes the film work is how completely engaging the main character is made. Jack Manfred, from his chain smoking to his dry voice-over, is completely engaging as a character, without having to go through any obvious conventionalities that would force the audience into finding him endearing. This is surely a combination of Mike Hodges directorial skill, the script and Clive Owen's acting ability. The film is essentially a character study, with a front of a gambling film, that examines this character and his relationships with the people in his life, - his girlfriend, boss, father and colleagues, how he sees the world, and how he will cope when presented with certain situations. It is brought to the screen with quality that demands attention and a score that heightens the atmosphere the film creates and really sets the tone.

This was one of the most contrived, tedious and clichéd films I have ever seen... and, yes, I've seen Pearl Harbour. Even the likes of Gina McKee couldn't act their way out of the appalling dialogue. It has been described as 'art-house', this can only be a euphemism for dull, dreadful and, quite frankly, artless. Why is it that when a film is devoid of plot, critics feel it deserves to be called art? But far more baffling, why did America love it? Without you, this film would have remained on the shelf where, perhaps, it belonged.

CROUPIER (2000) *** Clive Owen, Gina McKee, Alex Kingston, Kate Hardie, Nicholas Ball. British director Mike Hodges returns with his trademark hands-on film noir twisting with Owen – part Connery/part Gibson – as a contemptuous struggling novelist who takes a job as a casino croupier with much disdain for its clientele and the razor's edge trundling of enjoying the afterhours lifestyle while struggling to maintain his identity from his story's semi-autobiographical character. Smartly written by Paul Mayersberg with its pulp fiction heart and soul on display works well until its unfortunately false ending. Owen gives a silky smooth enhancing performance of a man at odds with his life and makes it all look effortless.

I vaguely remembered when CROUPIER was released in 1998 . It was a heist movie directed by Mike Hodges of GET CARTER fame and it`s a movie that brought Clive Owen to everyone`s notice , but it was a movie I never got round to seeing until a few nights ago when channel 4 broadcast it. Right away I was convinced that I was going to be watching something that was influenced by CASINO , Hodges directing style of this movie screamed at me Scorsese , Scorsese , Scorsese but after the first ten or so minutes that struck me the movie might not be going anywhere it finally finds its feet . CROUPIER might not be the most compelling movie I`ve seen all year but it is a very interesting drama as we follow Jack Manfred a wannabe writer who works in a casino . Two things I should point out though : First of all a lot of reviews I read when the movie was originally released is that they over stated the point about this being a " heist " movie when in fact it`s more of a drama . If you`re expecting something along the lines of OCEANS ELEVEN you`re going to be disappointed . Secondly if you have no interest whatsoever in what croupiers or frustrated writers do for a living you`ll probably have little desire in watching this movie . Like I said this is mainly a drama than a crime film and I must say that Hodges has perfectly captured the rather impersonal , empty and lonely atmosphere of London very well , and seeing as Clive Owen seems really at home in a casino wearing a tuxedo he wins my nomination as the next Bond . James Bond I did start off this review by criticising the start of this movie so I`ll finish by criticising the ending . It`s not the worst ending I`ve ever seen in a movie but I can`t help feeling cheated by the last twenty minutes which sees an unlikely plot twist of Jack visiting a morgue along with some unlikely dialogue with a policeman . We`re also treated to Jack having a telephone conversation which does seem ridiculous almost as though the screenwriter didn`t know how to finish off the screenplay along with a faintly ridiculous final scene