GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Croupier
The Shooting Gallery

Croupier reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 75 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.8 out of 10
based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not rated

Starring Clive Owen, Kate Hardie, Alex Kingston, and Gina McGee

A struggling writer (Clive Owen) finds a job at a casino to support his craft and to collect material for his novel, but he becomes embroiled in the temptations that come with his new life.


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: Paul Mayersberg  
DIRECTED BY: Mike Hodges  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: March 9, 2004 
Theatrical: April 21, 2000 
RUNNING TIME: 91 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: France / Germany / Ireland / UK 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Taut, tense and enthralling, as smart and surprising as it protagonist.
100
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Intense, hypnotic, assured, Croupier mesmerizes from its opening image of a roulette ball on the move.
100
Newsweek Andrea C. Basora
Watching Croupier is rather like watching a roulette wheel--utterly mesmerizing.
Read Full Review
91
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
So sharp and dryly urbane in its mod-Brit take on the noir, noir, noir, noir world of gambling, dames, and pulp fiction, it makes higher-profile attempts like ''Rounders'' look blah, blah, blah, blah.
Read Full Review
90
LA Weekly John Patterson
Immensely rich, clipped and precise, with a sly, sardonic sense of humor.
Read Full Review
88
Miami Herald Sara Wildberger
Don't let it slip out of town without getting a look at it.
Read Full Review
88
USA Today Stephen Schaefer
A tiny treasure: grown-up, tight, sexy, suspenseful and with a mildly ambiguous wrap-up that stimulates the mind rather than confusing it.
Read Full Review
88
Boston Globe Jay Carr
It's brilliantly precise in its detailing, stylishly jagged and sensual by turns, and utterly unpredictable.
Read Full Review
88
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
A marvelously subversive, slyly manipulative effort.
Read Full Review
83
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Icy and elegant, complex and gripping.
Read Full Review
80
Dallas Observer Andy Klein
Takes roughly a third of its length to really get going, but, once it does, it's a devilishly clever, engaging piece of work that milks every cent of value from its tiny budget.
Read Full Review
80
Film.com Tom Keogh
Don't let Croupier go by without a look.
Read Full Review
80
Washington Post Desson Thomson
A smoothly executed jab in your solar plexus, a lean, smart film noir that pokes at you with quintessentially English disdain and sarcasm.
Read Full Review
78
Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
Croupier should please people who take their noir straight up -- with plenty of twists.
Read Full Review
75
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Croupier, immersed in a world of gambling, gamesmanship and crime, is a solid, seductive entertainment.
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The point of the movie is not the plot, but the character and the atmosphere.
Read Full Review
75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Hodges and screenwriter Paul Mayersberg fill the British production with Dostoevskian ironies, and Owen is perfect as the antihero.
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Tribune John Petrakis
Stumbles a bit towards the end when it focuses too much on a convoluted robbery attempt, but overall, it is a slick and intelligent look at life in the passing lane.
Read Full Review
75
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
There may not be much meat in Hodges' stew, but the sauce was so tasty I felt satisfied after the light meal.
Read Full Review
70
Film.com Ted Fry
(Owen's) existential angst and the interesting layers of character and setting give Croupier a sharp, engaging edge.
Read Full Review
70
The New York Times Stephen Holden
Clive Owen conveys a sharp, cynical intelligence that rolls off the screen in waves whenever he widens his glittering blue eyes.
Read Full Review
63
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
There are certainly glimpses of his underused talent. But there aren't enough of those moments to elevate Croupier above the level of routine melodrama.
Read Full Review
60
Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Polished and adroit ado about next to nothing, Hodges's film owes everything to Owen, who nails the vaguely unsavory, unreadable, half-lidded hunks that inhabit every profitable entertainment-industry outpost.
Read Full Review
60
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Demonstrates that a movie need not be good to be cool.
Read Full Review
50
TV Guide Ken Fox
The film fires off too many intriguing plot possibilities that remain nothing more than that.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
The twists and revelations of this rigorous noir reduce it to canned psychodrama.
Read Full Review
50
San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham
A very smart noir about gambling, smartly directed by Mike Hodges -- until almost the very end. It craps out in the decisive London casino heist scene.
Read Full Review
25
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
An airless, mannered mess.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Yoon C. gave it an 8:
A fine thriller tightly constructed of elements from class-conscious kitchen sink British cinema and the tricky conventions of the crime genre. Enjoyable for its expert handling of formula and moving for its deeper psychological concerns.

Roland C. gave it an 8:
Thoroughly enjoyed the intense, brooding character of the leading bloke. The supporting characters and plot were a bit thin.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: iPhone 3G | Fantasy Football | Moneywatch | Antivirus Software | Recipes | E3 2009

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use