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100Taut, tense and enthralling, as smart and surprising as it protagonist.
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100Intense, hypnotic, assured, Croupier mesmerizes from its opening image of a roulette ball on the move.
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100Watching Croupier is rather like watching a roulette wheel--utterly mesmerizing.
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91So 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.
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90Immensely rich, clipped and precise, with a sly, sardonic sense of humor.
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88Don't let it slip out of town without getting a look at it.
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88A tiny treasure: grown-up, tight, sexy, suspenseful and with a mildly ambiguous wrap-up that stimulates the mind rather than confusing it.
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88It's brilliantly precise in its detailing, stylishly jagged and sensual by turns, and utterly unpredictable.
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88A marvelously subversive, slyly manipulative effort.
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83Icy and elegant, complex and gripping.
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80Takes 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.
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80Don't let Croupier go by without a look.
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80A smoothly executed jab in your solar plexus, a lean, smart film noir that pokes at you with quintessentially English disdain and sarcasm.
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78Croupier should please people who take their noir straight up -- with plenty of twists.
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75The point of the movie is not the plot, but the character and the atmosphere.
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75Stumbles 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.
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75Hodges and screenwriter Paul Mayersberg fill the British production with Dostoevskian ironies, and Owen is perfect as the antihero.
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75Croupier, immersed in a world of gambling, gamesmanship and crime, is a solid, seductive entertainment.
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75There may not be much meat in Hodges' stew, but the sauce was so tasty I felt satisfied after the light meal.
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70(Owen's) existential angst and the interesting layers of character and setting give Croupier a sharp, engaging edge.
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70Clive Owen conveys a sharp, cynical intelligence that rolls off the screen in waves whenever he widens his glittering blue eyes.
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63There are certainly glimpses of his underused talent. But there aren't enough of those moments to elevate Croupier above the level of routine melodrama.
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60Polished 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.
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60Demonstrates that a movie need not be good to be cool.
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50A 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.
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50The film fires off too many intriguing plot possibilities that remain nothing more than that.
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50The twists and revelations of this rigorous noir reduce it to canned psychodrama.
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25An airless, mannered mess.