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Revolver
Samuel Goldwyn Films

4.5 based on 21 reviews Read critic reviews How did we calculate this? based on 16 votes Read user comments Rate this movie

FILM:

• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
• Snatch
• Swept Away

• Internet Movie Database
• View The Trailer
• Official Studio Site

MPAA RATING: R for violence, language and some nudity

Starring Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, and Vincent Pastore

Gambler and conman Jake Green always ran with a bad crowd, and it cost him seven years of his life when he took the rap for mean Dorothy Macha and wound up in jail. After his release, Jake becomes unbeatable at the tables using a formula for the ultimate con that he learned from two mysterious fellow prisoners. Now he is ready to take his revenge. Macha is plotting to eliminate his ruthless rival, Lord John, and has staked his credibility on a huge drug deal with the all-powerful Sam Gold. Jake visits Macha at his casino and humiliates him publicly in a game of chance. Macha, fearing more of the same medicine, sends his goons to "take care of" Jake. His life is saved by enigmatic Zach, who, with his equally inscrutable partner Avi, offers Jake protection. Against his better judgment, Jake accepts. He soon finds himself playing the very last game he wants to be playing, and there is danger at every turn. But the biggest danger of all comes from a totally unexpected source... (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

GENRE(S):	Crime  |  Drama  |  Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Luc Besson (adaptation) Guy Ritchie
DIRECTED BY:	Guy Ritchie
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 18, 2008  Theatrical: December 7, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	115 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France / UK
LANGUAGE(S):	English / Cantonese

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...

63

New York Post Kyle Smith

Good grindhouse fun until a last act that's like a meeting of a psychoanalysts' convention.

50

The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz

By turns clever, impassioned, incoherent and silly.

50

Chicago Tribune Sid Smith

Part gambling heist, part graphic novel, part metaphysical mumbo jumbo, Revolver is a mess of many colors, few of them satisfying.

50

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Definitely deserves points for trying to be something thought-provoking and different, but it doesn't really stand up to analysis and it comes off as a pretentious mess.

42

Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling

The movie butts up against the director's newfound pretensions -- pseudo-philosophical voice-over, psychobabble, faux-art-film plotting -- and turns incomprehensible.

40

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Its main purpose -- and no, you are not experiencing ocular breakdown -- is spiritual.

38

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

A few scenes are stylish enough to amuse, but they all add up to nothing - leaving you ten bucks short and feeling like a sucker.

38

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Guy Ritchie's Revolver premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival two years ago September. That's 26 months on a shelf somewhere, depriving moviegoers the thrill of jaw-droppingly awful Ray Liotta line readings, of bloody shoot-outs, bags of money, cutaways to frosty babes sucking on lollipops, and even a bit of violent anime.

30

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The film's pretentious style and fractured storytelling preclude any audience involvement in the coy melodrama.

30

Village Voice Nick Pinkerton

It's no return to rock, this, but rather Ritchie's soporific, proggy-conceptual Film of Ideas, with Vivaldi interludes, fussbudget set design, recurrent references to chess, and a hit man inexplicably got up as Tati's Mr. Hulot.

30

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

The result is a film that's main crime is inducing stupefying boredom with little payoff in the end.

25

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

The movie's onslaught of psychobabble is the annoyance most likely to ruin your evening. Imagine getting stuck on a ski lift with Dr. Phil for nearly two hours.

25

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Surprise of surprises, Revolver turns out to be worse than "Swept Away" - and not just by a little bit.

25

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Ritchie has said that it takes several viewings to fully understand what's going on in Revolver, but once will be enough for most to agree to take his word for it.

25

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The problem with Revolver is that it is Ritchie's first attempt at a ''serious'' look at the underworld, but the result is so pretentious and muddled it's almost a little embarrassing.

25

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The latest Guy Ritchie shoot-em-up, is a joke. You laugh with it but mostly at it.

25

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Ritchie wraps this folderol in cinematic razzle-dazzle, including animated sequences, reverse motion, trompe l'oeil production design and tricky lighting. But it's still claptrap.

20

Variety Todd McCarthy

Guy Ritchie shoots a blank with Revolver, which replays the low-life criminal shtick from his first two features with an ill-advised overlay of pretension. The action, attitude and wise-guy talk all feel moldy this time around.

12

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It is a "thriller" without thrills, constructed in a meaningless jumble of flashbacks and flash-forwards and subtitles and mottos and messages and scenes that are deconstructed, reconstructed and self-destructed. I wanted to signal the projectionist to put a gun to it.

10

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This 2005 feature offered me my first taste of Guy Ritchie's macho-centric artiness, and I hope it's my last.

8

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Although it contains crime and absurdity, it's not thrilling or funny and the title doesn't refer to a gun.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.5 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Dan V gave it a0:
Armund W's mini-review is absolutely hilarious and far more entertaining then the movie itself. Guy Ritchie should lobby to get it printed on the DVD jacket. For those of you who don't speak Pretentious, I have translated his review: "It's downright awesome while maintaining an indescribably crude hold on neo-noirism in contemporary British cinema (this sentence defies translation). The content of Revolver is thrilling and better then the violent stuff found in gloomy, fake Hollywood movies like American Gangster and Eastern Promises."

Nick T. gave it an8:
I agree with Jonathan. If you want a wholesome and magical experience, go see Finding Nemo. This is *beyond a shadow of a doubt* NOT the worst movie ever. This is a fun and entertaining movie. I like movies to surprise me. Crank. London. Shoot em up. Donnie Darko. Requiem for a Dream. Revolver. all these movies movies have meat to em. theres something to enjoy in these. just see it. if you don't like it, then better luck next time. If you do....woopy. i think its nice to see directors catering to and audience that isn't titanic and walk hard.

Danny H. gave it a1:
From the looks of what the payed critics said, it seems like the common theme is the film is extremely pretentious. Armund W.'s response and score for the film makes it obvious only pretentious people will enjoy this film. don't watch this film if you like any of Guy Ritchie's previous films, its a bit too incoherent.

Chad S. gave it a3:
This filmmaker is no Quentin Tarantino. He's no Steven Soderbergh either. You just know that "Pulp Fiction" rocked his world. "The Limey", too, probably. But as the saying goes: he knows the words but not the music. In "Revolver", we see homage being taken to the brink of plagiarism. During a sequence in which Jake(Jason Statham) and his partners-in-crime(Zach and Avi, played by Vincent Pastore and Andre Benjamin, respectively) rip off the drug dealers and their buyers, this filmmaker dramatizes the more violent moments with splices of animation like Tarantino did in "Kill Bill: Volume One", while utilizing a jazzy score and non-linear editing style that's strongly reminiscent of "Out of Sight". And then there's the matter of Jake's interior monologue, which evidently seems to have gotten on the filmmaker's nerves, as well. After "Revolver" curbs Jake's incessant chattering, for some godforsaken reason, we now hear Macha(Ray Liotta), Jake's nemesis, in deep thought. I thought Jake was schizophrenic. I'm probably not the only one. As the end credits roll, a second film, a documentary short(this film is so incoherent, it needs an appendix to clear things up) of talking heads, men with PhDs in psychology who explain Jake's condition in laymen's terms. Let's just be grateful that this filmmaker doesn't throw in everything but the kitchen sink. Zach and Avi aren't figments of Jake's imagination, or for that matter, dead. Their true identities, however, seems equally banal, so easy was it to predict. "Snatch" was okay. "Snatch" made sense at least, even when Brad Pitt didn't(his thick regional accent was worthy of a citation by Ken Loach for authenticity). "Revolver" doesn't make sense. "Revolver" is just another crime film in the post-"Pulp Fiction" era that courts edgy laughs from violent situations.

Jay H. gave it a2:
Overly stylized, cold and heartless. It's pretentious crap that has no soul, a director that is more concerned with imagery than with a comprehensible story. Shallow and unwatchable rubbish.

Jamison R. gave it a10:
You know who everyone that hates this movie sounds like? The guy in the elevator mirror between the twelfth and fourteenth floor. Mr. Ritchie did a disservice by re-editing it for American audiences. It sorta proves the movies point in a very real life way. To let ego and need for approval get in the way of initial instincts. So Ironic. I imagine the original is destined to become a cult film and the American version will be pissed on and burned. Next time, Mr. Ritchie, do like Mr. Green - Stand calmly with a knowing smile and wait for everyone else to catch up. Imagine if the Coens had re-edited Barton Fink just because people ?didn?t get it? the first time out.

BEEKS gave it a9:
A very interesting and entertaining dissection of human values.

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