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Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Audience Rating: Unrated Binding: DVD EAN: 0014381059625 Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Image Entertainment Manufacturer: Image Entertainment Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Image Entertainment Region Code: 1 Release Date: March 09, 2004 Running Time: 94 minutes Sales Rank: 8412 Studio: Image Entertainment Theatrical Release Date: April 21, 2000
Description: All bets are off in London's gambling world when struggling writer Jack Manfred (Gosford Park's Clive Owen) accepts his father's offer of a job as a croupier, out the cards of fate and fortune each night to casino patrons. As his relationship with his girlfriend, Marion (Notting Hill's Gina McKee), suffers from the strain of his new job, Jack finds his eye roving to a seductive gambler, Jani (ER's Alex Kingston), who lures him into a dangerous robbery scheme with Jack positioned as the inside man. A critical and commercial smash, this delicious British thriller from director Mike Hodges (Get Carter) and writer Paul Mayersberg (The Last Samurai) is a solid winner from start to finish!
Amazon.com: Suffering from a bad case of writer's block, author Jack Manfred (Clive Owen) sits in his London flat, staring at an empty computer screen and trying to find the words to narrate his meandering life. Reluctantly Jack accepts a job from his absentee father (Nicholas Ball) at a second-rate casino as a dealer, or croupier, a job he once held in South Africa. His immersion back into this world is intoxicating, thanks primarily to the power he holds over his nightly clientele. Jack is a straight arrow on the floor (unlike his coworkers) but the whisper of an inside-job robbery makes his life suddenly more intriguing, as do the women who begin to drift into his life: a fellow croupier (Kate Hardie) and an alluring gambler (Alex Kingston). Suddenly, Jack finds his own life is his best book material. There's something visceral about watching the world of gambling, and director Mike Hodges (who directed the original Get Carter) taps into this allure; Jack's simple croupier tryout--handling cards and chips with skill and grace--is as captivating as most action scenes in big popcorn films. In the end, this little film, which went on to become an art-house hit, is as unpredictable as a roll of the dice. --Doug Thomas
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - I, Croupier
This was a film I had bought on the basis that it concerned gambling. I believe it may have been a cross reference product when I purchased "The Cincinnati Kid". Clive Owen I was totally unfamiliar with as an actor. I had never heard of the film, yet it was rated well and relatively inexpensive. So, I took a chance when I ordered it from Amazon.
Well, to put it mildly, I won the Roulette number on this spin of the wheel! Croupier is an excellent picture for the narration of the private thoughts ... Read More
Rating: - Smart screenplay with no fat makes CROUPIER a winner for an earlier Clive Owen
Film Noir is one of my least favorite styles of cinema; but with a smart screenplay that is as lean as the prime cut filet and direction that makes every frame a perfect diamond,CROUPIER,Britain's look at the casino world, made me a winner for a 100 minutes.
Clive Owen is Jack Manfred, an author who is looking to score the big novel.One problem: he has writer's block.He is cajoled by his dad, Nicholas Ball, to take a job in a second tier London Casino as a croupier,or Black Jack dealer.There, ... Read More
Rating: - Get the DVD version with Mike Hodges' director's commentary
Nine years after its production, 'Croupier' is now remembered as the vehicle which shot Clive Owen into movie stardom...and rightfully so. He's mesmerizing here in Mike Hodges' taut adaptation of Paul Mayersberg's beguiling script. Mayersberg received an Edgar Allan Poe nomination for Best Screenplay. [NOTE: Amazon's sister site IMDB - in a delightfully goofy phonetic slip-up - notes that the Poe Awards "honor the achievements of writers in the field of mystery at all."]
Rating: - Solid British Thriller
Croupier's protagonist (Clive Owen, in a very interesting performance in his pre-fame days) is a taciturn, unsuccessful writer living in London, who at the instigation of his father accepts a job as a croupier in a casino. He takes the job in order to write a novel about it, in which he can watch this particular milieu from above, in a detached and superior position. In the casino he meets a number of people, including the troubled Bella (Kate Hardie, in my view, the movie's most compelling character). Other character, ... Read More
Rating: - The roll of dice
Incredible film. It's about a man who knows how seductive the spin of the roulette wheel can be, and tries his best not to be seduced by the throw of dice. And then comes the ending, and you realise that either way he loses out. Brilliant stuff.