BootDigest
Such a frustrating disappointment
Ogosmith
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Aubrey Hackett
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Sarita Rafferty
There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
rauldiul
This is a fun movie. The cast is great, the story has a bit of everything: wit, emotion, love, action... and the pace is just right.What makes it all "fit" in a way is the "Atlantic City atmosphere". It just works to glue it all together (helped of course by the great direction). And when all the parts in a film click together, good quality cinema is always made.It's actually really hard to create a movie about an old man who goes back to his "gangster" life and succeed in making it believable. There are funny moments, there are nervous and sad moments, this movie entertains.Why should we ask more of it? Anyone could enjoy this film. I'm surprised it doesn't have many ratings.
Jackson Booth-Millard
I spotted this film listed in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book, it was an easy title to remember when it was available to me, so with the two leads I noticed I was certainly going to watch it. Basically elderly long time Atlantic City, New Jersey resident and small time gangster Lou Pascal (BAFTA winning, and Oscar and Golden Globe nominated Burt Lancaster) used to think he was something big in the city. Trying to pick himself up in whatever way he can he one day meets up with Sally Matthews (Oscar nominated Susan Sarandon) who is trying to become a casino croupier and realise her dream to go to Monte Carlo. Wanting to get a better life in the gambling business, this is sidetracked by the return of her drug dealing husband who has stolen drugs from the Mafia, and he tries to sell the drugs to Lou, this is partly how they get to know each other also. So Lou and Sally are eventually together in the same room, and seemingly on the run from whoever wants the drugs or money, and obviously the do threaten if they don't get them back. Also starring Michel Piccoli as Joseph, Hollis McLaren as Chrissie, Robert Joy as Dave Matthews, Kate Reid as Grace Pinza, Moses Znaimer as Felix, Al Waxman as Alfie, Beetle Juice's Robert Goulet as Singer, Angus MacInnes as Vinnie, Sean Sullivan as Buddy, Toy Story's Wallace Shawn as Waiter and Elias Koteas as Extra. I will confess that I did not fully understand all of the story, but I enjoyed the characters played by Lancaster and Sarandon, and of course their interaction, and the moments of chasing or whatever, so for that it is a most watchable crime drama. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director for Louis Malle and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, it won the BAFTA for Best Direction, and it was nominated for Best Film and Best Screenplay, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Director and Best Foreign Film. Very good!
stevenverb-1
The story of an ageing two bit numbers runner and his unusual relationship with an ambitious waitress, trying to make it as a croupier, might not sound like the most exciting storyline, but I couldn't remember a moment in the film when I wasn't hooked. Malle's direction in showing the old and new, the past and the future, with Atlantic City as the backdrop (gambling had only been legalised in New Jersey in 1979) is beyond criticism. Lancaster and Sarandon represent all this from the character side and both give exception performances. The plot in many ways plays second fiddle to the character building, the relationship between the two protagonists and the numerous metaphors used throughout.Robert Joy has stolen a bag of cocaine from the mob and is soon on the run with his pregnant girlfriend (McLaren) and hides out at her sister's flat (Sarandon), who is also his ex-wife. He then by chance, meets Lancaster (who is also Sarandon's neighbour and is infatuated with her), who likes to make out he was a big time person, but is and always was a nothing! This leads to Lancaster helping out in what he hopes will make him a somebody at last before a completely new city he won't know is built and people who don't want to know him arrive.If you haven't seen this or heard much about it, please do so. It truly is one of those gems a film that is ageless and works on every level! One of the best films of the 1980's!
Michael Neumann
The New Jersey resort of the film's title is very much the main character in this colorful, original drama, set in a community looking toward the future but living in the past. Against a vivid backdrop of decaying splendor and shallow glamour the film gathers together several odd, unrelated characters in an unpredictable series of stories involving an aging petty gangster, an aspiring young casino croupier, two hippies on the run with a stolen roll of cocaine, and sundry other killers, dreamers, and fortune hunters. For lack of a better tag, and because both city and script are built around the magnetic lure of easy money, the film might be called a crime story, but the richness of John Guare's screenplay, filled as it is with broken dreams and rose colored memories (says a nostalgic Bert Lancaster, "You should've seen the Atlantic Ocean back then
") can't be pigeon-holed so lightly.