lastliberal Rebecca De Mornay - yes! Vincent D'Onofrio - yes! Delroy Lindo - yes! Michael Madsen - yes! What more could you want in a movie.Put them in Vegas and give us a story about robbery, and you got me. yes, you got me - with a movie that just didn't seem to go anywhere. It just jumped all over the place and had no consistent theme.Wendy Riss is just not a scriptwriter, yet. Work some more and get it right.I expected much more from director Alex Cox, especially after the job he did with Rosario Tijeras. I was so disappointed.Not a winner!

clemir This movie should be a about a guy who wins at the casinos all the time, which sound interesting, BUT: it isn't really bout that! OK, there is a guy in it who "they say" wins all the time, but its actually just about lot of people who have no real background, characteristic or what so ever, who want that guys money. The camera sucks big time, I had the feeling the whole movie was shot in totals, no close ups at all. Michael Madsen and the female leading role's t&a are the only things worth mentioning in this movie. oh well, she had great legs too! And Billy Bob Thornton, i actually didn't recognize him anywhere in the movie, might be someone with the same name (kidding, but I really didn't recognize him...awkward!). I'd love to write some more on this one, but it's just that there isn't anything left to...well, just the summary: AVOID IT!

dimitiii A finely tuned and taut script may have been laid to waste here by careless, directoral miscues.Philip (Vincent D'Onofrio) goes on a roulette winning streak in Las Vegas and discovers some hard lessons about faithfulness and betrayal. One of the central themes -- what happens to a person when he finds himself suddenly in the grips of material and financial wealth, and just as importantly, what happens to the recipient's so-called friends and acquaintances in relation to that recipient -- is worth conveying and, as a viewer, exploring in all its nuance and implications. The script certainly seems ready to achieve that -- not to mention there's a near-all-star cast to boot -- but in the hands of director Alex Cox, all the talent (both in terms of cast and script) seems to have been for naught. Cox directs with an uneven hand so that the movie lacks the tonal consistency it deserves. He also exhibits schmaltzy tendencies that move us away from the essence of the script -- it speaks volumes that the movie, which was originally titled "A Darker Purpose" (an acclaimed play by Wendy Riss, who also wrote the screenplay) got turned into a movie titled, well, "The Winner." One can't help but wonder then what would have become of this script if it had fallen into the right director's hands.

astridlee What a disappointment - with such good actors like D'Onofrio and director - Cox - we were all primed for, if not a great thriller, at least a decent gambling, Vegas movie. It was hard to maintain any interest in the insipid and one-dimensional characters and uninvolving story line. It looks like it was adapted from a play by the author and perhaps she needed more help structuring it. The actors try but seem to be directing themselves. Give it a miss.