The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
Faces Distribution | Release Date: February 15, 1976 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
2
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyChris Nashawaty
Gazzara struts like a polyester peacock, playing a doomed nightclub owner in debt to the wrong people. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Peter Bogdanovich used Gazzara in a similar part in Saint Jack (1979), but as good as that film is, it doesn't catch the exquisite warmth and delicacy of feeling of Cassavetes's doom-ridden comedy-drama. Read full review
80
EmpireWilliam Thomas
With a heavily improvised script Cassavetes gets the most from his actors, each giving emotive performances. Read full review
80
The GuardianDerek Malcolm
A film that displays most of the faults of his kind of on-the-hoof film-making - and all the virtues. Read full review
80
The New YorkerRichard Brody
Cassavetes captures the gambler’s fatalistic joy in playing out a tragedy of his own making to the bitter end, and, revelling in the romantic solitude of the hunter and the hunted, presents a gun battle as a metal-and-concrete ballet. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh Larsen
Gazzara is riveting as man who exudes cool and calm—style—while also stinking of panic. Read full review
70
TimeJay Cocks
As always, the acting is superlative. Gazzara's Cosmo catches all the paradoxes and puzzles of the character, the wired ambition and the rapture over doom. Read full review
70
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
Like a shaggy dog story operating inside a chase movie. Chinese Bookie is the more insouciant, involuted and unfathomable of the two; the curdled charm of Gazzara's lopsided grin has never been more to the point. Read full review
70
NewsweekJack Kroll
The jaggedness will put many people off, which is a shame, because this is a rewarding film that asks only that you stay alert and use your senses. [15 Mar 1976, p.89]
60
CineVueLee Cassanell
A meandering, almost impenetrable tale of sweaty strip joints and sleazy gangsters. Read full review
40
The New York TimesVincent Canby
Watching the film is like listening to someone use a lot of impressive words, the meanings of which are just wrong enough to keep you in a state of total confusion, but occasionally right enough to hold your attention. What is he trying to say? It takes a little while to realize that maybe the speaker not only doesn't know but doesn't even care to think things out. Read full review
30
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
True to form, John Cassavetes challenges a Hollywood cliche: that technology is so advanced even the worst films usually look good. With ease, he proves that an awful film can look even worse. Read full review
25
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
Cassavetes' films can be annoying and enigmatic, but they are usually creative and interesting. Not so with this one. Read full review
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