Saint John of Las Vegas 2010

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Comic casting and comic timing pay off in most scenes, with Dinklage landing the big laughs, Malco doing his wise-guy-talking-down-to-the-doofus patter and Buscemi just bugging out and reacting to the craziness. Read more

Michael Phillips, At the Movies: This one's not for everyone for sure, but I was amused by it. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Steve Buscemi cuts so droll and heart-wrenching a figure in Hue Rhodes's deadpan road movie Saint John of Las Vegas that the plot -- shaggy and inconsequential as it is -- gets in the way. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The writing is semicoherent at best, and the buddies of this meandering road trip are not only mismatched but dislikable. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Rhodes doesn't find much more for them to do than flit from one quirk-filled vignette to the next. Read more

Janice Page, Boston Globe: For all its clever quirkiness, the end product seems flat and over-thought, which isn't to say it's a bad first step for this ambitious novice director, just a long way from something that will set the world on fire. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This debut feature by Hue Rhodes offers a wealth of skilled players and admirably offbeat gags yet seldom manages to generate any laughs. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It's minor, but I enjoyed it, largely because of the people on-screen, but also for the sneaky sincerity of writer-director Hue Rhodes' chronicle of one compulsive gambler's slouch toward redemption. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: With stars like Steve Buscemi and Sarah Silverman and big-fish producers such as Spike Lee and Stanley Tucci on board, you'd think this indie would offer some glimmer of wit or originality. Think again. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: The oft-used ploy of forcing an odd couple into a car and sending them off to uncharted territory is trotted out yet again here, but to minimal comic or emotional effect. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: [Its] randomly flung-in episodes are just quirky padding around a thin, one-twist story. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This movie is all elbows. Nothing fits. It doesn't add up. It has some terrific free-standing scenes, but they need more to lean on. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: First-time director and screenwriter Hue Rhodes shows no discernible talent for dialogue, humor and, especially, pacing. For a movie than runs a mere 85 minutes, Saint John moves like a life sentence in molasses prison. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Saint John of Las Vegas was a bad script that somehow got made into a bad movie with good people in it. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A funereally unfunny comedy by debut writer-director Hue Rhodes. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: First-time director Hue Rhodes, who shifted from a career in IT to go to film school, invests too much screen time pursuing the quirky rather than nailing down a story. Read more

Andrew Grant, Time Out: Read more

Vadim Rizov, Village Voice: Mostly, Saint John traps good comic performers -- including Malco and Peter Dinklage as John's boss -- in airless editing and an unproductive, unresolved, sludgy tone. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: It's a kind of cinematic purgatory, halfway between eternal reward and eternal damnation. The question is: What did I do to deserve such mediocrity? Read more