With an array of performers such as this, The Cincinnati Kid was never going to be entirely dull. But in the hands of director Jewison, it comes disappointingly close. A satisfactory balance is never quite found between the card-playing and off-table activities and, crucially, McQueen is strangely subdued […]. This, added to some pretty basic anachronisms of background detail, makes for a naggingly confusing then distracting element in a slightly underplotted movie. — Neil Young