The Card Player (2004)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I'm a big fan of Dario Argento's work; his early works are true works of perfection and have seen most of his stuff and mostly his work do strikes many of emotions such as thrills, tension and brilliant over the top death scenes. But after during the late 90's to present most of his stuff have been hit and miss, and this one from reading the reviews have been classed as a miss. But In my opinion I actually rather enjoyed this effort from him, sure it doesn't have almost none of his trademark technique's. But on its own it does stand as an okay murder mystery.Firstly the plot is a very interesting and intriguing one, we get the old serial killer playing cat and mouse with the police routine, and in this case we get a killer setting up an online poker game with the police force, while using an innocent woman as bait and if they lose, she dies. This does make for a very interesting story line and it does keep the viewer interested in seeing what happens, and I did feel for these victims in that situation, but the fact that nothing is shown, doesn't leave a lasting impression, as nothing is shown afterwards and kind of makes the outcome disappointing.Plus it lacks the stunning visuals that Argento's normally provides, instead the look and feel of the movie, looks very standard, and more towards the mainstream side of things. But the two leads are very decent, Stefania Rocca as Anna was a very strong leading character, she does keep you interested and has a good presence on screen even with the bad dialogue, and Liam Cunningham makes for another good character as her partner John and even their forcibly written romantic subplot, they makes it believable and they do share great chemistry together, along with the both of them fighting their demons does anchor the story along at a nice pace. Also Slivio Muccino was another good addition as the computer wiz kid, he was just brilliant. But the other side characters were just forgettable and were just poorly written.But some of the other aspects of this movie doesn't really work, like the whodunit mystery in which this movie very much relies on, wasn't really inventive or shocking, and the final climax was just very predictable and just plodded along, and even the motive or lack of and honestly had a hard time remembering who he was at the end and just seemed lacking and lazy, but the overacting at the end was rather fun.All in all "The Card Player" is an okay serial killer mystery flick, but for fans of Dario's visual style, you will be sorely disappointed, as this just doesn't take any risks at all and feels just rather safe and plodding.

(Credit IMDb) A Rome policewoman teams up with a British Interpol agent to find a crafty serial killer whom plays a taunting game of cat-and- mouse with the police by abducting and killing young women and showing it over an Internet web cam. Eh. I suppose it could have been worse. Argento seems to have given up on being the innovator he once was. It's not like his work is terrible these days, but it's bland and uninspired, compared to what he used to be. Routine work like this seems to be so beneath him, but I digress. Like a lot of Argento movies. Most of the actors are dubbed, so it's really hard to rate the performances in this movie. I can't stand dubbing, so I can't really comment on that. The deaths are quite average for an Argento movie. We do get a gross autopsy sequence, a hook in the neck, among other things, but it's sub par for Argento. I was impressed with the finale in this one. It was adroitly shot with some OK suspense with a predictable culprit. My problem was until the finale, everything feels tacked on and uninspired. See it if you're a huge Argento fan, others needn't bother. It's watchable, but completely forgettable. I don't remember much about it at all5/10

I would have given one out of ten but the idea for the film I thought was pretty good - so I gave it 2. I really couldn't see past the bad acting and dubbing - oh hell it is terrible. I'm still watching this film - I want to turn it off and watch something else but I also want to see how much worse this could get. Like I said; the story line idea is pretty good, the problem I have with it is that it was shown on the Horror channel so I recorded this thinking it would be a horror film. It's not, it's a thriller police chase thing. Which isn't the sort of thing I'm in to. If those are the types of films you like, and you can get past the terrible terrible acting and even worse dubbing, then by all means watch this film. If you are watching this thinking it will be a gruesome horror film; you are wrong, do not watch this film.

It isn't difficult to see why The Card Player is one of the least generally regarded Argento works. Largely free of gore or fluid camera- work, a stylistically restrained affair that could almost pass for made for television. And yet it works by and large, it may not be a classic but it's a lot of fun, with a playful feel that rather charms. The intent on the surface was to merge two rather different traditions, the giallo and the modern day serial killer procedural film, but a casual glance at the two reveals their incompatibility. The giallo founded in twist and contrivance, exuberant sleight of hand the magic behind lurid pulp fun, the later serial killer film a matter of darkness and psychology, the horror of death and trudge towards truth, stone faces and realism. The Card Player stuffs the former in the latter and the fit is tight, but rather than strain for neatness and appearance Argento pushes for knowing absurdity. So there's some of the more open weirdness and humour of his work, lively and eccentric characters and a few visual gags. But as well as absurdity, in the set up can be seen a film-maker reacting to his legacy. In films past Argento gave beauty to violence in the impossibly wandering eye of his camera and we delighted in him for it, but here he recognises the audience and doesn't give them what they want, moreover it is a camera (and just just his but that within the film) that denies, a single stationary webcam that shows terror and death but no arterial business. The treatment is imperfect, elegant but insubstantial, touching on the matters of death, fate and audience (the defining image being the reflection of a gambler's face in computer screen that shows both terrified victim and the card game for her life) but unable or unwilling to give them much weight. The effort is appreciable though and the film in general is a charmer. Liam Cunningham comically inspired, tough and touching as a boozy agent transferred to Rome, Stefania Rocca hitting the right hard but tender notes in her stock heroine character (complete with predictable personal problems), Silvio Muccino an amusing card sharp and other players doing their work well. A few well crafted sequences of nervy tension too, as well as a couple of impressive lunacy. Certainly a number of places in need of more sting, and a killer and motivation rather disappointing, but overall a well worthy work of underrated fun. 7/10.