Claire Dunne
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Winifred
The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.
adonis98-743-186503
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. Despite a good concept in it's hands IL Cartaio is a forgettable, boring and terrible film that is slow paced, the perfomances are below average and the end result is a waste of time. (0/10)
Brandon Barrera
I watched The Card Player directed by Dario Argento (Suspiria, Deep Red) and contrary to most opinions about this movie, it's not anywhere near as bad as I thought it'd be. Now there are many things that one could easily point out that are and aren't to Argento's level. To begin with, one thing that is easily distinguishable is that the acting is certainly not believable and the dialogue isn't very real either. Now even though the acting isn't good, that's something that's evident in most of Argento's films (including Suspiria, Deep Red, and Tenebre). Another feature in The Card Player that certainly takes away from it is that the music composed by Claudio Simonetti isn't as impressive nor does it play as big of a role in this movie as it has in several other Argento films. Typically, the music of Goblin and Simonetti can be seen as a character itself and acts as one of the key elements to and Argento giallo. While we did see several instances of gore and murder in this movie, the use of the corpses is much too graphic and it's more uncomfortable to watch than scary and that's not something that we're used to when watching these movies. Along this all of these factors, more reasons are the lack of Argento's signature Steadicam use, the lack of beautiful scenery that Argento typically provides, and several cheesy features that include a poker phenomenon and a fat morgue attendant.Now as for the second half of the movie, this is where we saw some true Argento flare. Up until this point, we only saw the victim through a small screen through a web-cam that made the murderer and the murder itself very choppy, unclear, and gritty which is never attractive. When we were finally shown the first scene of the victim in the real setting and saw more of the killer, there was a moment where I felt relief because I really wanted to like this movie and it seemed that it was going in a good direction. At this point, we were finally able to see a true Argento murder when Remo's neck was stabbed with the hook because it wasn't in the form of a snuff film and it was a lot like the scene at the end of another Argento film, Phenomena. Along with Remo's death, John's was another throwback to when the killer in Tenebre was impaled by a statue near the door and if offered another very stylish kill. As to when the killer (The Card Player) was killed, it was in the form of another previous Argento kill when another detective was brutally run over by a train.By the end of the movie, I was very impressed that Argento worked in a very favorable twist when they discovered where the killer stayed and that the kills where very faithful to his usual.
Andy Kowalski
"The story..well forget the stories..the stories make no sense at all..." (Carpenter)No doubt, Argento- lines are indeed not worth a hideous thought but I always tempt to mingle them endlessly with my own kind of criminal detective skills. I guess solely the storybook- catholic would watch a porn fer the the sake of having a blast with them dialog's alone, you'll get the picture...here I am, witnessing that not even the heavily armed films - under Argento's direction - have their Moments:***The serial killer and the police lady enchained to the rails, playing cards that virtually flip in slow- mo, the train in the background, nighttime.. with Simonetti's taking strangely over their heart- beat = BRILLIANT***...this is so damn fabulous and made in an artistic way of a kind...it'll stick in my head no matter how much I was smiling over them stories where all the neighbors seem guilty and no crime is seen too heinous...it will be simply overlooked (and adds a bit of charm, no less) by the way it's presented...Blatantly fascinating.I should add...it's in fact not a dynamite strike overall...nothing to get too excited but not a disappointment either...it is Argento trying to do Hitchcock but what we'll get is Van Gogh.
slayrrr666
"The Card Player" is a much better-than-expected outing from Argento.**SPOILERS**Working late one evening, Rome Det. Anna Mari, (Stefania Rocca) is requested into playing video poker with a madman for the sake of a captured tourist, and when superiors Berardelli, (Cosimo Fusco) and Commissioner Marini, (Adalberto Maria Merli) refuse, she is killed in front of them. In the ensuing investigation, British Officer John Brennan, (Liam Cunningham) is called onto the scene to help the Italian detectives handle the case. When the two eventually find ace poker player Remo, (Silvio Muccino) in the city, he is enlisted to play for the cops when the kidnapper strikes again and forces the police to keep playing for the different victims. Finally able to get a lead on the psychopath, believing it's one of their own, they race to stop them before they are again forced to play for a victim's life.The Good News: This one had a lot going for it. One of it's best features is the use of the poker games, which here is quite clever and incredibly novel. It's something that's quite familiar to most even if it's not been indulged in by all, and that alone makes it's inclusion feel very real and quite plausible, something that not many films have. The fact that there's also the twist with the games being used to build up something really depraved, with the games based on the fate of different kidnapped-victims' lives. These scenes themselves are also quite good, with the brutality of what's happening occurring through the web-cam and the on instance where the victim fights back is also thrilling and quite suspenseful. It's really new concept and feels well-done based on how it's used. There's also a lot of good parts to be had with the killer's identity, making it a good mystery how it came about and is definitely something that helps this one, as is like usual, there's a healthy number of suspects that are given attention to it and all feel like the culprit, making the surprise revelation at the end rather enjoyable and really well-done. The main feature to the film, though, is the rather-enjoyable and entertaining last-half hour, which is where all the main action revolves. Once the chase through the streets with the waitress and the tense walk-through of the underground, it's just non-stop afterward. From the boat-ride to the discovery of the last piece to the puzzle of identifying the killer that really takes the film on a nice twist and the ensuing aftermath that occurs afterward, there's hardly any part of these scenes that's slow, boring or doesn't work at all. The discovery of the mystery is great, twisting it already into a really new and enjoyable experience, the action in the several chases are fun and over-the-top, while the tension-packed finale is just excellent and caps the film on a high note. Even the kills are great, where one is impaled through a spike-laden board, another is stabbed through the neck, some gunshots, and then the main one, which has one run over by a train. These here are all that make the film enjoyable.The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot that didn't work here. One of the main parts to this is that the film doesn't really have all that interesting of a middle segment. Most of these scenes are quite dull, as it's just the detectives running around Rome tracking the player, then trying to convince the player to play for them, all of which doing nothing to really make the killer a target in these scenes. Most of them are just endless, carrying on forever with little to no impact on the events at hand since they never try anyone else other than the one, which makes it such a forgone conclusion of his involvement it makes the preceding moments in the film worthless with all the hassle trying to convince him wasting time. At least make several others offers so that there's a small sense of urgency to find one to do this, as this one really makes it clear that's where it's going and the attempt at wasting time doesn't do it any favors. The last flaw is the film's lone attempt at making the middle interesting, with the attack at the house simply not being that good. Aside from not being able to see anything due to the darkness, it's impossible to tell something even happened until afterward its over so fast, leaving a state of confusion as to what happened altogether. Beyond these, though, the film isn't that bad.The Final Verdict: Not that bad of an entry at all, much better than expected and certainly worthwhile due to it's good points. Certainly give this a shot if you're into the other works of Argento, know of the lifestyle or are interested, while those that expect his earlier works every time should heed caution.Rated UR/R: Graphic Language, Violence and Nudity
