acidburn-10 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.

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.

Lucien Lessard A female police detective (Stefania Rocca), who works for the cyber crime unit in Rome. She receives an mysterious e-mail that the recent tourist is captured by the kidnapper. This psychopath wants to play poker on-line with the police, this crazed person rules are simple if you can beat him for three games. He promises, he will let his victim go if you can beat him. A British police officer (Liam Cunningham) comes to help the Italian police officers to catch the killer. But this murderer is so good at poker and he manages to keep the police away from finding him. Their only option is finding a young brilliant poker player (Silvio Muccino), who could save lives of the psychopath's would-be victims.Directed by Dario Argento (Do you like Hitchcock ?, Opera, Two Evil Eyes) made an fairly intriguing suspense-thriller that was made before "Untraceable", which it has some of the same ideas. This Italian import is actually well dubbed in English, good performances by the leads, some suspense but flawed and sometimes incredibly absurd (not to mention, not everything in the story makes sense). It is one of the few Argento's movies doesn't have graphic gory violence or memorable set-pieces. Also, it is one of Argento's most straightforward films, although not one of his best works as a filmmaker.The DVD has an good anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer and an decent Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The DVD has an fairly interesting commentary track by film critic Alan Jones, interview with the director, interview with Claudio Simonetti (Who worked on most Argento's films) and more. Perphas the problem with the film is the conclusion, the identity of the villain is unexpected but the suspense at the climax is played for unintentional laughs and an unbelievable ending as well. "The Card Player" does have some dark humour, the cinematography is good and it's a modest Argento movie. Fans of the director's work will enjoy this best. Written by the filmmaker and Franco Ferrini (Once Upon a Time in America, The Stendhal Syndrome, Trauma). Worth a look. (*** 1/2 out of *****).

Graham Greene The Card Player is undoubtedly a minor work within the Dario Argento cannon - closer in tone to something like The Cat O' Nine Tails than the more celebrated likes of Suspiria - and a low-key precursor to his subsequent work for television; notably, Do You Like Hitchcock? and his two instalments for the Masters of Horror serial, Jennifer and Pelts. Like The Cat O' Nine Tails, the story of The Card Player takes on the usual Argento conventions of classic suspense cinema and the Giallo thrillers that would inform much of the filmmaker's greatest works - in particular The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Tenebrea and Profondo Rosso - but gives it a more smooth, sophisticated and mainstream approach that seems to avoid (for the most part at least) the various quirks, characteristics and personal idiosyncrasies that the majority of Argento fans have come to expect.The plot at first seems preposterous; a mysterious serial killer invites members of the Rome police force to indulge him in an online poker contest. If they win, his latest victim will go free. If they loose, she will be murdered live on webcam. As with his previous film Sleepless, the film attempts to update many of Argento's favourite genre tricks by juxtaposing the old, archaic conventions of the detective thriller against the modern, twenty-first century policing techniques. So, whereas Sleepless demonstrated the use of forensic evidence in tracking a brutal murderer (in relation to the tried and tested policing of retired detective Max Von Sydow), The Card Player looks ahead to the world of wire taps, computer surveillance and the general technological buzz of twenty-first century living.Where the film falls flat for many fans is in the plotting and execution (pardon the pun). Although I greatly enjoyed the first three thirds of this film - plot-holes and character quirks AN' ALL - the final third of this film slips sadly into the realms of complete farce. In fact, if I were to watch this film in the company of friends and family, I'd no doubt cringe with embarrassment if anyone happened to look over and catch me actually enjoying this literal train-wreck of a supposedly grand finalé. Everything we hate about Argento can be found in this clumsy, ham-fisted, badly-written, badly acted dénouement, from the previously strong central character suddenly becoming the helpless victim, to the pointless motive of the serial killer, to the continual ineptitude of the police force, and of course, our favourite, the horrible-dubbing and wilful over-acting of a character who, when lurking in the shadows, was the most terrifying force imaginable, now, out of the darkness and actually REALLY laughable (the same problem could also be found in Sleepless, to an extent).It's such a shame too, since much of the film finds Argento breaking new ground. He's toned down the eccentricities that plagued films like Phenomena, Opera and The Stendhal Syndrome, and in doing so has stripped away much of the grandiose filming style he used to so effortlessly and vividly perform. It kind of works in the film's favour though, with this low-key thriller really benefiting from the natural lighting, unfussy composition and matter of fact paunchiness of the editing. He's also toned down the violence too, which is obviously going to be a bone of contention for many Argento fans, but again, I think he manages it within the context of this film.Going against the grain of my fellow commentators, I will say that I really liked the performances of the two central characters, with Dario for once fining a couple with something actually approaching chemistry. Not to mention the fact that they're characters that we can actually root for and care about; which again, was down to the chemistry and integrity of the performances. As a result, the performances also helped to really enliven a number of the more elaborate set-pieces, in particular the late-night game of cat-and-mouse between Anna and her would-be assassin (which brings to mind the brilliant double-bluff sleight-of-hand found in films like The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, Suspiria and Tenebrae) and a late night chase through the shadowy streets of old Rome which is really the Italian Hitchcock at his absolute best.Like I said, the ending is terrible, but much of the film (for me) was quite enjoyable, and if you can pick it up for under a fiver then I'd say it's definitely worth it. True, it's a far cry from the genius of his Iconic early work, but at the same time, it's nowhere near as bad as recent follies like Trauma and the risible Phantom of the Opera, so if you're an Argento completist then you're gonn'a want it regardless of the negative reviews. If, however, you have some familiarity with Argento, but have found his recent work lacking, then you might want to give it a miss (or at least try before you buy). For me, I'd be tempted to stretch to four stars, as I enjoyed the film - and the DVD transfer is a good one - but I'm knocking the grade down for the terrible ending, which really spoils a lot of the fun.