laurelcoleman Robert Altman was a master filmmaker. Not everyone's cup of tea but if you like him I think you will enjoy The Player- a satirical take on the film industry. Starring Tim Robbins and a host of cameos (An Altman trait) the Player follows a studio executive's fight for survival after he accidently kills a screenwriter. Featuring some amazing sequences including an astonishing opening scene long take this film is one of the finest examples of Altman's wit and craftsmanship. The film wasn't a huge success upon release, but it is considered a great film now. I suggest you give this film a chance because this is auteur theory in tinsel town at its finest.

DonaldKnouse I just tried watching this on my DVR recording I got off of TCM a few months back. The soundtrack was so tinny I couldn't understand half of what was being said. I tried the closed captioning but it wasn't there. I suppose it would be funnier if I was actually working in the movie business or lived in LA, but there seemed to be too many "in jokes". And this mess is in the Criterion Collection??

classicsoncall Well if this isn't a film for movie buffs, then I don't know what is. Oh, and it's a brilliant story too! I started a list of my own of all the cameo spots and stopped at about twenty or so because they just kept on coming. Seeing Steve Allen at the Mellen (Sydney Pollack) party made me do a double take because I didn't know when this film was made and I knew Allen passed on a long time ago. The story has a couple of twists that are ingenious and tend to have the viewer keep one's guard up. Like the character of David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio), who's made to seem so obvious that he's the spurned writer who's sending Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) the death threat postcards, that you immediately brush him off as the guy Mill has to watch out for. Then there's Lyle Lovett, slinking around in the shadows following Griffin looking like he's about to waste him, and it turns out he's a detective. Very cleverly done, as were all the hints dropped about how this movie might end with the viewing of 'Habeus Corpus'. This is definitely a movie to watch more than once as I thought I had picked up on most of the guest shots, but the credits at the end of the picture revealed a whole bunch more that I never caught the first time around. And if that weren't enough, there's a great piece of trivia the film offers with that murder scene where Tim Robbins' character kills Kahane by ramming his head into the pavement and drowning him in standing water. In the 2003 movie "Mystic River", Sean Penn's character drowns his long time friend believing he killed his daughter. The friend's name was Dave Boyle, played by Tim Robbins!

markgibsonuk-04768 " Show biz kids making movies of themselves , you know they don't give a **** about anybody else .". Dated, predictable , obvious and very,very tedious . If you're a fan of Hollywood junk and have no idea of what a desperate, corrupt and self-obsessed industry produces your escapist pap ; if you want to see endless montages of sets laden with movie stars ; if you've given up thinking - then this is for you.