I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

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.

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.

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.

A killer captures young women and then forces the police to play video poker with him to save their lives. Every lost hand, a finger gets amputated... can the police win, and can they be sure a madman will keep his word? Most critics consider this film to be made during Dario Argento's weaker period, because he had abandoned the style of his earlier works ("Deep Red", "Suspiria"). But this is unfair: Argento's "weak" work is still better than many of the other films out there. He is now working with solid production values and his crew have gained experience.Having worked with Argento for decades, this may be Claudio Simonetti's best score ever. He has made more of an atmospheric piece and less of a rock soundtrack. From the opening scene, this feels more like a big budget film. And we have above average corpse design from Sergio Stivaletti.There are some odd moments. The flamboyant, tap-dancing, opera-loving morgue attendant is a big silly, and the video poker game appears cheap and fake. And I'm not sure why they assume the killer used to play Russian roulette... that connection just doesn't add up for me.This is certainly not Argento's best film. Even of his later works, I much prefer "Opera" or "Phenomena" (or even "Sleepless"). But it's still a decent film, and well worth seeing. The DVD from Anchor Bay has plenty of good bonus features: interviews with Argento, an audio commentary and more. Fans of Argento's will eat this right up.