Cheap The Card Player [Region 2] (DVD) (Dario Argento) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Card Player [Region 2]

sorry but no dice
I'm very surprised to see some of the positive reviews this has gotten and I feel it's a duty to offer an honestly negative counterpoint for anyone considering spending money on this who might have high expectations based on Dario Argento's reputation (though I expect some uncritical fans will consider this sort of thing sacrilege and hit the not helpful button immediately). Argento's best work from the 70s in both the giallo and the supernatural horror genres is truly some of my favorite filmmaking of all time, which makes the undeniable decline in quality of his work since Opera all the more painful. I actually, despite their failings, do like certain things about Stendahl Syndrome and Sleepless (and the subsequent Do You Like Hitchcock?); the Card Player, however, just falls short in too many different ways to ignore and make any excuses for. <
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>There are very few striking visual flourishes here, almost none of the amazing camerawork and staging that mark Argento's classics; the look of the film is strangely generic and undistinctive, without the strong personality and drive Argento used to convey through his material. The violence here lacks the truly inspired perverse qualities that characterize many of the classic murders and extreme outbursts driving earlier films. The acting by the female lead is compromised by her obviously limited abilities with English, which extends to other members of the cast; the dialogue is not particularly well written but far worse when rendered badly by non-native speakers (though the guy who I think is actually English doesn't actually fare much better). There are numerous scenes throughout that are even poorly staged and ineptly exected and only two that strike me as genuinely suspenseful in any way; where other Argento films have a hypnotic dreamlike rhythm, this film just feels clumsy and meandering. The ending is weak and the cumulative impact of the film on the viewer is about none at all. As a police procedural by anybody, this does not compare favorably with other much better films in a fairly crowded field; if anything, it feels like a made for TV production or an extended R-rated episode of a routine cop show. <
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>Like many people, I keep hoping for a return to form from Dario (Terza Madre anyone?). With almost every project, rumors fly that this one is the one. Well, the Card Player definitely was not it. If you are a fan of Argento's past work, better to skip this completely.

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THE CARD PLAYER DVD REVIEW 1.5 / 5
Barely gave it two stars but this film is dull. Although it took a different approach, this film had nothing there for me.Wow, a killer taking hostages for a poker game. I'm really dumbfounded other than that. NEEDLESS TO SAY IT WAS BAD BUT NOT HORRIBLE. AND WHAT THE HELL IS WITH ALL THE DUBBED ACCENTS? <
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>IF THE VIEWER WANTS TO SEE BLOOD AND CREATIVITY, DON'T PUT THIS IN YOUR DVD PLAYER!!

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Dissapointing.
The card player is one of Dario Argento's most recent film and it doesn't seem like the usual Dario film, its not a giallo film but more like a competent Euro-thriller it even has that cheesy techno music that constantly gets played in the background which gets annoying after a while. The film was very dissapointing but I wouldn't say that it was awful there were some interesting scenes like the killer using the game of on-line poker with the police in return for the lives of his kidnapped prey and the chase scene with Remo the proffesional poker player, the only problem is that the film just turns into a routine detective story that gets kind of dull, if this film was done by another director than maybe I would have liked it better but since it was done by Dario I expected a much better high quality thriller that wasn't so predictable. You won't find any gory death scenes or excellent camera techniques but it is more modern contemporary and you can tell from the look of this film although some of the shots of Rome were very nice. Its worth checking out once but not worth buying unless your a diehard Dario Argento fan like myself lol.