Cheap The Player (Special Edition) (New Line Platinum Series) (DVD) (Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi) (Robert Altman) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Player (Special Edition) (New Line Platinum Series)

Very Intelligent and Entertaining Thriller
"The Player" is one of those fascinating comedic thrillers with one defined dramatic plot, and various subplots dealing with the movie industry. Player is not a fast paced thriller, but rather an intelligent and laid back story surrounded by Hollywood and the business of film making. Tim Robbins plays Griffin Mill, a studio executive whose main job is to decide which scripts make it to the big screen. When he starts receiving threatening postcards, he suspects they come from a writer whose script was turned down. Hence, he tries to identify the writer in order to pay him off and stop the blackmail. Apparently he found the writer , apparently not. Murder. Whoopi Goldberg's performance as detective Avery, investigating the murder, is simply wonderful and provides humor with her spicy language. For the rest of the plot, you must see the movie. Directed by Robert Altman (Gosford Park), Player's cast include Greta Scacchi, Peter Gallagher, Fred Ward, Lyle Lovett and numerous cameo appearances by familiar faces such as Lily Tomlin, Bruce Willis, Robert Wagner, Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts, Nick Nolte, Andie McDowell, John Cusack, to name a few. Besides the main plot, this is certainly a good perspective of how decisions are made in Hollywood, and the dynamics and politics of movie making . Player views the "film noir" and independent film making alternatives, and flirts with the concepts of dissociation of the big studios with the artistic ("Ars Gratia Artis") philosophies of the old days, those being replaced with the "money-making-happy-ending" driving forces of modern day Hollywood. DVD version.

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Hectic Life of Hollywood Wheeling & Dealing
This film has the most unique opening scene (which lasts about 8 or 9 minutes in a single frame!) I have ever seen in a movie! Tim Robbins plays the role of a producer who "just does his job", which includes brushing off hopeful screen writers and being nasty to his assistants. Little does he know, that others are good at back-stabbing too, and that his name is about to be dropped. All depends on his next project; if it stinks, he sinks! -- A few clever twists, including black-mail and manslaughter, keep the viewer interested, right up to the surprise ending. Watch for Whoopi Goldberg and Lyle Lovitt as police detectives (I couldn't picture either of them in such a role, but they did surprisingly well!). This is a very good film, but I still have a problem with how everything turns out (which I can't dwell on, or I'd spoil it for those who haven't seen it). See for yourself!

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Gripping & Hilarious!
Only Robert Altman could make a movie like this. With its huge, sprawling cast of talented actors and famous people dropping by for cameos, Altman has created one of the best Hollywood satires ever made. I think the only other movies gunning for this title would be "The Day of the Locust" and Steve Martin's "Bowfinger."

Recent Academy Award winner Tim Robbins plays a sleazy movie exec who deals with the writing talent. A bunch of mysterious and threatening postcards show up at Robbins's office, and a tense thriller unfolds. Interspersed between the classic thriller elements, Altman stuffs a making-the-movie subplot in there which pokes fun at Hollywood producers and actors, as well as developing a convincing and warm love story. How does he do it? He's Robert Altman, for Christ's sakes. And he does it seamlessly - by the time the movie is over, you're wishing it had just begun.

Altman uses text messages to get points across to the viewer, and the background becomes almost as important and pertinent to the plot as the physical action unfolding before you. Perhaps this is a comment on our celluloid-dampened minds and our inability to see, as it were, the "writing on the wall." For if the characters in this film stopped for a moment and saw where they were, what they were doing, and why, perhaps none of those people would be in trouble. It's a nice jab at our MTV attention spans, and hilarious when foreign films are mentioned Hollywood Types, who immediately clam up and say, "Haven't seen it."

Good times, indeed. You'll have tons of fun just pointing out the celebrity cameos in "The Player." Altman probably did this to give the audience the same awe-struck sensation they would get if they were amongst those power players. You find yourself pointing at the screen and saying, "Hey, that's Susan Sarandon!" or "That's Jack Lemmon playing the piano there!"

So not only is "The Player" an excellent and biting comedy, it's a convincing thriller as well. And nobody could've guessed the ending, which leaves you ... well ... it's difficult to describe how "The Player" ends without giving too much away. So rent it, buy it, spin it on your finger and give props to one of the greatest living American directors.