Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Theo Robertson You can see this having some potential with a premise of " Psychological thriller where a serial killer plays mind games with cops on the internet involving card games " . It's a relatively idea to pitch and the internet and home computers were really taking off round about the time this film was produced . I do remember being connected to the net in March 2001 and coming across " The Official Gary Glitter website " and finding something called a guestbook that seemed to contain threats of violence and other mayhem quite often by people with extreme right wing affiliations . In amongst fits of laughter that made me resemble someone having an epileptic fit I decided to send my own kind regards to Glitter and hoped he and all his fans received a good slap in the face with a stanley knife . I then found a link on the website celled " Contact the webmaster " and thinking a " webmaster " might be a sort of internet police thing controlling what is put up on the interweb I then wrote off to them saying something along the lines that Glitter was a convicted paedo and needed executing while the Glitter website needed closed down instantly . It might sound ridiculous now but I thought that's what a webmaster was . I was shocked to discover a couple of hours later that the website was still going and that the guestbook now contained my name and email address along with a message along the lines of " Hey lay off Gary you Nazi freaks . Gary's the best and you know it " that was accredited to me " I also noticed there was a few messages in my email inbox from people I'd no knowledge of and gave up reading them after the first couple were less than complimentary to put it mildly . I then had to undergo the indignity of going on to a Neo-Nazi website and posting an open letter on the forum saying I didn't write that message on the GG website and could people stop sending me death threats . To be fair I did get a nice email from one of them saying he never made any threats to me and he thought I was a good guy because I wanted Gary Glitter to be tortured to death . I couldn't agree more I'm obviously digressing a little bit but THE CARD PLAYER plays hard and fast where the internet is concerned . Someone is using several servers and that's why the cops can't get a trace ? Yeah sure it is . I'm sure if they bothered they could trace he source very easily but I guess because it's a film where some suspension of disbelief is needed . Unfortunately some entertainment is needed also and we really don't get much . Being an Argento film you're expecting a bit more in the way of horror stakes and we don't get them and nor do we get much in the way of thriller element . It's very talkative and that's maybe the problem . Irish actor Liam Cunningham ( Somewhat surprisingly cast ) is god enough in his role but that's probably because he's using his own voice where as I'm fairly certain the Italians are speaking in their own language and they've been re-dubbed in post production . This means we're unrealistic or inappropriate inflexion every time they open their mouths and when you've got a film that revolves around people talking , talking and talking the film has to work on both the dialogue and the way the cast deliver it and in that way alone THE CARD PLAYER is something of a failure

p-stepien Officer Anna Mari (Stefania Rocca) joins up with English bobby John Brennan (Liam Cunningham) to partake in a deadly game of cards. A serial killer kidnaps women and then bets their lives in an online poker game. Outsmarted by the murderer they are unable to locate his hideout and are forced to accept the psychopaths conditions in order to offer the victim a fighting chance to survive. There to assist is 19-year-old poker revelation Remo (Silvio Muccino).Undoubtedly one of the best acted outings by Dario Argento the master attempts to indulge into a bit of experimentation with a procedural police movie with a slash of gorno. Not Dario's bread and butter, which is quite evident at every stage of the movie. The basic plot doesn't really work, as the poker game is based purely on luck and therefore has none of the integrity that a professional gamer associates with it. No dares, bluffs and such. The whole idea could be passable, but the scripts attempts to make the game dependant on skill are laughable at best. This touch of ridiculousness permeates throughout the whole film, as cops forget to inform their partners as to the fact they have found the murderer's liar or that after being stalked the inspector casually puts her gun on the table and without a worry in the world drinks a glass of water. Such idiosyncrasies infest "The Cardplayer" and cast sincere doubts on just how competent Argento believes the police to be. The grand finale is unfortunately not too grand, as the killer seems to lack a couple of brain cells and has turned off all self-preservation instincts (massive spoiler: instead of lying down on the tracks he sits up and screams allowing a train to massacre his body).Unfortunately the movie does have a feel of a CSI episode with some added gore and even though the movie does involve and entertain it is sure to quickly be clouded in mist as the memory has nothing of worth to hold on to. On the plus side this is probably one of the nicest paced Argento movies.The cinematography is probably the most unimaginative in an Argento movie, so save for a few ideas behind the shots it fails to entice you esthetically.

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 *****).

Gunnar_Runar_Ingibjargarson The Card Player' directed and co-authored by leading Italian filmmaker, Dario Argento is quite different from what I expected, based on Argento'' reputation based on his best known film, the horror classic, 'Suspiria' of about 20 years ago. This movie is much less Wes Craven and much more Alfred Hitchcock, although I think Argento does not quite measure up to the Great Hitchcock in his use of subtlety and surprise, although there are a few good surprises in this film.While this movie was made by a thoroughly Italian cast and crew, except for Irish actor, Liam Cunningham, almost all the original dialog as we hear it in the film was spoken in English as it was filmed. Mistaking this for a horror film was easy based on the cover art and some of the blurbs on the package. And, these hints are not entirely misleading, as there is a fair amount of intentional horror based on a fairly extended threat of death to a victim seemingly unable to free herself from the situation, unlike Hitchcock's secret threat, suddenly sprung on the unsuspecting victim as in 'Psycho'.The mechanics and most business of the story are ultramodern. The victims are kidnapped, bound, and gagged (albeit a bit amateurishly), and the prep sends an e-mail to a female police detective that in order to free the Vic, the police will need to have someone play computer poker with the prep, freeing the Vic by winning two out of three hands. The first victim is a British tourist, bringing the Irish detective attached to the UK consulate in Rome into the case. And, this detective happens to be a forensics expert, so a lot of his early investigations are straight out of the 'CSI' casebook. Although, none are so modern that you couldn't see almost the identical business in a movie made 50 years ago, just as you see them in the murder / suicide investigation scene in Fellini's 'La Dolce Vita'.Not only is the plot much more a thriller than a horror show, but the quality of the acting, directing, and camera work is high as well. Unfortunately, I feel the writing, in the implausibility of many plot turns, is just a bit too weak. While Argento may be one of the best known Italian filmmakers working today, his scripts fall far short of the great plot and dialog of Fellini and Bertolucci.One of the very first weaknesses is in the way the police failed to play the contact with the prep. Given the chance to bring in an expert poker player to play the hands, that task falls wholly nilly to the female detective who is not only a poor poker player, but has a monkey on her back about gambling and poker, as her father committed suicide after a failure at cards. For the second kidnapping, the police happen upon a detective who knows something about poker, but who fails nonetheless. Only with the third victim do the police enlist the assistance of an expert computer poker player, who succeeds in effecting the release of the victim.Explaining more implausibilities starts to give away some of the better parts of the plot, so I will stop there and note that this DVD has my very favorite feature, an audio commentary running the entire length of the film. The commentary is by the cinematic author, Alan Jones rather than by the director or his co-author or producer, but it's pretty good. Since, as the commentator notes, Argento does not film in any of the well-known tourist locations (except for a brief glimpse of the Pantheon and a scene in the Tiber), but in the 'real' bourgeois' Rome. So, commentator Jones gives us an orientation for where we are in Rome and on the events which help us understand the plot. He also points out the virtually total absence of blood in the film, which was a conscious decision by the director, since so many of his other films are so singularly bloody.