The
Card Player
Picture: B
Sound: B- Extras: B Film: D
I always knew there was a reason why I hated bad horror
movies and this one reminded me again why that is. The reason is because they fail to be scary, they fail to be
interesting, they fail at acting, and moreover they waste my time with useless
antics and essentially insult every bit of intelligence you may possess. The Card Player, another Dario
Argento half B-horror picture, that is the latest in the growing trend of
thrillers that want to be like Seven, yet fall so short. Not only that, but it is so clichéd that it
makes it a point to not even try and be original at just about every
moment.
The story starts off quick, almost too quick, as a
murderer/psycho is on the loose playing with the authorities with his version
of a fun game. The game… poker. The stakes… someone’s life. Through technology ala webcam and Internet
chat rooms/game rooms the killer shows the authorities the victim while they
play head-to-head poker, but a losing hand is fatality for sure. Even with all the technology out there and
really smart techies, they just can’t seem to locate this guy because he keeps
bouncing around on servers and confusing them as to his hideaway. Not only that, but the authorities are
really bad card players, which brings us to the point at which a normal person
might think that they would try and find someone really good at cards to play
the killer. Well, they would rather
have a few people die first, not only that, but the chief of this operation
seems to want to play hardball with the killer and not give in to his demands,
which is equally foolish.
This film will tick you off for it’s illogical moves, plus
the acting is just atrocious and silly making it less and less believable and
more and more laughable. Not only that,
but there is little reward or payoff, which will leave you disappointed and
thirsty for a real thriller, something like Silence of the Lambs, Copycat
or Seven, or some of the other underrated films of the past few
years. Even along the lines of The
Bone Collector, Don’t Say a Word, etc are much stronger, especially
considering we are insulted with these total waste of time films like Saw,
Feardotcom, and the list continues on and on that have been coming out
lately. This trend seems to be
non-stop.
The film was shot 1.85 X 1 and has been anamorphically
enhanced for its DVD presentation from Anchor Bay. Added to that is the 5.1 Dolby Digital mix making it a very basic
issue in terms of quality. The semi-saturated
picture looks good with a fair amount of softness in darker scenes, but
displayed a relatively clean and stylized palette. The sound mix is boosted a bit from normal Dolby mixes giving a
bit more life to the soundstage, especially in moments of fury and the score is
more engaging than one might expect.
However, the substance of the film is so typical and trendy that the
musical cues are straight by the numbers as well from the Bernard Hermann book
of horror/suspense overtures. The score
written here by Claudio Simonetti is done well, but nothing new.
The extras are abundant and will make those that are fans
of the film relish in the moment. Not
only is there a commentary track, but also new interviews with Argento and
Simonetti, plus behind the scenes footage, the trailer, a 8-page booklet about
being on the set with Argento and a few other little knick knacks. The commentary track is with author Alan
Jones, but is a pleasing one to listen to and actually makes for a better
sit-through than watching the actual film.
While the film could have had loads of potential and
perhaps made an attack on the web community and our societies susceptive-ness
to online addictions, it goes a total different direction and plays it safe
with a straight laced thriller that lacks suspense and most of all lacks any
sense of excitement throughout. Argento
has the ability to pull off better work, but lately has been falling into the
pitfalls of the genre.
- Nate Goss
