Card Player

Okay, so I did not like Argento's Phantom of the Opera. It was a bad movie, and Asia's acting did not make it any better. It was the first Argento title I purchased and had to get rid of. Saying that, I also have not been the biggest fan of his post-Trauma films. I thought Sleepless had some good elements, but it could not quite achieve the magic of his earlier films. Last night I witnessed an abomination- The Card Player. You could tell right from the beginning it was going to be bad. It jumped right into some cop-drama action right from the start with little to no character development. I only continued to watch out of respect to one of my all time favorite directors, and my hopes that the movie might get better. Unfortunately, it continued to get worse. The story was about a killer who would challenge the police to 5 games of poker. For every game the police lost the killer would cut something off of the victim. If the killer was the overall winner he would kill the victim, and if the police were the overall winner he would set the victim free. It ended up turning into a bizarre love story that lacked the depth of even the Stendhal Syndrome. While it did contain small elements of some of Argento's earlier movies they were barley noticeable and did not make the film any easier to watch. One of the more heartbreaking aspects of the movie was the lack of blood and gore. There were a few scenes of corpses and a couple of murders that implied cruelty, but they came up short like the rest of the film. There are three main reasons I watch Argento's movies; the artistic gore, the beautiful costumes and set designs, and the riveting, yet sometimes confusing, storylines. This movie was lacking on every aspect. The only good thing I can say is that I did not hate the music. The score was, while not nearly as good as a Goblin score, pulsing and driving in an attempt to keep the story in motion. I think it is time for Argento to give up writing his own movies. I have read that the last of the Three Mothers trilogy is being written by an American couple right now. I am not familiar with their work, but hopefully they will be able to do a better job than Argento could do in his current writing state. I just hope he is capable of directing it.