The Card Player

This cheap, TV-like thriller has a single good (surprising) scene and one well-played character (young Remo). Overall, however, the only thing that makes this less of a failure than Argento’s previous Sleepless is the lack of glaring lapses in logic. The rest is just stagnant water in a vase with half-dead flowers. Don’t waste your time on this and instead watch Untraceable, which is based on a similar premise, but is better in the technical aspect with a more dramatic ending. (01/22/2009)

The Italian movie The Card Player shows that even relatively recently, Dario Argento made a good movie, with suspense, action, and quite gruesome in places. The thing with the nails was really good. However, it seems his best days are behind him now as this movie could have been gorier and had a better ending, making it very good indeed. (10/09/2019)