The Card Player (Il Cartaio) - 2004-01-07
Italian horror-maestro Dario Argento will alienate many of his loyal cult followers with this uncharacteristically standard ripper-flick, which revolves around a serial killer’s challenge to police investigators to play online video-poker in order to save the life of his trussed and webcammed victims.
But Italian producer and distributor Medusa, which gave the film a 220-screen roll-out on Jan 2, is more interested in today’s cinemagoing masses than the ultra-niche market of diehard Argento fans,
those who know The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970) or Deep Red (1975) frame by frame.
The film’s respectable opening weekend placing (fifth overall with Euros 874,371, well ahead of the other main opener, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over) also indicates that Argento-lite is no turn-off for young Italians, who are drawn as much by the attraction of three of Italy’s most bankable young actors (Stefania Rocca, Claudio Santamaria and Silvio Muccino) as they are by the name of the director.
Read the full story at Screendaily.com 
