DVD Collectors Online

The Card Player, a review by Jimmy

The Card Player (Il Cartaio)


Years : 2003

Director : Dario Argento

Stars :

Stefania Rocca
Liam Cunningham
Silvio Muccino

Synopsis :

An English Interpol agent and an Italian policewoman team up to catch a serial killer in the city of Rome. The killer play an internet poker game with the police, the results decide the destiny of the victims.

Viewing experience :

This is a good thriller as only the Italian make them. A very good story with some good twist, an unpredictable end and a perfect soundtrack by Claudio Simonetti. Stefania Rocca (a complete unknown for me) had all the movie on her shoulder and she succeed on the challenge of it . A good serial killer movie who doesn't use the gore and the CGI effect to create the tension, but a good soundtrack, the natural lightning and a proffesional cast (the principal and the secondary ones). If you like Argento and the seventies giallo, I recommand this one to you ... you will like it.

Rating : 4/5

Movie trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG0wRKJrf5I

(From DVD Profiler random marathon on December 22nd, 2007)

Cinderella, a review by Jimmy

Title : Cinderella (2006)

Overview
Seeking the much-desired quality of 'ul-jjang' (the perfect face), 17-year-old Hyunsu's friends are envious that she has a plastic surgeon for a mother. On their summer vacation together, she watches as her friends get plastic surgery and then one by one begin to die mysterious deaths. Hyunsu's mother holds the key to the dark secrets that have been tucked away up to now.

My Impression
As any Asian movie this one is a little bit complicated and you need some time in the beginning to understand what this movie is about. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the dvd overview make you think of something else. In fact, you understand the story only after the first 45 minutes and everything turn "creepy" and sad. Yes sad, this is certainly one of the sadder and depressing "horror" movie I've seen. You can understand the "bad guy" action and sympathize with him/her as you do for the 2 real victims. I can't wrote more than this because I don't want to spoil it, but if you like your "horror" different with a psychological side to make you think you will like this one.
 
Rating :



(From Jimmy's 2009 Horror Marathon on September 28th, 2009)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete Second Season marathon, a review by Achim

8. Mr. Ferguson Is Ill TodayMy comments:
At first I was wondering why the writer made John do so many foolish things. He id it in earlier episodes and had since seemed to have learnt. Well, if he wasn't doing things like running away without telling anyone, there wouldn't be any exciting plots

Matthias has pointed out before it's his favorite and I can at least confirm from my side that it's the best episode yet. I always enjoy the "bits and pieces" approach to tell a story, presenting us with segments, each following another person, that slightly overlap. This way important information can occasionally be left out only to be revealed later on. Kudos to the writer team to pulling it off very effectively

We also get great action by Thomas Dekker (especially the first half) and Garrett Dillahunt as Cromartie is very menacing here.

Only now, two or three episodes after the incident I realize that Ellison's role in all this must be bigger than we can imagine so far. Triggered by his question to Sarah about his role I noticed that  Skynet felt it was a good idea to actual model a Terminator after him. Well, or something. Looking forward to see more of him.



(From Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete Second Season marathon on February 7th, 2010)