Is this director *really* the same Dario Argento who made creepy, stylish movies like Profondo Rosso and Suspiria? After watching Il Cartaio, it's difficult to believe it.
A serial killer kidnaps young women and challenges the police to video poker games on the internet; if he wins, he kills the victim. Cops Anna (Silvia Rocca) and John (Liam Cunningham) try to stop the murderer with the help of young poker player Remo (Silvio Muccino).
Il Cartaio is cheap, dull, badly acted. Silvia Rocca is an attractive woman and usually also a decent actress, but her performance here is awful. In some scenes she is stiff, in others she overacts, then she occasionally seems to forget her character and acts like a chirpy schoolteacher. Cunningham is a solid actor and passes through this silliness more or less unscathed.
Muccino is typically awful, mumbling every line with the delivery of a chimp munching peanuts. However, when he is on-screen Il Cartaio is suddenly a hundred times funnier and, since the movie works better as a comedy, this is a good thing.
Surprisingly, visuals are weak, tension lacking: again, if you watch Profondo Rosso - which oozed an oppressive sense of menace - and then this, it seems impossible it's the work of the same director, even years later. It's as if Brian De Palma made I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.
4/10
A serial killer kidnaps young women and challenges the police to video poker games on the internet; if he wins, he kills the victim. Cops Anna (Silvia Rocca) and John (Liam Cunningham) try to stop the murderer with the help of young poker player Remo (Silvio Muccino).
Il Cartaio is cheap, dull, badly acted. Silvia Rocca is an attractive woman and usually also a decent actress, but her performance here is awful. In some scenes she is stiff, in others she overacts, then she occasionally seems to forget her character and acts like a chirpy schoolteacher. Cunningham is a solid actor and passes through this silliness more or less unscathed.
Muccino is typically awful, mumbling every line with the delivery of a chimp munching peanuts. However, when he is on-screen Il Cartaio is suddenly a hundred times funnier and, since the movie works better as a comedy, this is a good thing.
Surprisingly, visuals are weak, tension lacking: again, if you watch Profondo Rosso - which oozed an oppressive sense of menace - and then this, it seems impossible it's the work of the same director, even years later. It's as if Brian De Palma made I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.
4/10