The Player

For anyone who loves movies, "The Player" is a treat.

To start, the screenplay is first-rate. The plot that holds the entire film together is superbly crafted; very few films leave you guessing right to the end as this one does. The finer details also shine through, such as the sales pitch scenes, which are inarguably classic (i.e. "The Graduate II").

I loved the attention to detail in "The Player". One can find a new detail every time one watches the film. For example, the opening sequence is a very long, continuous shot during which characters are discussing Hitchcock's "Rope", which appears to be a movie filmed all in one continuous shot. The sheer number of cameos in "The Player" makes it difficult to list all of them, so I won't even try.

"The Player" is one film that sets out to skewer Hollywood and actually succeeds. One only has to view the Bruce Willis/Julia Roberts sequence in order to understand this. My hat goes off to Robert Altman for making another excellent film.

Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is a studio executive who listens to about fifty thousand pitches for films a year, but can only green light twelve, and even then he doesn't get the final say on whether or not a movie gets made. So not being a nice guy to begin with, he figures he's probably made enemies of quite a few people who never got past the gate that he keeps. Then he starts getting threatening letters on his windshield, delivered at the studio, etc. From a writer angry that he said he'd call him about his idea and never did. Mill decides that the angry writer must be David Kahane, and so one night he goes to a movie theater where Kahane is watching "Bicycle Thieves", they talk, then they go get drinks at a restaurant, but then Kahane starts angrily mocking him on the way to their cars and Mill beats him to death in a fit of rage. Stunned at what he did, Mill tries to make it look like a robbery and then leaves.

But this is not a noir - Mill doesn't panic or lie. When the police question him he admits that he met Kahane, admits their relationship, admits everything except the murder. The police suspect him from the start but he doesn't let their harassment get to him. On top of that the harassing letters continue - he killed the wrong writer.

I thought this film was hilarious. It is just so other-worldly with people having very odd reactions, almost like a David Lynch film, so that at times I think Mill is just daydreaming. But, no, these people really did say or do these weird things. And then there are all of the celebrities who are sometimes playing themselves and sometimes are playing a character in the film. And if you want to know why Lyle Lovitt of all people is playing a cop here you have to see the hilarious final scene. Basically the moral of this movie is, in the words of "Crimes and Misdemeanors" - " if you want a happy ending, you should see a Hollywood movie."

'The Player (1992)' is a meta and witty inside-joke, jabbing at the ribs of tinsel-town in a cynical yet comedic way, and it manages to sardonically satirise the entire studio system, with a only little bit of self-aggrandising and perhaps an equal measure of self-deprecating. The picture isn't particularly funny, though it can cause some chuckles, but is instead the kind of sly smile inducing mockery that takes its time to dawn on you and isn't immediately obvious. It's this undercurrent that carries the flick much more than the main plot itself, so much so that the actual narrative becomes a part of the running gag as opposed to a vehicle for the individual jokes to spawn from. It's a unique, and somewhat acquired taste of a, film that's usually enjoyable and equally intelligent. 7/10

I am surprised that the IMDb trivia section is so short for this film. After all, it's jammed full of references to earlier films and is full of actor cameos. Because of this, it's clearly a film that bears re- watching in order to catch the many small details many would often miss. Also, because this film is ultra-famous, already has many reviews and is beloved by many, I'll keep my review relatively short. Suffice to say that it's a film lovers and insiders dream movie.

The film begins with an insanely difficult scene that sets the stage for the film. It's all in one long take where the camera moves all over a wide area on a film studio lot. But instead of being intimate, it feels almost like the viewer is hiding and peering at the many different things occurring simultaneously. This is brilliant, as the film does have a real voyeuristic quality...with many shots that are not traditionally framed but are as if you are watching in the near distance.

What follows is a very dark anti-fairy tale set in modern Hollywood. Instead of the usual story of a person working hard and doing good and ultimately being rewarded, this is pretty much the opposite. With a total jerk-face (Tim Robbins) screwing people over and even killing someone...and the consequences of this. It's obviously meant as an attack on many Hollywood types--the users, the superficial and the vaguely talented. Overall, a superb film that works very well due to wonderful direction and a black hole-dark script filled with cynicism.

"The Player" is bigger than the sum total of it's ingredients, because this Robert Altman classic has got so many links pointing to movie history that it is dizzying. It is all about Hollywood and the ins and outs of the movie industry. But let me first focus on the story for now, for those who just wanna see a suspenseful who dunnit story.

"The Player" is a slowburning, yet suspenseful detective story, with funny breathers scattered throughout. Whoopi Goldberg swinging her tampon is one of those hilarious scenes that lights up the seriousness of this detective story about the death threats. It's a who dunnit, with some jokes and with lots of parodies on the inside world of Hollywood. Lots and I really mean lots and lots of actors play themselves in this movie. Everybody wanted to be part of this movie that could be described as "a chainsaw cutting down Hollywood's image"

What's the story about? Tim Robbins plays a hollywood producer elbowing his way to the top. This selfish movie producer will do anything to gain more succes in the superficial world of Hollywood and he is hated by many writers and actors, who were ridiculed or rejected by him. This obnoxious movie producer starts getting death threats mailed to him by postcards. The death threats get more serious every week and Tim Robbins gets desperate to find out which psychotic writer is sending these threats.

"The Player" at first depicts the search for this mysterious person who is sending these evil death threats, but later on the movie takes a dramatic turn which I wont reveal here to avoid spoilers. As I said before, it is a slowburning story, yet slowly climaxing into a very suspenseful ending. Over 2 hours long. But I enjoyed every minute of it and I must have seen it over 10 times by now.

Acting is not particularly great, yet rather funny, in a more amusing satirical way. It is especially funny to see all those well known actors (in the nineties) walk by in this movie playing themselves. That is just eye candy. Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis among others in cameo roles, hilarous stuff!

This direction by Robert Altman is to be highly complimented for many things. Movie geeks would have a field day analyzing this satire on Hollywood. Read all the other reviews, people just have a field day here on imdb analyzing this Hollywood satire. Director Robert Altman made a very suspenseful yet funny detective story that has stood the test of time. More than 20 years later this movie is still a thrill and joy to watch...