User reviews

Honestly shockingly boring. Literally the most memorable part of the movie was the "Kirk with a C" line. The only time the audience in the theatre laughed or made noise. Movie is not memorable, no one in the group who watched it can remember the movie title. It's been called "The Card Collector, The Gambler" etc... In all seriousness though, the one plus is the social commentary on the torture in Iraq. Which is why the movie gets a 2 not a 1. Also Haddish's tone doesn't fit the movie at all. Every time she speaks it almost sounds like she's being dubbed into the film after the fact. Her voice is almost in a comedic or playful tone, which is quite jarring when she's responding to the dark tone of all the other characters and Oscar's serious lines... And it's not for comedic relief, all her speech regardless of context sounds like that in the film. Unfitting.

Having lived half of my life in poker rooms, I can assuredly tell you that "The Card Counter" rings false on almost every detail. Nothing about this morose character study has any authenticity. It also features one of the most woefully inept performances in the 5000+ films that I have seen -- a stiff embarrassment of a turn from Tiffany Haddish. Oscar Isaac tries to hold all the disparate pieces together... However, director Paul Shrader misjudges every frame of this dismal film.

And the award for most desultory film of the year goes to....."The Card Counter." And trust me, given some of the other entries, that's quite an accomplishment.

This Paul Schrader film goes absolutely nowhere and takes its time getting there. Two different stories, one about a professional gambler and one about a former guard processing the demons he acquired while working at Guantanamo Bay, are awkwardly shoehorned together in the character of Oscar Isaac, and not a minute of this film feels authentic or plausible. Isaac does what he can, but no one could have saved this. Tiffany Haddish is totally out of place in a movie like this and gives a borderline terrible performance. All of the movie is vaguely unpleasant, but the pointless climax is downright nasty. It's like Schrader just keeps wanting to remake "Taxi Driver" over and over but is running out of ways to tell the same story.

This film is so sluggish and dreary that it feels like it's bored with itself.

Grade: D.

Seriously, it's an ideal example of movie about nothing.

I assumed that having at least one great actor in this film would make it a decent watch. I was wrong.

It doesn't have any cohesion with the characters against the story line which is plain boring.

First we get schooled in card counting and then it takes a strange turn into soldiers undertaking torture which made no sense at all.

I usually like movies that just waste time especially in covid lockdown but I could not wait for this to end.

I'm not sure what they sold the studio to get this greenlit but what they've created is absolutely dreadful. This is a first-year film student's final project, trying to emulate Scorsese and failing miserably. I don't even know what the heck I just watched. Make it go away.

I can't even figure out where they intended to go with this movie. It has a bunch of unconnected themes, all told badly (and SLOWLY, as has been said).

Give it a miss.

There are so many things wrong with this slow, tedious, poorly-written movie, I don't know where to start.

Oscar Isaac sleepwalks through this snooze fest. The pace is glacial, the plot meaningless, the gambling uninformed and seemingly written by someone who has never actually played any of the games they're trying to dramatize.

Laughably childish dialogue with no wit, tension or humor.

Simply pathetic.

Written by Paul Schraeder, who wrote Taxi Driver, one of the greatest films of the 1970s, this movie has many of its exact same plot points. Just about everything but being entertaining. A card player takes a young man under wing and wants to help him. Why? The young man is about as interesting as a brick. In fact all the characters are boring and one dimensional. The pacing of this film is snail like. You're practically screaming at the film for it to move along.

The dumbest thing of all is the film is called "The Card Counter" because the main character counts cards at blackjack. Yet he spends the whole movie playing poker. It'd be like calling the movie "The Baseball Player" and it's a movie about a guy playing basketball. It just seems like there wasn't a lot of thought put into that aspect. In fact, you'll ask yourself, why was this made? Who thought this was a good script and would be entertaining? Some stuff gets made simply because its creator has a name, like this - which isn't a good thing.

I rarely see something bad enough to turn off before the end but halfway through i turned it off. Just a bad movie.

Think hollywood and all they put out is crumbling before our eyes... wonder why???

This was 111minutes for a 15 minute story. The characters were less than average with only protagonist having a background story, and none were able to illicit an emotional connection, or even be interesting enough to be invested in. I feel cheated out of my money for this poorly executed film.

I have absolutely no idea what this film is trying to be, some of the weirdest scenes I've seen in any film. Acting is good with what they were handed but you'd wonder why any of the actors agreed to this or ask themselves halfway through what they are doing. This is most definitely one that will be on the streaming services soon and even then, give it a miss.

The trailer wasn't great, so I was already afraid of the quality of this movie, despite some great actors. When the name of Martin Scorcesee popped up, I gave it a chance. The movie is just boring, vague storyline how to beat the casino... Making me stop watching after 30 minutes. Seriously, if I want to learn this, I will look it up on Google...

With a great cast list and tag lines that make this film look well worth the effort of struggling through 10-15 minutes of slow paced mostly script free film you think the meeting of 2 main actors will spark this film into action.........well about an hour or so later when the credits roll you wonder how you'll ever get that time back in your life.

How films like this get backing is a puzzle Maybe the film read better than the overly self important film this became and a stain on some of the best actors currently working cv's If you can't sleep I highly recommend this dour film.

Waste of $20 renting this trash. One of the absolute worst movies I have ever seen. Do not waste your time or money.

Dull and slow.

If you came in expecting a good casino heist or gambling story, you will be disappointed. If you came in with no expectations whatsoever you will still likely be disappointed. Counting cards accounts for about .5% of this film. He bizarrely plays poker throughout the movie, and with super low stakes attached. The motivation of all of the characters is never really explained. I waited the full two hours before realizing nothing was actually going to happen. It's not even super character driven since we know so little about any of them. I suspect this film will try to pretend it's super cerebral in some way and us laypeople just didn't understand it. But I was not entertained at any point which is enough for me to say it's a terrible film. And I really wanted it to be good, so I am still surprised it flatlined this badly.

Where to begin with this odd film. First, this cast deserved better direction and a cohesive script. I'm not sure who the audience for this film is but there was nothing exceptional or original about this movie. Haddish and Isaac seem to be reading lines off of cue cards and have zero chemistry. The clichés are overwhelming as well and there's nothing remotely satisfying at any point of this film. Everything from the title to the strange attempt to combine being a great poker player with being a master torturer is an desperate attempt by this film to come off as deeper than it really is. Save the hour and fifty one minutes of your life and avoid this terrible film.

As someone else mentioned, this was very weird and boring, and something was very odd about the way the way each scene left you feeling. I could not finish, as I found myself skipping scenes and wanting to just get to the end so I could move on to something else. I felt little to no emotional investment in the characters.

Not good, boring, and seemed like a mash of several screen plays, like taking the most boring parts of a film and putting it together over a lost bet at a coffee shop. Maybe better to watch sleeping, should not keep you up.

I should have read reviews before I tried to finish watching this borefest. Lead actor tries his best with the hot garbage he was given. Tiffany Hadish just seemed out of place and weird in this movie. I don't know why Hollywood seems to be churning out non stories. I kept waiting for something to happen but this was watching paint dry and and ant gets stuck it the paint and slowly expires.

Promises to be decent, turns out dull and pointless. Watched the whole thing hoping it would be worth it... Turns out that was hope wasted. Worst Scorsese film ever? Zzz.

Oscar Isaac may be a pleasure to watch, but this movie was not my cup of tea. A frustratingly boring experience. Not recommended, in my opinion. I respect those who like it though.

Was this an elaborate joke? Did the director/writer make a bad film on purpose? Has Paul Schrader completely lost the plot?

This has some of the most stilted dialogue I've heard in quite some time. It almost seemed like he was doing it on purpose, but I don't know why. It was completely unnatural and artificial. I'm sorry but people don't act like that or speak like that. The acting was also stilted and generally poor. The whole thing was a mess from start to finish. He was obviously trying to make something dark and depressing but it just came off as laughable. Maybe it's time for Paul Schrader to retire. And who decided that Tye Sheridan is a good actor? He's awful.