User reviews

Whenever I see "such and such presents" on the cover of a movie I think to myself oh no, this movie obviously isn't very strong and they need to attach a good filmmaker's name to it to try and trick people into thinking it's good. I hoped that wouldn't be the case with 'The Card Counter' but it absolutely was. This movie was a bit of a mess.

There are a lot of scenes where the lead character narrates different casino games and explains how best to win them. There is the odd interesting one like the card counting explanation, however most of them are embarrassing to listen to when you know a thing or two about casino games. They are both over-dramatised and over-simplified at the same time.

The film itself is just bizarre. Characters find connections without the film doing anything to sell them to us. We are just supposed to accept them. It's really odd. Also for a large portion of the film we have no idea what the point is. Things just kind of drift along and you wonder why you are even watching this. Then at the end it tries to make up for all that lost time, but again it is just so out of place, unearned and unusual that it has no effect on you at all.

I wanted to like this film, I really did. The premise sounded so good in the synopsis. I assure you though, the promise of "cinematic intensity" is not lived up to for one minute. This is one of the least intense films I've ever witnessed. I'll generously give this a 5/10. Not one I'd recommend.

Whilst the final act is engaging, the journey to get there is slow, at times to the point of tedium. The story takes us from casino to casino, never truly giving a sense of where we'll end up, not really giving us a reason to care.

The dialogue has moments of humanity, but more often than not it felt heavy-handed, as if the film was written by a first-year film student attempting to prove their genius to their peers. Isaac's performance is good, given his main direction was probably along the lines of "don't give away your emotions, but remember that your past hurts." Sheridan is given very little to work with in terms of bringing his character to life, although one scene in particular allows his character a moment of relatability. Haddish brought the most lively performance of the main cast, but her characterization is probably the weakest. Defoe isn't on the screen long enough that his performance would pull the film one way or another.

I'm firmly on the fence about the visual style of the film. There are times where the angles used in conversation highlight the fact that you're hearing dialogue written for a movie, and not experiencing a conversation between people. Additionally, there are many shots that linger for what feels like an eternity, without the emotional weight or stunning beauty that usually demands that kind of visual style, leaving you wondering when the film will be allowed to resume. This includes some of the transitions between scenes.

Finally, the audio in this film has some strange moments, including phasing between mics, varying levels in the dialogue within a scene (if often sounds like switching between two mic positions or different takes), or ADR that doesn't quite match what you're seeing on the screen.

All told, The Card Counter sets out to tell a story of redemption and reckoning with your past. It manages to do so, but isn't particularly compelling along the way.

I so wanted to like this movie. And I did up to a point. The gambling topic and casinos are always an interesting topic to me. Seeing the Martin Scorsese name associated with it, I expected greatness. The movie had an interesting look to it. It did move slowly at times as the main character (William) was a moody, thinker type the entire film. That character trait did add drama to the story because you just didn't know whether he was sane, insane, a good guy, or bad guy. As the storyline progressed, we started seeing the dark, hidden past that haunted him. Where it fell apart for me was the final 15 or so minutes. Time and distance realities seemed to go into fantasyland and the viewer was expected to just accept the unbelievable in order to get to the movie finale. For a serious drama, I found that unacceptable. This movie can be considered a deep thinker movie and I can see some people truly liking the ending. I just felt disappointed and was hoping for a better climax to what was an interesting lead up to it.

(BTW: Blackjack card counting, assuming no devices are used to do it, is not illegal or cheating in the U. S. as someone alluded to in their review. Casinos don't like it because it can hurt their profit margin and if they suspect a person is doing it to their financial success, they can ban them from their privately-owned business property. It would be difficult to prove someone actually is doing it anyway).

This is a slow burn. I feel like they tried to make this a poignant introspection into the main character's past but is takes long to develop (in my opinion). Bouncing from casino floor to his own reflections when outside of it leaves it feeling jilted at times and this creates more of an emotional disconnect for the viewer than it draws them into the story. It's OK but not anything groundbreaking.

Everything you'd expect from good performers and a good movie, but it was just blah. Story itself was not the great. The ending was lame.

Tiffany was the worst thing about this movie she is just not good at acting. Movie was direction less and a waste of time. Kirk with a C was a total dud with a D.

While watching I didn't know what the hell all this was supposed to mean, and I thought they would follow up on parts of the story later, but never did. The writing was all over the place and made no logical sense at all didn't understand the point this movie was trying to make, but I didn't get it. I only saw this because of the actors and thinking it would be good but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna forget what this movie was about in a week. Great on the actors for trying to make good of this mess.

Nothing wow about this movie , nothing obvious, lack of thrilling and events, the music is annoying, weak direction, and in the end what's the point ?!!

I am not sure how they were able to get the A-List actors into this film. The script is average. But the execution, in every other way, is middle of the road at best if not horrible.

Cinematography: Horrible. I think the producers did a favor for a friend.

Editing: Also horrible. The actors did quite well, considering the below average script. But the shots were horribly assembled and should be reassembled immediately.

Soundtrack: Music wasn't bad, but wasn't used well because the editing was not good.

Directing: I'd say that other than acting, this is where the film was at least average. The actors were quite good and I hope they got paid that way. But what the director, editor and cinematographer did with their work is a damned shame.

I would pass on this film.

I think that all of the actors did a fine job with the material that they were given, but I think some films just lack purpose, regardless of the moral of the story becoming painfully obvious, halfway through the film.

That said, some of the gambling references and instructionals were edifying, but the whole gaming idea just seemed out of step with the plot. There's no apparent connection between gambling and the protagonist's past. It's merely coincidental, as a function of free time, and there's no deeper meaning to it.

Despite the varied filming locations, the film still manages to come off as somewhat low budget. It also seems like some of the sets were re-used for different locations.

There's also not a whole lot of on screen chemistry, even though the film tries its hand at a contrived romance. It would have helped if the other characters had some of their own scenes to develop their backstory. But, as it is, we just get a cursory explanation for why they exist in the film, which doesn't really get fleshed out. As a result, we don't care about them.

Consequently, the film becomes somewhat predictable; and the climax is ultimately just defeatist and depressing, and not really satisfying from a movie-going experience.

Terrible directing and waste of incredible talent in Oscar Isaccson. Tiffany hadish missed the mark. Storyline was very poor. Martin Scorcesse assisted in this movie and it looks like everything he touches turns to dust (similar to irishman)- long transitions and empty screen time.

Pick up the pace and work on more engaging video angles and cinematography!

After all the hype, this movie was a waste of time.

How could such a unique story line be butchered by such a miserable ending. It's as if the director just ran out of ideas and let his six year old boy write the last 15 minutes. When you have such a great cast and potential and then screw the pooch in the end .......just such a waste !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not sure why I gave this 5 stars. It was a tedious pointless piece of dreck. This was a total waste of my precious time by some pretty good actors. What were they thinking when they made this BOMB.

I'm enjoying this so far but every review I've read is very very bad. Would have to have lots of 9's and 10's to balance them and I haven't seen any of those. I like Oscar Isaac. He brings an authenticity to any role he tackles, but it does seem to be moving in slow motion. I thought it was going to be like Paul Newman in The Color of Money but it doesn't have the coiled energy of that gambling movie. I guess this is trying to be a psychological study but I'm guessing the people who go to see it are looking for a straight card movie and feel cheated.

I went into this movie optimistic, solid cast for the most part. The Martin Scorsese co-sign credit in the beginning was a good indicator. It started off slow and it never really picked up and caught my interest. The story itself could've been good but the dialogue and directing was sub par. The cinematography was very basic and bland, lots of distant shots with above eye line perspective. Overall not a recommended unless stuck on a flight like me.

Other than the acting there wasn't much else to keep me and my wife intrigued and engaged. It all just seemed to drag on without much to pull us into the story. She fell asleep an hour into it. Lol!

Such a delightful slow boil that promises to pay off in a big way...and then doesn't. Give this movie a different concluding twenty minutes and it would be a 9 out of 10, as it is it's a 5. Go play some blackjack instead. You'll probably lose but it will be more exciting.

The best parts of this movie are the score, Tiffany Haddish and the narration parts. At least those give you something: an insight into how to possibly win money in a casino. The rest sucks. The plot of this movie is so convoluted it's difficult to understand why they'd even tie the two main ideas together to begin with?! Seriously though. Just like with almost every movie Oscar Isaac is in(aside from Ex Machina, and even then it was brought to my attention just how incredibly short dude is), that I decide to check out, he disappoints me. And the movie does too. EVERY SINGLE movie this guy is in where he's supposed to be cool or badass, it ends up being stupid?! A Most Violent Year, Dune, The Coen Brothers one, etc, etc. He is just not that guy. They'll probably give him an Oscar 4 years from now for some nonsensical trash similar to this though.

Let's start with the good. If this was a life on the road story of a damaged human being, trying to redeem himself in a lonely world, then it would be a 10. For a lot of the run time, that's what it is. The vast empty gambling palaces of North America. The roadside motels. Nothing to guide a man but his wits. All great. Then for some unknown reason, add on a B story about Abu Ghraib. Detract from that great character / lifestyle study you had going, and never fully pay off either. For instance, in a penultimate face off between the protagonist and a barely seen antagonist, it all happens off screen. This is presumably because it would have been difficult and distasteful to film. But then why have it at all? Also worth a mention is a brilliant very charismatic performance from Tiffany Haddish. Every time she's on screen the film smoulders. You want these two people to get it together and find some kind of life together. I won't spoil it as to whether that happens, but overall I just wish this lived up to its potential.

A bit of a film noire with only some semblance of a path/direction. Tiffany showed a lot of personality and energy when she was on the screen. Would have liked to seen more of her character. Others were decent but there were periods of flat. OK at best but too many loose ends. I guess they're left up to your imagination on what you think happened.

Me, my wife, and daughter all ended up on our phones before the movie got half way. I wanted this to be good. It has a good cast and it is a "big budget" type movie. However, the story was just really boring and could not engage us. I gave it 5 stars for the cast. Maybe if you are big into gambling you might enjoy it. Wouldn't recommend it though.

There is an unreality to the interactions between the characters. The movie seems to expect the viewer to buy into murky depths of subtext without first winning the right to that. Too much is unexplained, and it is difficult to buy into characters actions and reactions. You can see the merit in individual shots and scenes but for me it doesn't hang together. I didn't get bored, but never felt fully engaged in a movie that was trying at some narrative sleight of hand, but didn't pull it off.