I recently watched this movie and it is indeed bad. It's not bad in a Lucky You way (which I would argue is far more entertaining), it's bad in an overly artsy fartsy way. It's actually quite baffling.Originally Posted by Dan Druff
Won't do a full review but here are a few observations:
-It's called "The Card Counter" but the movie is way more about poker than blackjack. There's about 5 minutes at the beginning when the main character (Oscar Isaac) explains card counting and a few times he mentions that he was just playing blackjack but other than, most of the gambling in the movie is related to poker.
-Regarding the poker, they don't show any hands. It's just showing Oscar Isaac playing poker tournaments from afar. He keeps winding up at final tables with an Eastern European "poker celebrity" who has a pro-USA persona (his supporters follow him around and inexplicably yell "U-S-A" every time he wins a pot). It's very obnoxious and over-the-top. Joe Stapleton was the advisor for the poker segments in this film but I have to imagine all of his suggestions were disregarded and they made the actual poker play irrelevant. They also keep talking about Isaac's character trying to "qualify" for the World Series of Poker or something like that which, of course, doesn't make any sense unless he means earning $10,000 to enter the Main Event but he wins much more than that throughout the film.
-Tiffany Haddish plays Isaac's backer in poker tournaments and she's brutal in this film. Meanwhile, Isaac is a spectacular actor. It's like watching Jordan play one-on-one with a child.
-The characters have eccentricities and oddities for no apparent reason. Quirkiness for quirkiness sake which drives me nuts in these indie movies. For example, another main character is named "Cirk" (pronounced "Kirk") but with a "C". Also, Isaac's character stays in off-casino motel rooms where he carefully covers all of the furniture including lamps and chairs in linens. There's no explanation for this behaviour.
-There's a pivotal scene with Willem Dafoe that occurs off camera that's trying to make a point with its ambiguity but it's still very frustrating.
-The final shot of the film is so perplexing I can't even begin to understand it. It's like a two minute slow motion shot of two characters touching each others' index fingers. It must be an homage of some sort but I don't know the reference.
All in all, a bad flick. I don't recommend it. Do yourself a favour and rewatch "Mississippi Grind" or "California Split." Those are two superior road gambling movies.
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