The Player (1992)

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers (WGA):

Michael Tolkin (screenplay)
Michael Tolkin (novel)

Release Date:

10 April 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

The Best Movie Ever Made!" - Griffin Mill

Plot:

A studio executive is being blackmailed by a writer whose script he rejected but which one? Loaded with Hollywood insider jokes.

Plot Keywords:

Hollywood | Blackmail | Investigation | Murder | Screenwriter

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 20 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

Tim Robbins	...	Griffin Mill
Greta Scacchi	...	June Gudmundsdottir
Fred Ward	...	Walter Stuckel
Whoopi Goldberg	...	Detective Avery
Peter Gallagher	...	Larry Levy
Brion James	...	Joel Levison
Cynthia Stevenson	...	Bonnie Sherow
Vincent D'Onofrio	...	David Kahane
Dean Stockwell	...	Andy Civella
Richard E. Grant	...	Tom Oakley
Sydney Pollack	...	Dick Mellon
Lyle Lovett	...	Detective DeLongpre
Dina Merrill	...	Celia
Angela Hall	...	Jan
Leah Ayres	...	Sandy

Also Known As:

O Jogador (Brazil) (Portugal) [pt]
A játékos (Hungary) [hu]
El juego de Hollywood (Spain) [es]
Gracz (Poland) [pl]
I protagonisti (Italy) [it]
Igrac (Serbia) [sr]
Igralec (Slovenia) [sl]
Joc de culise (Romania) [ro]
Las reglas del juego (Argentina) [es]
Le meneur (Canada: French title) [fr]
O paiktis (Greece) [el]
Oyuncular (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Spelaren (Sweden) [sv]
The Player (Germany) [de]
The Player (Denmark) [da]
The Player (France) [fr]
The player - pelimies (Finland) [fi]

MPAA:

Rated R for language, and for some sensuality.

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | USA:R (certificate #31599) | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Chile:18 | Finland:K-14 | Germany:12 | Netherlands:AL | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Argyle Hotel - 8358 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, California, USA

Company:

Avenue Pictures Productions

Trivia:

In the original novel by Michael Tolkin, June's second name is Mercator, not Gudmundsdottir.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: Griffin Mill knocks an in/out box off Detective Avery's desk and is startled by the noise before the box has hit the floor.

Quotes:

[Asked to look at police mug shots]
Griffin Mill: Um, no. I - I mean, I - You're putting me in a terrible position here. I would - I would hate to get the wrong person arrested.
Detective Susan Avery: Oh, please! This is Pasadena. We do not arrest the wrong person. That's L.A.!

Movie Connections:

References Touch of Evil (1958)

Soundtrack:

PRECIOUS

Movie fans, rejoice. Others, go watch Charlie's Angels.

What I mean by my tagline is that you will get the most out of this film if you've watched a lot of old classic and understand how the Hollywood system works. If you're more or less a casual film fan, who watches movies once in a while, you might not like this too much. As for me, I'm sort of in a transitional stage, so I enjoyed myself without understanding everything. Considering that this film comes from Robert Altman (look at his profile, click on some links for his movies if you don't know who he is. His movies are weird and usually have good casts), you can expect it to have some weird features. The story follows Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins), a Hollywood executive that has a million and a half mediocre ideas thrown at him every day. One day, he has a couple of drinks with a writer (Vincent D'Onofrio) and ends up killing him. The movie is basically plotless, and yet complicated. Griffin goes paranoid and thinks everyone is after him, including a pair of cops, played by Whoopi Goldberg and Lyle Lovett. The movie is splendid, right from the opening shot played as an homage to Hitchcock'S Rope. The opening shot is eight minutes long, without a single cut. It just pans all over the place as people talk. The performances by the main cast are pretty good, especially Robbins. But the part that's really worth seeing is the ton of celebrity cameos. Just about the whole world shows up here. Bruce Willis, Cher, Elliot Gould, Rod Steiger, Julia Roberts, Anjelica Huston, Lily Tomlin, Burt Reynolds, Mimi Rogers, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte,Marlee Matlin and Jeff Goldblum are just some of the cameos. The in-jokes are very funny if you can understand them, and the whole pace of the movie is good, if a little overlong. (It's not really that long,either.) If you think you know enough about movies and Hollywood, then take a crack at The Player. You won't be sorry. 8/10