Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786304108871 Format: Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC ISBN: 6304108877 Label: Good Times Video Manufacturer: Good Times Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Good Times Video Release Date: May 15, 2001 Running Time: 102 minutes Sales Rank: 22645 Studio: Good Times Video Theatrical Release Date: October 11, 1987
Amazon.com: David Mamet's 1987 directorial debut was this mesmerizing study of control and seduction between two kinds of detached observers: a gambler who is also a con artist, and a psychotherapist who is also an emerging pop-psych guru in the book market. The latter (played by Lindsay Crouse) meets the former (Joe Mantegna) when one of her clients is driven to despair from his debts to the card shark. Mantegna's character agrees to drop the IOUs in exchange for Crouse's attention at the seedy House of Games in Seattle, a mecca for con men to talk shop and hustle unsuspecting customers. The shrink gets so caught up in the arcane rules and world view of her guide over subsequent days that she observes--with no false rapture--various stings in progress inside and outside the club. Mamet's story finally becomes a fascinating study of two people protecting and extending their respective cosmologies the way rival predators fight for the same piece of turf. The psychological challenge is compelling; so is the stylized dialogue, with its pattern of pauses and hiccups and humming meter. Mostly shooting at night, Mamet also gave Seattle a different look from previous filmmakers, turning its familiar puddles into concentrations of liquid neon and poisonous noir. --Tom Keogh
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Rating: - Fool me once,shame on you,fool me twice,shame on me....
"House of Games",David Mamet's cinematic debut,is supposed to be about the complexities of the human mind and relationships. Maggie (Lindsay Crouse),a psychologist,has a patient with a gambling problem (Mantegna) Instead of helping him give up his addiction, Maggie is swept in. He teaches her about card games (yawn) He's a player,of course. Maggie doesn't hate the player,she hates the game. Well,she hates that she loves it. They go to the House of Games in Seattle to watch it all unfold. Maggie is aroused by the sight of stings going on in the casino-- and soon she's aroused by Mantegna. A stomach-churning love scene unfolds between the Italian lug and his homely psychiatrist. Isn't that unethical? Not to mention worthy of brain bleach?
"House of Games" has a predictable ending when Maggie gets wind of the whole con game. It's a pretentious bore. As a viewer,you end up feeling played.
Rating: - hateful poorly directed film
THe key performances are off. THey feel like stage performances rather than cinematic. Im assuming its the direction thats misguided; most of the performances are consistently bad in the same way.
The writing is very angry. Like a temper tantrum against human nature.
THe depiction of female characters is ugly.
the plot is very predictable.
Rating: - The Criterion Collection release is widescreen and has an excellent commentary by Mamet and Ricky Jay
SPOILERS AHEAD: Dr. Margaret Ford is such a good mark because she's such a bad girl. Dr. Ford is a con artist. She is a devious woman. She is aroused by the art of the con. She wants to be a thief herself. At the end of the film we learn--when she exacts her revenge--that she is in fact more ruthless and cold than any of the grifters who set her up. What many viewers might miss when watching House of Games is that Dr. Margaret Ford was already a con artist before involving herself with the cardsharp. In fact, that's why they targeted her. After all, "You can't cheat an honest man." Or, "You can't cheat a man who doesn't have larceny in his heart."
Dr. Ford is a psychiatrist, and psychiatrists are--whether they realize it themselves or not--con artists. Kind of like psychics. M. Lamar Keene--once the most financially successful psychic in America--has said that psychics have two categories ... Read More
Rating: - Outstanding, classic film. Vastly overpriced Criterion DVD...
Shame on Criterion for pricing this only slightly lux version of standard packaging, graphics, and extras at the $35.00 price point where one would expect a high end treatment throughout the entire package! The new transfer is absolutely first rate. But talk about cheap and over priced packaging and extras! Nothing but a plastic case, a single disc, a fat booklet and a few on disc extras, no more than you would get with a regular edition for countless other films. This disc might do well at $16.99, but at thirty-five dollars ($35.00) it's just a rip.
I love this film, always have, always will, ever since it was first released. So I was excited to see Criterion issue a completely remastered edition to replace the very mediocre transfer and disc that has, till now, been all that was available. I had recently purchased the Criterion three disc edition of the beautifully remastered "Seven Samurai". That set ... Read More
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- Fool me once,shame on you,fool me twice,shame on me....
- hateful poorly directed film
- The Criterion Collection release is widescreen and has an excellent commentary by Mamet and Ricky Jay
