The Player (1992)

Synopsis: Griffin Mills (Tim Robbins) is a producer in Hollywood. He's cold, calculating, and knows a hit pitch when he hears one. But the thing with Hollywood is that everyone thinks their idea is a hit so what happens when a person like Mills brushes them off and tells them their idea is crap? Those people get angry. Mills begins to get threatening postcards from a writer that he pissed off ages ago because he never got back to him about a crap idea. The postcards are getting more and more frequent so Mills takes it on himself to stop the writer, so he kills him, but he kills the wrong writer! On top of all that, he has to deal with a hot shot new exec that's trying to move into his terrritory. And on top of that, there's a whole bunch of other drama that comes with job. money, women, Scandal... But hey! Like they say: It's Hollywood, Baby!

Should You Watch It? This is a movie for the Hollywood people. There are a lot of inside jokes in there that I don't get because I'm not in Hollywood. But maybe someday! The point is, if you ever wanted to get a behind the scenes look at the biggest movie making machine out there then here's your chance. It's not all glamour and fairplay. But that's drama and that's what we wanna see in a movie.

Things to Watch Out For: Other than those inside jokes that you won't get, there are a lot of cameos by real movie stars and they're quite fun to spot. Tim Robbins is amazing of course, and he plays the role of a back stabbing suit to perfection. The film in itself is a satire on how Hollywood never creates a movie that's "real." That is, the things they portray never happen in real life. Well, this movie is pretty much not as real as they come but they make it so obvious that it's funny and very well concieved, especially the ending which some can argue is up or down.

Things You Don't Expect: The information about the biz really comes at you hard and sometimes you just don't wanna be a writer anymore after seeing this movie. But this movie can inspire you to break through the odds and pursue your dream of walking into a big Hollywood office and giving a pitch in 25 words or less and then having it thrown back in your face. Ah... that will always be the dream.

Final Comments:
Story: 8.8 (Michael Tolkin: novel, screenplay)
Direction: 7.5 (Robert Altman)
Acting: 9.2
Cinematography: 7.6
Music/Sound: 6.0

Final Score: 8.0