Review of Reviews: The Player

by Michael Abels

The Player was made in 1992. It was directed by Robert Altman who also did a movie called
MASH. It is about a Hollywood studio executive named Griffin Mill, who is played by Tim
Robbins. He kills a screenwriter because Tim Robbins’ character believes that he is the one who
is sending him death threats. This movie is considered a satirical comedy. It was released on
April 10th, 1992 and had a budget of $8 million dollars. In its opening weekend it grossed
$302,216 in the USA on 23 screens. Worldwide it grossed $28,876,701. In its’ box office life
span it made $21,706,100 dollars in the USA. On Rotten Tomatoes it got a 98% rating. The
average score that it got was an 8.7/10. The audience said that they liked it with 85%. The
average rating was a 3.7/5. One person gave it credit saying “The Player can be admired even
more now than it was at the time, because it so succinctly diagnosed the sickness that still causes Hollywood to churn out to much soulless “product.”’. To me this means that it is a movie that is still some what relevant in this age, and has meaning that can traverse over the decades that separates it from than. The part that resonated with me the most about this person’s review on the movie was that it was published in 2010. This was 18 years after the movie came out. Some movies made earlier do not get this kind of attention anymore, so the fact that it still does only means that it is worth watching. On metacritic the movie scored an 86/100. The user reviews gave it mostly positive remarks with a couple mixed reviews scattered about. One person talks about “From its brilliant and sublime opening sequence to its self-reflexive ending, The Player distills everything that’s wrong with the American film industry with the precision of someone who’s been there.”. On IMDb it scored a 7.6/10. This was one of the lower scores, but it is still above average and exceeds many movies that are made today. Finally, one critic gave it 4 out of 5 stars and talks about how it “is a smart movie, and a funny one.”. This only adds to the point that this movie makes you think, but also has fun with it at the same time. Many people who wrote a review go into detail about the movie and talk about how it truly is a great film. One thing that has been noticed about this film before even watching it is that the story may be made up, but some of the reactions and under tones about the movie hit the nail on the head when it comes to accuracy. It is a movie that knows what it is talking about and does it in a way that people will and can understand from the date it was released to now. The Player is one of those rare movies that no matter when it is seen it can still be understood and relate back to what its original meaning was. This is a rare thing to be able to do and only makes this movie even more interesting to watch. It is a movie that someone should watch maybe twice if they can because one time they can consider what the meaning of the movie was in relation to the time it came out but you could also watch it again to see how it compares to Hollywood in today’s time frame.