House of Cards (2013) Reviews

• Wooden acting, Awkward fighting. Incoherent storyline. Well...

  paul_haakonsen2013-09-02

  Sometimes you read something and think 'surely that can't be the truth' and then there are times when you should just heed that advice and stay clear of certain things. As is the case with "House of Cards". Wow, this was bad. So what went wrong with the movie? Well, a multitude of things went wrong. First of all, the story! A totally pointless and irrelevant story about a group of assassins and a lush reporter investigating a symbol that he saw marked on a tree during a drunken stupor. There was absolutely no coherency or a red thread throughout this movie. And the characters in the movie were lacking personality, charisma, enthusiasm and were essentially one-dimensional puppets put on display. Then there was the acting. Well, rather, the attempts at acting. The acting in the movie was really rigid and wooden, it was like watching marionettes trying to be human. Which then leads on to the fight scenes. They were without a doubt among the worst fighting scenes I have had the misfortune (or fortune, depending on how you look at it) to witness displayed in a movie on the screen. Especially the fight scene in the training center, it was just downright embarrassing to watch. Funny how this movie is labeled 'action'. But I guess that definition is as fluid as water. You have to look long and hard to find an action movie as bad as "House of Cards". But at least thumbs up to director Ian Chinsee for giving this an effort and trying. And I am rating this movie a 2 out of 10 rating because it did have some good enough production value - which was essentially all that worked in favor of the movie.

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• Chintzy, just chintzy.

  owner-777-5324312013-08-28

  Wow, haven't seen a movie this bad in a long time. From the opening scene, I was like wait a minute, what the heck is this. As the movie went on I kept saying wow, this is awful. The fighting scenes were bad, the acting was just about the same. It almost felt like i was watching an old karate movie where the audio was not synced. As for the weird votes that were a 10, surely we know who that was. All it takes is the opening scene, and you will know that your in for a real treat, and not a good one.Save your money and rent something else, or catch up on your sleep. I can sum this movie up in one word, rather fitting if i do say so. Chintzy!

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• Don't waste your time on this one

  PollyPick2013-08-29

  Everything about this movie screams "film student project". The script is terribly weak: dialogue is unconvincing, and the story meanders so much so that by the end of it I had no idea what was happening. There is no consistency with back stories, and no convincing motivations for people's actions. Why are super secret assassins posing for selfies on the riverside with ninja swords in their hands and sending them to one another? The reason one assassin gives her assassin ex-boyfriend's number to a reporter (John) who is following up on rivalry killings? "I thought you could use someone outside of the gang to talk to." Yes. The best candidate she could think of was a reporter. For him to talk to about their (illegal) assassin problems. Brilliant. But wait, it doesn't end there. When assassin dude doesn't seem overly interested (not that he seems super interested about anything at all in this movie), she really makes her case with: ASSASSIN CHICK: He (John) was suspended from the paper because he almost put someone in a coma. ASSASSIN DUDE: The plot thickens. Quality writing. The fighting scenes are achingly staged, the story makes no sense, and no-one appears to be able to act. Although to be fair, acting convincingly must have been a challenge given the crap material they were given. Looking forward to a review of this one from YourMovieSucksDOTorg.

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• Missed opportunity

  martin-pace2013-09-04

  Hi As soon as I saw the first few action sequences I lost interest in this flick - I could not understand how given the financing that must of gone into this, that basic stuff like getting the right camera angle for a fight sequence could not be achieved? I mean, if your actors/stunt people are half good (at fight sequencing)then fair enough they might be able to (strike, block. kick) close enough to each other to make the action appear realistic, or you might film with the actors making 'soft' contact in slow motion (and then speed things up) or just get the right angle (behind the person throwing or receiving the punch, for example) - but having poorly choreographed action filmed at 90 degrees to the camera with obvious space between the combatants strikes just makes no sense. There was a certain (good) quality of production to some of the non action sequences that belied what I just described so I remain confused about this one - ultimately though, disappointing.

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• Throw this deck away

  rnixon19742013-08-27

  I have rarely seen such a poor excuse for an action film. Admittedly, this is a poor excuse for a film, full stop, but it is egregious to me that this is a vendetta/fight flick. It takes a truly uninspired set of actors, director and crew to make Uwe Boll look decent in comparison. Alleged MENSA member Chinsee does this, and then some. His dialog is lackluster; the thing is, many action flicks share this problem. Nor is the pacing the only culprit. Many films suffer from poor pacing. This waste of celluloid looks like a rehearsal takes of a bad movie. Especially the combat scenes. Poorly edited, execrably shot, with novice actors who can barely deliver their lines, let alone wield weapons. I am amazed anyone paid money to this genius to make this. But I shouldn't be. This direct to DVD stuff has gotten more prevalent since the recession hit in late 2007. Save yourself some time. If you want see a vendetta movie, get the Chun Li flick with Kristin Kreuk. She actually can fight, and act. Or just watch season 1 (or season 2) of Maggie Q's Nikita. The auteur's bio says he went to medical school. Chinsee is hopefully better at medicine than he is at filmmaking. Or his patients are in serious trouble.

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