Rounders is one of those card-shark movies that's so in love with the game's tricks and technicalities that it leaves most viewers cold. There's so much poker slang here that, unless you've done seven tours of duty in Vegas, you're not going to be able to follow along. All that aside, though, Rounders is a likable movie with a terrific cast. Just don't expect too much in the way of the unpredictable.
Matt Damon is our hustler-slash-narrator, and in the opening scene, he loses his $30,000 bankroll to an Oreo-eating, Russian-accented John Malkovich. (No problem - just crawl inside his brain for 15 minutes and write yourself a check for it.) He takes that as a chance to start anew, go to law school and live the mundane life with his girlfriend (Gretchen Mol).
But then... hey, I've watched enough independent movies to know that when Ed Norton is released from prison, things go to hell in a hurry. The results here are only slightly less volatile than American History X, and Ed is in full screw-up mode as Damon's former partner. He immediately goes out and runs up a debt to Malkovich, who promises to force-feed Norton Double Stuf Oreos until his stomach explodes, unless he gets the $15,000 to him tomorrow.
Simple plot, and it's mostly an excuse for extended card-game sequences that are designed to build suspense while barely masking their conception of the Damon character as the ultimate, can't-lose card player. The supporting players are strong, but the script uses some and underuses the others. Martin Landau is effective as the dean, while John Turturro and Famke Janssen are lost in the card-came glitter.
But Rounders is worth watching and has some good drama and comedy moments. If only the cast could compete with the game itself...
Drama - general DVD - John Dahl directed this exploration of New York private clubs devoted to high-stakes poker, with first-person narration from the...More at Barnes and Noble
Set against the backdrop of New York s high-stakes underground poker world, Rounders is the tale of Mike McDermott (Matt Damon, Good Will Hunting), a ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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