Rounders is a 1998 film about the underground world of high-stakes poker. Directed by John Dahl and starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton, the movie follows two friends who need to quickly earn enough cash playing poker to pay off a huge debt. The term "rounder" refers to a person whose sole means of earning a living is by playing cards.
The movie opened to mixed reviews and made only a modest amount of money. However, with the growing popularity of Texas hold 'em and other poker games, Rounders has become a cult hit.
Plot
Young hotshot poker player Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) loses his entire bankroll of $30,000 in a hand of Texas hold'em against Teddy "KGB" (John Malkovich), a Russian Mobster, who runs an illegal underground poker room Mike frequents. Stunned by the loss he decides to concentrate on his law school studies, and makes a promise to his girlfriend and fellow law student Jo (Gretchen Mol), not to play cards anymore. Fellow rounder Knish (John Turturro) offers to bankroll Mike, after watching his utter defeat at the table; depressed, Mike instead takes a part time job driving a delivery truck for Knish to make ends meet.
Mike stops off on his way home to deliver papers to his law professor, Petrovsky (Martin Landau), who is playing poker with colleagues and several judges. Watching the other judges' reactions to the cards they are dealt, Mike pushes in a big raise for Petrovsky. Upset by the kibitzer, the other judges ask how Mike can raise without seeing the entire hand. Mike offers to tell each player what they're holding in exchange for a clerkship for Judge Marinacci (Tom Aldredge). Bewildered when Mike guesses correctly each hand, they fold only to learn that Petrovsky held a busted straight. Judge Marinacci is impressed and says that he will put Mike on the short list for the clerkship. And Mike keeps his promise not to play and departs.
After arriving home late the next morning, he explains to Jo that he was at a judges' card game, but didn't actually play, much to her skepticism. He asks to borrow her car to pick up his best friend and the rounder who taught him to play, Les "Worm" Murphy (Edward Norton), from his release from prison. On the trip back to the city, Worm asks Mike to take him to a game and tries to convince him to play. Mike declines and gives Worm what money he can spare, only $220. Driving away, Mike stops and contemplates the game. He remembers a quote from Jack King's book Confessions of a Winning Poker Player about how poker players don't recall big wins they have, but remember accurately their big defeats. He turns the car around and walks into the fraternity game as the boyfriend of the host and stranger to Worm. They clean out the trust fund students with card tricks and acting.
Mike again arrives home late. Jo quizzes him about what the two did last night and wants assurance that Mike didn't play cards with Worm. Mike lies and says he was nowhere near a card game. While in the shower, Jo walks in and finds a "gangster roll" of bills in his jeans pocket. She places it in front of the bathroom mirror and leaves for school without him. When she confronts him about breaking his promise and lying to her, Mike admits that he feels alive at the game. Jo walks away, knowing that Mike will never stop gambling.
Mike's studies and punctuality suffer as he helps Worm get money to pay down the debt accrued before prison. While at a strip club one night, Worm is confronted by an old partner of his, Grama (Michael Rispoli). They end up in a fight when Worm smarts off about how Grama got money to buy Worm's debts. Worm learns that he is not only in debt to Grama, but to Grama's bankroller, Teddy KGB. With interest, Grama says Worm owes $25,000. He takes the money Worm cheated out of a couple of Russians at a local private club.
Meanwhile, Mike meets Petrovsky at a bar to discuss the situation with his studies. Petrovsky has an affinity and respect surrounding Mike's passion for cards. The judge shares with Mike a story of his experience as a young man when his family disowned him after choosing to study law rather than become a rabbi, against his familiy's wishes. Mike returns home to find Worm standing outside his front door, bruised up from Grama. When they get to his apartment, Jo has taken her items and left Mike. Worm suggests the two go to the Taj Mahal to play poker against tourists. At the noodle bar during a break from poker, Worm informs Mike of his debt with Grama, but leaves out Teddy KGB.
The next day, Mike shows up late and unprepared for his role as lead counsel in a mock trial. His classmates, including Jo, are aggravated by his inability to focus and lead their side. The two have a conversation which results in Jo leaving Mike for good. Alone in his apartment that night, Mike watches the final hand from the 1988 World Series of Poker, where Johnny Chan checks and traps Erik Seidel into going all-in against a better hand. Petra (Famke Janssen), Mike's friend from the local club, stops over to let Mike know that the debt he owes due to the money Worm's been borrowing under his name is due. He pays her what he can, tells her to put Worm on his own and thanks her for coming to him. She tries to kiss him, but Mike pulls away and lets her know he'll be by later to pay off the rest. When she leaves, Mike throws the glass of whiskey he was drinking into the wall, and leaves to confront Worm about the debt.
Mike finds Worm hiding at the church he hid at as a kid when he got into trouble. He demands to know how Worm could have put him into so much debt when Mike was trying to help Worm get into the black. Mike insists they go see Grama about getting the debt paid off, against Worm's wishes. Grama says Worm has five days to pay off the other $15,000, but Worm smart mouths again and nearly causes a second fight. Mike vouches for Worm and promises the money will be paid on time, and the two leave.
Mike and Worm find games they can round where Mike plays and Worm watches. After sixty-four hours of playing, and only $7,000 earned, Worm says he knows a "municipal workers" game in Binghamton (which turn out to be state police officers) that would earn them the rest of the money. Worm offers to play as well, but Mike says only one of them should play so no one realizes they are professionals. Worm drops Mike off and goes to find a bowling alley, promising only to return in the morning. Mike wins pots legitimately and his stack grows with each passing hour. During the session, another officer who meets Worm at the bowling alley brings him in to play. Mike acts as though the two are strangers when Worm sits at their table. Another officer notices Worm dealing off the bottom of the deck and the two are accused as cheaters, even though Mike was trying to play straight. The officers beat them both, steal all their money and toss them out. Worm is astounded that someone caught his trick and informs Mike that he has only few hundred dollars he hid in his boot. Mike says the two need to ask Grama for more time, but Worm suggests they go on the run until they have the money. Worm then admits that it's not Grama to whom he owes the money but Teddy KGB. With Worm refusing to go back to town now with the deadline near, Mike drives back alone, saying he'll see Worm when he sees him.
Grama refuses to grant Mike more time and reminds Mike that he backed the wrong person. Mike realizes that sticking up for Worm was noble, but that it has put him in a worse position in life than when he lost the initial $30,000. He tries to get a loan from Knish, who refuses to give him any money because Mike did not listen to Knish about Worm. Mike then explains the situation to Judge Petrovsky, who understands that Mike can't give up his life as a card player, much like Petrovsky could not give up his life as a legal professional. He loans Mike the only money he can, $10,000. Mike uses the money to play against Teddy KGB before the deadline. In a quick heads-up match, Mike doubles his money and is able to pay off Worm's debt with $5,000 left to use to earn what he owes Petrovsky. Teddy KGB goads Mike into playing more by reminding Mike he only earned back some of the money KGB took off him in the movie's first game.
Mike takes the challenge. On the final hand, Mike is dealt a 9 and an 8, and the flop is a 6, a 7, and a 10, giving Mike a straight. Remembering the final hand of the 1988 World Series, Mike checks to Teddy and calls Teddy's bets. Teddy KGB bets all of his money over the course of the hand before Mike calls his final all-in bet and shows him the straight. Grama urges Teddy to take Mike out, but Teddy tells his men to pay Mike because he had won "straight up". Mike leaves with enough money to pay his debts to Grama and Petrovsky, and gives him the same $30,000 he started with. He asks Jo to give Petrovsky his money, and the two part amicably. The final scene shows Mike in a taxicab to catch a flight to Las Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker.
Production
Rounders began filming in December 1997 and was set mostly in New York, with the notable exceptions being that the law school scenes were filmed at Rutgers Law School in Newark, New Jersey and the State Trooper poker game and parking lot scenes which were taped at B.P.O Elks Lodge on Spruce Avenue in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey.
Featured cast
- Matt Damon as Mike McDermott
- Edward Norton as Lester 'Worm' Murphy
- John Turturro as Joey Knish
- Gretchen Mol as Jo
- John Malkovich as Teddy KGB
- Famke Janssen as Petra
- Michael Rispoli as Grama
- Martin Landau as Abe Petrovsky
Reaction
Rounders was released on September 11, 1998 in 2,176 theaters and grossed $8.5 million during its opening weekend. It went on to make $22.9 million domestically.[1]
Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Rounders sometimes has a noir look but it never has a noir feel, because it's not about losers (or at least it doesn't admit it is). It's essentially a sports picture, in which the talented hero wins, loses, faces disaster, and then is paired off one last time against the champ".[2] In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "Though John Dahl's Rounders finally adds up to less than meets the eye, what does meet the eye (and ear) is mischievously entertaining".[3] Peter Travers, in his review for Rolling Stone said of John Malkovich's performance: "Of course, no one could guess the extent to which Malkovich is now capable of chewing scenery. He surpasses even his eyeballrolling as Cyrus the Virus in Con Air. Munching Oreo cookies, splashing the pot with chips (a poker no-no) and speaking with a Russian accent that defies deciphering ("Ho-kay, Meester sum of a beech"), Malkovich soars so far over the top, he's passing Pluto".[4] In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle said of Matt Damon's performance: "But Mike should supply the drive the film otherwise lacks, and Damon doesn't. We might believe he can play cards, but we don't believe he needs to do it, in the way, say, that the 12-year-old Mozart needed to write symphonies. He's not consumed with genius. He's a nice guy with a skill".[5]
Despite an unremarkable theatrical release, Rounders has gone on to become somewhat of a cult classic, particularly among poker enthusiasts.[6] In an interesting chicken or the egg situation, some speculate the film is directly responsible for the recent increase in the popularity of Texas hold 'em, while others believe that the substantial increase in the popularity of poker has nothing to do with the movie, but that same increase does have everything to do with the come-lately increase in the popularity of the film, so many years after its theatrical release.[6]
There are pro poker players today, however, who credit the movie for getting them into the game.[7] The film drew in recent successful players such as Hevad Khan, Gavin Griffin and Dutch Boyd.
One of the best descriptions of the influence the movie has comes from pro player Vanessa Rousso: "There have been lots of movies that have included poker, but only Rounders really captures the energy and tension in the game. And that's why it stands as the best poker movie ever made."[7]
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One of the best card films of all time
I guess the test is this: I've seen Rounders four or five times; I saw
intelearts from the big screen - 9 March 2009it in the cinema when it was first released and thought it brilliant
then. If anything now it's even better.Why? Because it's a film about the game, not a sponsor, and it has
first class performances and first class directing. It wasn't high
rollled by an internet site looking to cash in on the poker craze; it's
just a grimy, grim, and effective film about poker and poker players
with a little back story but mainly strong performances especially from
Norton who really is Worm.The story of the reformed gambler who finds himself sucked back in to
pay off debts that aren't his is very well handled and one of its great
points is that it's all done without melodrama.Just a great film about gambling, New York, and the guys who play
Poker. For my money as good as the Cincinnati Kid and certainly no
other card film in the last 10 years has come close.Class and classic
Good Acting Rescues an Otherwise Niche-Market Drama
"Rounders" is, actually, almost entirely enjoyable. The actors give you
im_veritas_photo from United States - 14 February 2009most of the enjoyment; a very good music score adds quite a lot. But,
unfortunately, the screenplay hardly helps.No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em is supposed to be the real star here, I
guess… But most of us will just dismiss this as poker hyperbole. "The
Cadillac of Poker" is a title I do not respect; I don't even like
Cadillacs. The game is the all-surrounding ocean in which the
actor-players swim, but it is just… a… game… after all, folks.
Yeah, the cameo appearances of real-life Poker All-Stars (so-called)
are supposed to awe us. Sorry; I'm not at all awed. Their whole life
is, I think, mere sleaze.But there is an impressive list of top supporting actors: Gretchen Mol,
Martin Landau, John Malkovich, Edward Norton, John Turturro… All
provide a fine foundation for Matt Damon's great job in the leading
role. These good folks help to rescue the viewing experience.I finally figured out why I always like watching such films as
"Rounders, "The Hustler," and "The Color of Money". Objectively, all
movies of this kind just over-glorify games to the point where they
take on life-threatening proportions. I know better than to gamble, but
these films deliver vicarious thrills without the dangers.I bought this DVD at a $5 cut-out bin. Just the right price. Enjoyable,
even with repetition. 7 out of 10.
Best playing cards movie I have ever seen!
The Plot: Academy Award Matt Damon (The Bourne Movies) and Edward
predator_silver77 from United States - 16 December 2008Norton (Incredible Hulk) star in this story of passion, risk and the
extreme price of friendship! After losing a high-stakes card game, Mike
(Damon) gives up gambling for law school and a fresh start with his
girlfriend (Gretchen Mol – Cradle Will Rock). but then his best buddy
(Norton) gets out of prison and in over his head with a ruthless card
shark (John Malkovich – Being John Malkovich). From there, Mike's
strong sense of loyalty – and the lure of the game – draws him back to
the tables in a game he cannot afford to lose! Also starring John
Turturro (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and Oscar winner Martin landau
(Ed Wood) My Spiel: Easily one of the best Card playing movies these
eyes have ever scene. This it a terrific movie and stars 2 powerful
actors (Damon & Norton). I have quoted from this movie with my brother
a lot. Both of us are big fans of this movie. Some of the best parts
are John Malkovich's acting and how he talks it's simply amazing. This
is truly the ups and downs of no limit Texas hold 'em brought to the
big screen. The acting is nothing but perfect and I have constantly
watched this and every time it's just as good as the first. If you
thought "21 (2008)" was the best movie about playing cards, you are
sadly mistaken. A must watch for any one! Rounders in the game of
life…..Play the cards you're dealt.Rounders (1998) Review: 9/10
Undeniably cool
"Rounders" seems to have become somewhat of a cult classic since its
sme_no_densetsu from Canada - 26 November 2008release a decade ago. Depending on who you ask, it either played a part
in sparking the recent vogue for poker or it benefited directly from
it.In the film, a ruined poker player (Matt Damon) gets drawn back into
the game when his ne'er-do-well buddy (Edward Norton) runs into trouble
with a loan shark. With this premise, the film then takes us into the
world of high stakes poker and life as a rounder.The cast is a big part of why this film is worth watching. Damon &
Norton were still fresh faces in 1998 but time has shown that you could
not ask for a better pairing. Both actors are on the top of their game
and their performances go a long way in selling the experience. The
supporting cast isn't bad, either. You've got Martin Landau, John
Malkovich (complete with ridiculous 'Russian' accent), John Turturro
and others providing quality support.The film's look is pretty impressive, too. John Dahl's direction is
bold and the cinematography is continually appealing as we move from
underground dives to Atlantic City and everywhere in between. The
soundtrack is pretty good too, with some well-chosen music that fits
the picture nicely.All of this makes for a film that's worthy of its cult status. Is it
destined to become a classic on the scale of "The Hustler"? Certainly
not, but it's a nifty little spin on similar subject matter.
Great movie
This movie seems to be quite overlooked. While I am not a fan of poker,
mario10zeus from United States - 7 November 2008blackjack or gambling in general, this movie actually made it seem
great. Even though the story might have seemed predictable at certain
moments, the acting, the plot, scenarios and dialogue compensated for
any error.Matt Damon plays Mike, a law student and gambling ace. While trying to
stay away from the action and the dangerous underground poker sites,
the arrival Worm (Ed Norton), Mike old school buddy, thrust him back
into the gambling world. Worm is sleazy, unreliable and has a penchant
for trouble. John Malkovich, Famke Jannsen, John Turturro (who never
seems to get starring roles), Martin Landau and Gretchen Mol all
provide strong performances. Hollywood generally never gets it right
when it tries to portray certain subcultures. The fact that several
former World poker champions have endorsed this movie, speaks to its
authenticity.
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