Rounders (1998)

A young man is a reformed gambler who must return to playing big stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks.

Director:

John Dahl

Writers:

David Levien, Brian Koppelman

Stars:

Matt Damon, Edward Norton, Paul Cicero

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Matt Damon	...	Mike McDermott
Edward Norton	...	Lester 'Worm' Murphy
Paul Cicero	...	Russian Thug
John Turturro	...	Joey Knish
Ray Iannicelli	...	Kenny
Gretchen Mol	...	Jo
Famke Janssen	...	Petra
Merwin Goldsmith	...	Sy
John Malkovich	...	Teddy KGB
Martin Landau	...	Abe Petrovsky
Sonny Zito	...	Tony
Michael Rispoli	...	Grama
Melina Kanakaredes	...	Barbara
Mal Z. Lawrence	...	Irving
Josh Mostel	...	Zagosh

Storyline

A young man is a reformed gambler who must return to playing big stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks.

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Plot Keywords:

loan shark | poker | card playing | gambling | call girl | 

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Taglines:

All your hopes and dreams...crushed.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive strong language, some sexuality and brief drug use

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Hebrew Russian

Release Date:

11 September 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Vida É Um Jogo

Filming Locations:

Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£188,946 (UK) (20 November 1998)

Gross:

£188,946 (UK) (20 November 1998)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Miramax Films, Spanky Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Matt Damon and Edward Norton played the $10,000 buy-in Texas Hold 'Em championship event at the 1998 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. During the first of four days, Matt Damon had pocket Kings and was knocked out by former world champion and poker legend Doyle Brunson who held pocket Aces.

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Goofs

Mike enters the Troopers card game wearing a jacket, is thrown out of the game without it, and is shown later wearing the jacket again. But you can (barely) hear the jacket get thrown onto the ground after him.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mike McDermott: Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.

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Connections

Referenced in Veronica Mars: An Echolls Family Christmas (2004)

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Soundtracks

"That's The Kind Of Girl I Dream Of"
Written by Marvin Fisher & Joel Segal
Performed by Nat 'King' Cole
Courtesy of Capitol Reocords

User Reviews

One of the most widely underrated movies of our time

Rounders is I believe, one of the most widely underrated movies of our time.

I first saw this movie as it was a 'bonus DVD' thrown in for free with my DVD player back in 2000, so naturally I didn't expect much (as the other bonus DVD's were very mediocre), but what I found was a very enjoyable movie.

At that stage in my life, I had only played a little poker as a child growing up, and never 'Texas Hold'em' so to be honest, a lot of the terminology went 'over my head', but even so, the film became an instant favorite of mine purely because of the performances.

The film has so much star power, and yet none of the fine actors try to 'steal' scenes. Damon, Norton, Malkovich, Landau ... and then the fine supporting cast of Turturro, Jansen, and Mol.

In fact, there is a scene with Martin Landau and Matt Damon that is perhaps one of the most beautiful performances I have seen in a long time between two very fine actors.

So even if you're not a poker player, the story is tighter than a lot of Hollywood 'pop fluff' and the performances alone can sell the film as an enjoyable movie capable of multiple viewings.

But ... if you start playing poker and get really into what they are talking about, and reading about poker theory (like Doyle Brunson's book Super System) then the movie moves up to a whole different level.

A lot of the time, Hollywood will attempt to cover a specialized error, and usually fail, or at best only partially succeed, whereas Rounders managed to get everything 'spot on', just look at the US DVD, it has a commentary track from 4 World Champion Poker players, if that's not a stamp of approval then I don't know what is.

When you factor in how the film can be enjoyed by someone who has little to no idea about Poker (as I did when I first saw the film) just because of the tight story and stellar performances and also be 'immortalized' by poker enthusiasts as the best movie ever made on the subject (and truth be told, a big reason why the World Series of Poker has been doubling it's entries year after year) ... what you have here is a true gem that works on so many levels and what I believe is, as I said initially, one of the most widely underrated movies of our time.