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Rounders
Miramax Films


8.4

based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for pervasive strong language, some sexuality and brief drug use

Starring Matt Damon, Edward Norton, John Turturro, Gretchen Mol, Ray Iannicelli, Famke Janssen, John Malkovich, and Martin Landau

A story of passion, risk, and the extreme price of friendship in the world of high-stakes poker. (Miramax)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	David Levien Brian Koppelman
DIRECTED BY:	John Dahl
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 3, 2001 Video: July 3, 2001 Theatrical: September 11, 1998
RUNNING TIME:	121 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

The New Yorker Bruce Diones

Screenwriters Brian Koppelman and David Levien have given some crackerjack card-shark dialogue to two hot young actors—Matt Damon and Edward Norton—and together with John Dahl's atmospheric direction they've all made a dream of a poker movie.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

This isn't a movie where story matters that much: It's a movie of character and milieu, both of which it evokes brilliantly.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Mischievously entertaining...Dahl's film has character in oversupply even if its actual characters are sometimes thin. Poker fever makes up for whatever the story lacks in everyday emotions.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Rounders is such a smart, tough little film that its strengths override its fairly serious weaknesses.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Damon is a magical actor. His mind, as sharp and focused as a laser, beams out of the face of a vivacious choirboy, and, in nearly every scene, he invites you to share the jet-propelled pleasure of his precocious agility.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

For a grimmer and more realistic look at this world, no modern movie has surpassed Karel Reisz's "The Gambler'' (1974), starring James Caan in a screenplay by self-described degenerate gambler James Toback.

San Francisco Examiner Edvins Beitkis

In spite of how hard everything is to believe, you believe what Damon is doing.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Although the storyline is predictable, the intelligent dialogue and top-drawer acting more than make up for the possible deficiency.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

Most novel is Rounders' message that the real sin isn't giving into vice but denying your God-given talents and not risking it all.

Slate David Edelstein

Because I'm a sucker--I was entertained...The script is good at making you think that it has better cards than it really does. And the actors constitute a royal flush--OK, OK, enough with the poker metaphors.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

That is the heart of what's missing here: the buzz that unites these games and players, the seductive lure that excites as it also placates. The dramatic throughline is murky as well...Undeniably good are the performances, however.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Oughtta be much bettor.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Though it's a good-looking flick with some smart acting and a few flashy runs, it barely breaks even dramatically, and feels, overall, like a good chance wasted.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Lazy, predictable and even dumb about what happens away from the tables. [11 Sept 1998]

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Stylish entertainment and smartass fun when director John Dahl ("The Last Seduction") plays his strong suit (a gifted cast) instead of his weakest (a derivative plot).

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Richly atmospheric but a little thin in the character department: It feels oddly truncated, despite nicely textured performances.

Film.com Sean Means

Alas, when Rounders lays out its cards, the results aren't as much as you'd been led to believe. But the movie's style and authenticity run a good bluff.

Film Threat Ron Wells

It's too bad with all of the poker action there wasn't enough time to establish the relationships between characters.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Though the movie looks gorgeous, glittering with the monochromatic beauty of noir transposed into the key of yellow, it chugs along like an overly responsible documentary, more the working out of an idea about the gambler's true nature than a story.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Intermittently engaging but dramatically slack, this tale...is more interesting around the edges than it is at its core, thanks to the dull nature of the lead character played by Matt Damon.

New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo

Damon looks like a kid lost in the wrong neighborhood, and his acting manners underscore that impression--everything is a bit too fine, too neat...An intermittently interesting, intermittently foolish film.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The acting is solid, but the story builds less drama and suspense than its high-stakes subject might lead you to expect.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

It should have been the poker equivalent of "The Hustler." But it suffers from iron-poor blood. No energy. It just lies there.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Neither Dahl nor most of his actors ever quite convince us that there's a good reason to sit in front of a movie screen watching them for more than two hours.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Like Malkovich's out of control Russian accent, Rounders ends up reaching a place too hard to understand and even harder to believe in.

Film.com Robert Horton

Edward Norton, who created a buzz of excitement in his first year in movies, stubs his toe with Worm... It's the same guy we've seen in countless mean streets pictures, but Norton doesn't find anything new to do with him. He's Ratso Rizzo defanged.

Film.com Tom Keogh

Rounders is more involved with the insulated, arcane world of a gambler than it is with the things that actually make a movie work, such as characters and relationships and a script that connects all its dots.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

And while it's intermittently engaging, the drama's flatter than a sucker's wallet.

Film.com John Hartl

It's "The Hustler with poker and without soul...For all its flash and occasional sizzle, "Rounders" is a disappointment.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

A tiresome 1998 rip-off of The Hustler, with poker (in a New York Russian Mafia milieu) taking the place of pool, Matt Damon taking over for Paul Newman, and John Malkovich's scenery chewing supplanting Jackie Gleason's self-effacement.

Newsweek David Ansen

Everything in Rounders is right there on the surface. Watching it is about as exciting as playing poker with all the cards face up. [14 Sept 1998]

Village Voice J. Hoberman

An unappealing, conventional, and somnolent piece of work in which, as glumly directed from David Levien and Brian Koppelman's corny script, every scene feels like it's being played for the second time.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Gabor A. gave it a3:
As typical of a movie you can make about card playing. A ninth grader selected at random and told to write a movie about poker would come up with a script very similar to this film. Rounders see's all the angle's but doesn't have the courage to make a move.

Sean F. gave it a9:
The critics were mostly off on this one, I don't know the movies it is supposedly a knockoff of, but I think this movie's awesome. I don't play poker, and I think it's great, I would think any poker player would think it's sick!

John B. gave it a10:
The greatest movie about poker.

Chris P. gave it a10:
Awesome!

Paul H gave it a6:
It's alright, but it doesn't all the way work, you have to pretty much be really into poker to like this movie, so that's a bad thing. unlike say Sideways, where you don't have to give a damn about wine to enjoy that film, that's just one example of what i'm talking about.

Mark W. gave it a10:
Awesome.

Cosmo K. gave it a10:
Probably one of the best movies i have ever seen...

Rounders Miramax Films

Rounders
Miramax Films