Rounders

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.