Rounders (1998) – Review

Listen, here’s the thing. If you can’t spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.

Sometimes there are those movies that you forget about almost immediately after seeing them because they are so bad, but there are also good movies that you would love to forget so that you can experience them again for the first time. That is certainly the case for, for example, the films from my personal top 100, but there are also films that fall outside of it and where I wish for the same. Rounders is an example of this and since it is a film that I have not seen for at least 15 years. The only things I remembered about it was that Matt Damon is in it and that John Malkovich has a bizarre Russian accent. A nice moment to revisit this poker film again to find out if I still are able to enjoy it as as when it was just released.

Although Matt Damon has been acting since he was eighteen, it would take him almost ten years before he broke through with Good Will Hunting (which he wrote with Ben Affleck) in 1997. His role in Rounders is, after his relatively small role in Saving Private Ryan , his first leading role after that movie. Here, with his role as Mike McDermott, he plays a character that is sympathetic and tries to keep everything under control, but because of his sense of responsibility and strong friendship with Worm (Edward Norton), he slowly but surely loses everything. Mike is immediately shown at the beginning of the film as an underdog, because his dreams seem to shatter. That makes it a character you want to encourage, for who you hope that he will outsmart others to eventually realize his dreams. Edward Norton is delightful in his role as a Worm. From the moment he gets out of prison and starts gambling, it is clear that he is ignoring all the rules. You immediately have a deep-rooted dislike and know that when he appears things won’t be going as planned.

And then there is John Malkovich as Teddy KGB. In an interview Matt Damon did (see below) he said that it was special at the time that Malkovich said yes to this role and everyone was looking forward to it. When Malkovich put on an exaggerated accent on the first take, the crew clapped, which suprised Damon. Malkovich made it clear to him that it can be dangerous that when you as an actor become big, others will no longer be honest with you. Yet his accent is still very striking and memorable, but I still have my reservations about whether that is for the right reason. Apart from that, however, he is a joy to watch, for example watching the way he disassembles his Oreos and listens to the sound they make.

Director John Dahl succeeds in convincingly creating a believable world in which these characters live. You get a clear sense of friendship / camaraderie between the various players. Whether it’s John Turturro’s Joey Knish who looks out for Mike and warns him about what he saw Worm doing or a scene in a casino where some players Mike knows play it smart together in such a way that unsuspecting tourists lose their money easily. In addition, Rounders also does not try to simplify the game itself. If you do not know anything about poker, much of the terminology will come across as an extraterrestrial language, but nevertheless you feel the tension and understand what is going on thanks to the acting. But if you would like to learn more you could always look at Ideal Online Casinos to see how you would do yourself .Seeing this movie again felt like I saw it for the first time and I enjoyed it just as much.

[score8]