Rounders (film)
Encyclopedia
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 large debt. The term "rounder
" refers to a person travelling around from city to city seeking high stakes cash games.
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.
) loses his entire bankroll in a hand of Texas hold'em against Teddy "KGB" (John Malkovich
), a Russian mobster
who runs an illegal underground poker room. Shaken, Mike decides to concentrate on law school, while promising his girlfriend and fellow law student Jo (Gretchen Mol
) to not play the game anymore. Mentor and fellow rounder Knish (John Turturro
) offers him a part-time job driving a delivery truck to make ends meet.
Time passes, and Mike is true to his promise. He does not play cards, and focuses on school and work until his childhood friend Lester 'Worm' Murphy (Edward Norton
) is released from prison. Worm is also a card player, who owes an outstanding debt accumulated before his incarceration. At Worm's influence, Mike is soon rounding again, which interferes with his studies and hurts his relationship with Jo, who eventually leaves him.
When Worm is given a five day deadline to pay off his debt, Mike joins him in a furious race to earn the money by playing in several card games in and around New York City. The two come close to making the $15,000 needed, yet end up losing their entire bankroll when they are caught cheating at a poker game, despite Mike's insistence on playing the game straight. After this incident, Worm decides to leave the city, and advises Mike to do the same. This is when he reveals to Mike that his debt is due to KGB, the very same Russian mobster who had cleaned Mike out of his $30,000 bankroll months before. Infuriated, Mike cuts ties with Worm once and for all.
Mike refuses to flee, and instead, with the help of a loan from his law school professor Petrovsky (Martin Landau
), sits down to play KGB heads-up in a No-Limit Texas Hold'em game. In a race against time to pay off Worm's debt, Mike gets his shot at redemption as he puts his life on the line against the man who had forced him out of the game.
Mike eventually beats KGB in two heated heads-up matches in which he ultimately wins enough to pay off Worm's debt, repay his loan to the professor, and regain his original bankroll of about $30,000. The movie ends with Mike officially dropping out of law school, saying goodbye to Jo and going to Las Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker Main Event.
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
.
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". 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". USA Today
gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "The card playing is well-staged, and even those who don't know a Texas hold-'em ("the Cadillac of poker") from a Texas hoedown will get a vicarious charge out of the action". Entertainment Weekly
gave the film a "B" rating and Owen Gleiberman
wrote, "Norton, cast in what might have once been the Sean Penn
role (hideous shirts, screw-you attitude), gives Worm a shifty, amphetamine soul and a pleasing alacrity ... Norton's performance never really goes anywhere, but that's okay, since the story is just an excuse to lead the characters from one poker table to the next".
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". In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle
, Mick LaSalle said of Damon's performance: "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". In his review for the Globe and Mail, Liam Lacey wrote, "The main problem with Rounders is that the movie never quite knows what it is about: What is the moral ante?"
Despite an unremarkable theatrical release, Rounders has a following, particularly among poker enthusiasts.
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.
There are pro poker players today who credit the movie for getting them into the game. The film drew in recent successful players such as Hevad Khan
, Gavin Griffin and Dutch Boyd.
Pro player Vanessa Rousso
has said of the movie's influence, "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."
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
. Directed by John Dahl
John Dahl
John Dahl is an American film director and screenwriter, best known for his work in the neo-noir genre.-Life and career:John Dahl was born in Billings, Montana, the second of four children . Dahl spent his young life in and around Montana all the way up through his college years...
and starring Matt Damon
Matt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
and Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
, the movie follows two friends who need to quickly earn enough cash playing poker to pay off a large debt. The term "rounder
Card sharp
A card sharp is a person who uses skill and deception to win at poker or other card games...
" refers to a person travelling around from city to city seeking high stakes cash games.
The movie opened to mixed reviews and made only a modest amount of money. However, with the growing popularity of Texas hold 'em
Texas hold 'em
Texas Hold 'em is a variation of the standard card game of poker. The game consists of two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being placed face-up by the dealer—a series of three then two additional single cards , with...
and other poker games, Rounders has become a cult hit.
Plot
Gifted poker player Mike McDermott (Matt DamonMatt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
) loses his entire bankroll in a hand of Texas hold'em against Teddy "KGB" (John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
), a Russian mobster
Russian Mafia
The Russian Mafia is a name applied to organized crime syndicates in Russia and Ukraine. The mafia in various countries take the name of the country, as for example the Ukrainian mafia....
who runs an illegal underground poker room. Shaken, Mike decides to concentrate on law school, while promising his girlfriend and fellow law student Jo (Gretchen Mol
Gretchen Mol
Gretchen Mol is an American actress and former model. She is known for her roles in films like Rounders, Celebrity, 3:10 to Yuma, The Thirteenth Floor,and The Notorious Bettie Page, where she played the title character...
) to not play the game anymore. Mentor and fellow rounder Knish (John Turturro
John Turturro
John Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
) offers him a part-time job driving a delivery truck to make ends meet.
Time passes, and Mike is true to his promise. He does not play cards, and focuses on school and work until his childhood friend Lester 'Worm' Murphy (Edward Norton
Edward Norton
Edward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
) is released from prison. Worm is also a card player, who owes an outstanding debt accumulated before his incarceration. At Worm's influence, Mike is soon rounding again, which interferes with his studies and hurts his relationship with Jo, who eventually leaves him.
When Worm is given a five day deadline to pay off his debt, Mike joins him in a furious race to earn the money by playing in several card games in and around New York City. The two come close to making the $15,000 needed, yet end up losing their entire bankroll when they are caught cheating at a poker game, despite Mike's insistence on playing the game straight. After this incident, Worm decides to leave the city, and advises Mike to do the same. This is when he reveals to Mike that his debt is due to KGB, the very same Russian mobster who had cleaned Mike out of his $30,000 bankroll months before. Infuriated, Mike cuts ties with Worm once and for all.
Mike refuses to flee, and instead, with the help of a loan from his law school professor Petrovsky (Martin Landau
Martin Landau
Martin Landau is an American film and television actor. Landau began his career in the 1950s. His early films include a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest . He played continuing roles in the television series Mission: Impossible and Space:1999...
), sits down to play KGB heads-up in a No-Limit Texas Hold'em game. In a race against time to pay off Worm's debt, Mike gets his shot at redemption as he puts his life on the line against the man who had forced him out of the game.
Mike eventually beats KGB in two heated heads-up matches in which he ultimately wins enough to pay off Worm's debt, repay his loan to the professor, and regain his original bankroll of about $30,000. The movie ends with Mike officially dropping out of law school, saying goodbye to Jo and going to Las Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker Main Event.
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 JerseyNewark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
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
Ridgefield Park, New Jersey
Ridgefield Park is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The population was 12,729 at the 2010 United States Census. Of 566 municipalities statewide, Ridgefield Park is only one of three with a village type of government in New Jersey, along with Loch Arbour and Ridgewood.The...
.
Cast
- Matt DamonMatt DamonMatthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
as Mike McDermott - Edward NortonEdward NortonEdward Harrison Norton is an American actor, screenwriter, film director and producer. In 1996, his supporting role in the courtroom drama Primal Fear garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
as Lester 'Worm' Murphy - John TurturroJohn TurturroJohn Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
as Joey Knish - John MalkovichJohn MalkovichJohn Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
as Teddy KGB - Famke JanssenFamke JanssenFamke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is known for playing the villainous Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye and Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men film series .- Early life and education :...
as Petra - Michael RispoliMichael RispoliMichael Rispoli is an American character actor. He was formerly part of the HBO television series The Sopranos as Jackie Aprile, Sr...
as Grama - Martin LandauMartin LandauMartin Landau is an American film and television actor. Landau began his career in the 1950s. His early films include a supporting role in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest . He played continuing roles in the television series Mission: Impossible and Space:1999...
as Abe Petrovsky - Gretchen MolGretchen MolGretchen Mol is an American actress and former model. She is known for her roles in films like Rounders, Celebrity, 3:10 to Yuma, The Thirteenth Floor,and The Notorious Bettie Page, where she played the title character...
as Jo - Paul Cicero as Russian Thug
- Melina KanakaredesMelina KanakaredesMelina Eleni Kanakaredes Constantinides is an American actress. She is widely known for two starring roles on U.S. prime-time television drama series; playing Detective Stella Bonasera in CSI: NY and portraying Dr...
as Barbara - Josh MostelJosh MostelJoshua "Josh" Mostel is an American actor who is best known for his roles in Jesus Christ Superstar and two Adam Sandler films .-Life and career:...
as Zagosh
Reception
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.Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
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". In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
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". USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "The card playing is well-staged, and even those who don't know a Texas hold-'em ("the Cadillac of poker") from a Texas hoedown will get a vicarious charge out of the action". Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the film a "B" rating and Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
wrote, "Norton, cast in what might have once been the Sean Penn
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
role (hideous shirts, screw-you attitude), gives Worm a shifty, amphetamine soul and a pleasing alacrity ... Norton's performance never really goes anywhere, but that's okay, since the story is just an excuse to lead the characters from one poker table to the next".
Peter Travers, in his review for Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
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
Con Air
Con Air is an Academy Award–nominated 1997 American action-thriller film directed by Simon West and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. It stars Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich...
. Munching Oreo
Oreo
Oreo is a trademark for a popular sandwich cookie by the Nabisco Division of Kraft Foods. The current design consists of a sweet, white filling commonly referred to as 'cream' or 'creme', sandwiched between two circular chocolate or golden cookie pieces....
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". In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, Mick LaSalle said of Damon's performance: "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". In his review for the Globe and Mail, Liam Lacey wrote, "The main problem with Rounders is that the movie never quite knows what it is about: What is the moral ante?"
Despite an unremarkable theatrical release, Rounders has a following, particularly among poker enthusiasts.
In an interesting chicken or the egg
The chicken or the egg
The Chicken or the egg causality dilemma is commonly stated as "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" To ancient philosophers, the question about the first chicken or egg also evoked the questions of how life and the universe in general began....
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.
There are pro poker players today who credit the movie for getting them into the game. The film drew in recent successful players such as Hevad Khan
Hevad Khan
Hevad Khan is a professional poker player, best known for making the final table at the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event, finishing in sixth place.-Competitive Gaming:...
, Gavin Griffin and Dutch Boyd.
Pro player Vanessa Rousso
Vanessa Rousso
Vanessa Ashley Rousso is a French American law student at the University of Miami and a professional poker player. She is also known by her Pokerstars online screen name Lady Maverick. Born in , Rousso has dual citizenships with the United States and France. Rousso is a member of Team PokerStars,...
has said of the movie's influence, "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."