It's a game of skill. (Rounders (DVD))

Member Name: Takeshi Kovacs

Product:	Rounders (DVD)
Date:	04/08/03 (78 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great acting., Edward Norton is in it.

Disadvantages: Predictable.

Gunshot Straight, Live Blind, One - Gap, wait, what the heck do they mean? Well, who knows, but John Dahl's film, Rounders, will take you on a ride through the fast lane of the underground poker scene.

Starring Matt Damon as Mike McDermott, and Edward Norton as the wisecracking Lester 'Worm' Murphy, Rounders, deals with the struggles of a man fighting his addictions, in this case, high-stakes poker.

Mike used to have it all, a promising law student, a beautiful girlfriend, and of course, lots and lots of money from his time spent cleaning peoples pockets as a poker player. That is until one night, during a late high-risk game of poker against the skilled Teddy KGB (John Malkovich), Mike proceeds to bet all of his money on one last play, and loses it in the process. Teddy cleans him out, taking his new $20,000 with him.

Since that money was needed for his acceptance to law school, he gives up poker, promising to his girlfriend never to return to that life. Needless to say, that promise doesn't last very long.

His best friend, Worm, who is more like a brother to him, is released from prison and the two are soon up to their old tricks again. Things begin to turn nasty when Grama (Michael Rispoli) shows up. It turns out that a lot of people have been looking forward to Worms's release, not just Mike, as he owes a small fortune of $25,000 to none other than the notorious Teddy KGB. Worm is able to pay $10,000 of it, but that is all the money he has, so up steps his noble friend Mike and the race against time begins to earn $15,000 in three days.

Rounders has a lot of things going for it, mainly the acting. Matt Damon puts in a good, safe performance again, but is totally overshadowed by the fantastic Edward Norton. As you should know by now, Norton has amazing on screen charisma and it's just impossible to dislike him, even if he is playing a fallacious character. Although he could have been used more
, but he is fine the way he is, as a supporting actor.

The other supporting cast members are also on top form, with John Turturro, John Malkovich and Gretchen Mol putting in great performances.

The thing that lets Rounders down is its extreme predictability; you can easily predict what will happen in the next 5 minutes of the film. While this may not bother some people, it grated on me a little bit, but not enough to ruin the whole experience.

Another disappointing aspect of the movie is the love story between Mike and his girlfriend Jo (Gretchen Mol). This seems as if it was thrown in to give the character more life, but it doesn't add anything to the character, as there is very little interaction between the two.

Given a little more characterization and history on the characters, this could have been a potential five-star movie, but as it stands Rounders is still a great film, that is well worth a purchase by anyone, poker-fans or not.

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