Rounders (film)
Rounders | |
---|---|
Directed by | John Dahl |
Written by | David Levien Brian Koppelman |
Produced by | Joel Stillerman Ted Demme |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Jean-Yves Escoffier |
Edited by | Scott Chestnut |
Music by | Christopher Young |
Production company | Spanky Pictures |
Distributed by | Miramax Films |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 121 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $12 million[1] |
Box office | $22.9 million (United States)[1] |
Rounders is a 1998 American drama film about the underground world of high-stakes poker, directed by John Dahl and starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton. The story follows two friends who need to win at high-stakes poker to quickly pay off a large debt. The term rounder refers to a person traveling around from city to city seeking high-stakes card games.
Rounders opened to mixed reviews and was moderately successful at the box office. Following the poker boom in the early 2000s, the film became a cult hit. A novelization of the film was written by Kevin Canty and released by Hyperion Books.
Plot
New York City law student and gifted poker player Mike McDermott dreams of winning the World Series of Poker. At an underground Texas hold 'em game run by Russian mobster Teddy "KGB", an overconfident Mike loses his entire $30,000 bankroll in a single hand. Shaken, he promises his girlfriend and fellow student Jo he has quit poker, and concentrates on law school. His mentor Joey Knish offers to stake him to rebuild his bankroll but Mike declines, and instead accepts a part-time job to make ends meet.
Several months pass and Mike stays true to his promise until his childhood friend Lester "Worm" Murphy is released from prison. While Mike is an honest player, Worm is a hustler and unapologetic cheat. To help Worm pay off a debt, Mike sets him up with games across town and reluctantly sits in on a game, interfering with his studies and his relationship with Jo. Mike allows Worm to play on his credit at the Chesterfield Club. After being loaned $2,000, Worm gets up to $10,000 and cashes out for the full amount which starts a tab in Mike's name. Worm runs into Grama, a dangerous
Mike learns from Petra at the Chesterfield that Worm has now racked up a $7,000 debt in Mike's name. In
On a winning streak, Mike earns $7,200 in three days, but still needs to double it in forty-eight hours. Worm directs Mike to Binghamton for a game hosted by New York state troopers, where he comes close to winning the $7,800 needed before Worm unexpectedly joins the game. Soon after, a trooper catches Worm base-dealing to help Mike; they are beaten up and relieved of their entire bankroll. Worm finally confesses that Grama is working for KGB. With their lives in danger Worm decides to flee, but Mike returns to the city, cutting ties with Worm.
Mike asks Grama for more time, to no avail. He asks Knish for the money but is refused out of principle. During the conversation with Knish, Mike reveals his motivation for taking the ill-fated risk at KGB's club (citing beating poker legend Johnny Chan at a single hand in Atlantic City), and why he thinks he can compete and possibly win the World Series of Poker. Knish stays firm. Desperate, Mike asks his law school professor Petrovsky, who loans him $10,000. Mike challenges KGB to a second heads-up no-limit Texas hold 'em game for the remaining debt, with winner-take-all stakes, which KGB accepts. Mike beats KGB in the first session, winning $20,000. KGB offers to let Mike's winnings "ride" and continue the game, but Mike – with enough to pay off most of his debts – declines. As he is about to leave, KGB taunts Mike that he is paying him with the money that he lost to KGB from their previous game. Mike changes his mind and decides to continue playing.
Mike doubles the blinds at the risk of losing everything to KGB again, and possibly his life. As the night wears on, he spots KGB's
With over $60,000, Mike settles Worm's $15,000 debt to Grama, the Chesterfield's $6,000 credit, Petrovsky's $10,000 loan, and restores his original bankroll of "three stacks of high society". He drops out of law school, says goodbye to Jo, and leaves New York for Las Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker.
Cast
- Matt Damon as Mike McDermott
- Edward Norton as Lester "Worm" Murphy
- John Malkovich as Teddy "KGB"
- John Turturro as Joey Knish†
- Famke Janssen as Petra
- Murphy Guyer as Sergeant Detweiler
- Michael Rispoli as Grama
- Martin Landau as Judge Abe Petrovsky
- Gretchen Mol as Jo
- Bill Yeagle as Russian Thug
- Melina Kanakaredes as Barbara
- Josh Mostel as Zagosh
- Tom Aldredge as Judge Marinacci
- Michael Lombard as District Attorney Shields
- Lenny Clarke as Savino
- Chris Messina as Higgins
- Goran Višnjić as Maurice
- David Zayas as Trooper Osborne
- Johnny Chan as himself
- Bill Camp as Eisenberg
- Josh Pais as Weitz
- Adam LeFevre as Sean Frye
† Turturro's character was based on underground poker player Joel "Bagels" Rosenberg[2]
Production
Reception
Box office
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.[1]
Critical response
On
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four 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."[7] 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."[8] 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."[9] 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."[10]
Despite an unremarkable theatrical release, Rounders has a following, particularly among poker enthusiasts.[14]
There are pro poker players who credit the film for getting them into the game.[15] The film drew in successful players such as Brian Rast, Hevad Khan, Gavin Griffin, and Dutch Boyd. Vanessa Rousso has said of the film'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."[15]
References
- ^ a b c "Rounders (1998)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
- ^ "Joel "Bagels" Rosenberg, aka Joey Knish, Passes Away". www.pokernewsdaily.com. May 14, 2014. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
- ^ "Entertainment & Music in Newark". www.newarkhappening.com.
- ^ "Rounders (1998)". Rotten Tomatoes.
- ^ "Rounders". Metacritic.
- ^ "CinemaScore". CinemaScore. Retrieved December 2, 2020. Each film's score can be accessed from the website's search bar.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (September 11, 1998). "Rounders review". Chicago Sun-Times. RogerEbert.com. Retrieved April 1, 2021.
- ^ Maslin, Janet (September 11, 1998). "Knowing When to Hold 'em and Fold 'em but Just Not When to Run". The New York Times. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
- ^ Wloszczyna, Susan (September 11, 1998). "Rounders hedges bets with Damon in the ante". USA Today. p. 11.
- ^ Gleiberman, Owen (September 18, 1998). "Rounders review". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on June 18, 2007. Retrieved November 25, 2009.
- ^ Travers, Peter (October 1, 1998). "Rounders review". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on March 30, 2009. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
- ^ LaSalle, Mick (September 11, 1998). "Rounders Deals Out a Mediocre Hand". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
- ^ Lacey, Liam (September 11, 1998). "If they'd played their cards right, this could have been a winner". The Globe and Mail. p. C7.
- ^ Tobias, Scott (October 30, 2008). "The New Cult Canon: Rounders". The Onion A.V. Club. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
- ^ a b Polson, Sarah (March 4, 2009). "Pros discuss Rounders' impact on poker". PokerListings.com. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
External links
- Rounders at IMDb
- Rounders at AllMovie
- Rounders at the TCM Movie Database
- Rounders at Box Office Mojo