Rounders: Critic Reviews

Mischievously entertaining!

The wholesome pup's poker face alone, however, hardly accounts for the film's failure to thrill. Damon's character doesn't really have that much stake in the story's outcome.

It's a movie of character and milieu, both of which it evokes brilliantly.

A disappointing mediocrity.

Rounders cheerfully buys into compulsive gambling!

Gretchen Mol, Edward Norton, John Turturro, Martin Landau, and Famke Janssen costar; they're all pretty good, but not good enough to make this 1998 feature worth seeing.

A promising cast can't rescue a script without surprises!

A sure bet!

Intermittently engaging but dramatically slack.

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.

According to director John Dahl's Rounders, professional poker players are very, very interesting people -- for about five minutes.

Rounders is not breakthrough material, but it makes for an entertaining evening out.

In fighting to show the psychological complexities in Mike that the script ignores, Damon plays it like a rounder instead of a grinder. This kid still has surprises up his sleeve.

Though Damon is an actor who's flatly impossible not to root for, the longer this film lasts the less patience we have to stay with him.

Although featuring a splendid Edward Norton performance, 'Rounders' comes across as too unbelievable, often straying beyond the bounds of rationality.

John Dahl creates an intelligent and character-driven crime-drama built around solid performances by Damon and Norton.

This ode to the allure of clipping suckers and psyching out the competition is richly atmospheric but thin in the character department.

In his first non-noir film, John Dahl, assisted by the great French lenser Jean-Yves Escoffier, gives New York's underground gambling scene a vivid atmopshere, with special attention to its particular rituals and fast macho talk.

"Rounders" makes you feel the suspense and thrive in the thrill of the moment, always coming up aces.

The end result is still short of a winning hand, since the screenplay is so utterly predictable.

Other directors simply pay homage to film noir and their movies come across as copies or throwbacks, but Dahl's movies work because he seems to understand the inner workings of film noir, and the absurd situations that people can get into.