Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Matt Damon and Edward Norton are at their best in this flick about childhood friends who find themselves in a rather difficult situation and are forced to gamble in order to get out of it. Worm (Norton) upon his release from prison is forced to settle old debts. Damon tries to help his longtime friend, but ends up caught in the middle of his debts. Great supporting cast including Martin Landau, Famke Janssen, Gretchen Moll, John Turturro as a sort of mentor to Damon and John Malkovich as the notorius Teddy KGB.
Highly recommend even to those who don't like to play cards.
Rating:
Summary: Great poker movie
Review: This is one of my favorite movies. I finally bought the DVD a few weeks ago and I've watched it about 6 times since. The acting in it is great. There are so many lines from this movie that I love to quote. My friends and I watch this movie a lot while we play poker. It is a typical Matt Damon movie. If you liked Good Will Hunting and others like it you'll love this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Who knew poker was this entertaining!?
Review: 'Listen...Here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker your first half hour at the table...then you are the sucker!'That's where it starts and the action never quits. Rounders is a high-brow suspense flick a la 'Oceans 11' and 'Spanish Prisoner.' I say suspenseful because the plot (amply explained in the reviews below) is so forward moving your head will spin. My adjective of choice is high-brow because, taking us into the underworld of high-stakes poker, this film offers us the dazzling combo of razor-sharp intellegence and quick-changing fortunes. The script is full of 'shop talk' (top two pair on the flop, taking a pot off a hump, etc) that although unintimidating to the uninitiated like myself, will either entrance or annoy you. The acting was great and in a movie like this that is a feat. The actors (especially Damon and Norton) really make us believe that they are rounders to whom 'taking a pot off a hump' is a completely natural occurance. That's got to be challenging! Especially if you've seen little or none of Edward Norton's acting, you have to check this out. If you like ganster films or other high-brow suspense films (Usual Suspects, Boiler Room) you will truly thrill to this. If you get lost by tech-jargon and subtle plot nuances, this film might drive you crazy!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting look at the world of gambling...
Review: "Rounders" is an intelligent movie, being more subtle than gratuitous or violent. It follows the trials and travails of a young law student, Michael McDermott, who 'rounds', gambles, for a living and to pay for law school. He loses his whole payroll one night, and decides to quit rounding. Nine months later he is sucked back into the world of rounding when his mischievous and altogether slimy friend Lester 'Worm' Murphy gets out of prison.
The story is very much about finding one's place in the world, as Michael must decide between rounding and the law for his career, and must wrestle with his own fear and doubts about his chosen profession. It also provides a very fun look at the world of gambling and a sort of quirky philosophy that Michael follows. And I learned a couple new ways to play poker!
The movie boasts a well-written script and well-executed directing, as well as solid performances from Matt Damon and Edward Norton, a superb performance by John Malkovich and a heartfelt performance by Martin Landau.
Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: E. Norton Jr. is brilliant. Matt Damon gives the camera yet another uncanny performance. This is definately a must have DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: How Hard Core Gambling is Really Done.....
Review: Good flick. I learned a lot about how the big time card players play... And why... Card Counting, Shuffling, Cheating..... It's all there. Matt Damon was superb as the gambling addict trying to kick the habit. His close friend talks him into one more round. The risks are high, both money and personal. Interesting flick. Not a lot a real action, but an intelligent film. You really have to pay attention to keep up.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not great
Review: Rounders: rated R, 1 hour and 54 minutes In the movie Rounders, Matt Damon plays the cleverly skillful cardsharp, Mike McDermott. Edward Norton plays his best friend and swindling partner. McDermott swears to his loving girlfriend that he will never again play a game of cards after losing (thousands of dollars) to a Russian mobster known only as KGB. When “Worm” (Norton) is released from prison, he finds himself greatly in debt to the Mafia. In order to help out his buddy, Mike begins to gather up money by continuing to gamble. He and Worm work together as a team, winning poker games illegally. As soon as Mike’s sweetheart finds out about him going back to cards, she leaves him without delay. The rest of the movie is the trouble Mike and Worm get into in the business of gambling, and the excitement of success.
Rounders displays exceptional acting by the Damon and Norton duo. The background acting done by Gretchen Mol (the girlfriend), and John Malkovich (KGB), on the other hand was somewhat displeasing. Mol played the average good girl with no real feeling adequately expressed in her performance. Malkovich surprisingly ended up playing the role of a seemingly idiotic underworld leader with a poor attempt at portraying a Russian accent. His pathetic depiction of the character KGB did not fit in at all well with the remarkable acting by Edward Norton and Matt Damon.
Acting is not all that made this movie what it is. The thrill of the game was also a major part in making the movie enjoyable. Matt Damon does a good job of running the audience through the basics in how to play a good game of cards. He explains that one must play his opponent rather than the cards in order to win. By looking at the eyes of his competitors, interestingly enough, he is able to read their minds and determine his game winning strategy. Mike McDermott insists that poker is not at all a matter of luck, but that it is a matter of skill. A skill in which of course he fully possesses. Mike McDermott is clearly a poker playing genius. He accurately integrates everyday speech with sharp gambler’s lingo. Though it is often hard to grasp many of the things Damon says, by using this lingo, it somehow holds the viewer’s interest anyway.
Edward Norton's character (and fantastic portrayal) truly sustains the greatest element of intensity, and though intriguing at moments, when all is said and done, the audience comes away with little more than a cheap, dramatized look at playing poker with high stakes.
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie, DVD could have more white meat
Review: This movie centers around a guy Mike (Damon) who was a card player and then decided, through circumstances, to give it up. He's a working guy trying to make college tuition. When his friend, Worm (Norton) gets out of prison, he falls back to old habits. Alot of people have excellent critiques of the movie and for me to do that would be, at best, re-inventing the wheel. Instead, I like to look at what you get on the DVD. You get the movie, the trailer and some bio information on the actors. Although at www.miramax.com there is a Poker Glossary that helps with some of the phrases, I think that a poker player explaining the signalling done, what to look for as far as a mechanics grip, and more interplay with the actual movie would be a better use of space on the DVD. It's sad when production companies don't make use of space by trying to accentuate the movie experience.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining movie
Review: I love Matt Damon and Ed Norton, so I was already predisposed to like this movie. And I did. This movie is both a buddy movie, a poker movie, a bit of a love story, and a suspense flick. That actually doesn't make the movie sound to original except for perhaps the poker part. Matt Damon is happy in law school, having left his poker swindling days behind, when an old friend (Ed Norton) needs his help. Damon reluctantly helps him out. Their relationship reflects the loyalty and trust they have for eachother, but also how that loyalty could bring Damon's ruin, particularly since Norton's behavior is self-destructive. The movie's end is a tad predictable, but Norton is always entertaining. He plays his character erratic and unpredictable, yet you can see why Matt is moved to help him. Definately an enjoyable movie
Rating:
Summary: Could watch it every day!
Review: What an awesome flick, this is a movie you can watch over and over. I am just wondering who the character is on the cover of the DVD with his hand on his forehead?
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