Rounders
Rounders- (Rated R for naughty words) Michael McDermott (Matt Damon) is a high stakes poker player who changes his ways for a woman (Gretchen Mol). But you can't keep that part of him and hidden forever. It comes out when an old buddy, Worm, gets out of jail. Mike and Worm went to high school together. Michael has left his poker days behind him after he had a big loss to Teddy KGB (the awesome John Malkovich). He pretty much starts his life over again by working his way through law school without poker. But when Worm comes back and owes money a lot of money to some people, he needs Michael to hail him. He needs him to give him some money to get him started, but Mike isn't going to play. He's only going to watch. Then, Mike starts to play but for just a few hands. Soon him and worm are back to old form, but Worm still owes a lot of money. So they decide they are going to go to some card games and mop them up. They need to make 25,000 dollars in like a week. Good Luck. This movie had potential yet it was lacking that special thing to make it great. Damon is the main characther making him the glue to this ensemble cast, which includes Norton, Malkovich, John Turturro and Martin Landau. John Turturro is a great card player who makes sure Damon doesn't get in too much trouble (lose too much money). Martin Landau is a judge who befriends Damon. Damon is his law clerk, trying to get in good favor with important people. All the actors give good performances but I guess it seems that Damon was a fugging dumbass. He would lose and then mope or something. That annoyed the hell out of me, I was hoping they'd murder Damon and that Norton would take over. He would have been a better in the starring role. His character was much more interesting. This movie swims in mediocrity in that it falls like many movies into formulaic garbage. It turns into predictable hodgepodge of good performances and gambling scees. Anyway I give this 2.25 stars for good performances but just missing something.