HEFE'S REVIEW OF:
ROUNDERS (1998)

OPENING THOUGHTS

    I recently got really into playing poker, especially Texas Hold Em',  so I had to wonder: would my extra knowledge of the game make me hate this movie for it's lack of authenticity, or love it for it's accuracy. Place your bets and read on! For the record I agree that was a really lame thing to say.

ACTING

    MATT DAMON did a good job in this movie, and I am actually starting to like Damon more and more as of late. Between The Bourne Supremacy, it's predecessor, and the way his character is portrayed in Team America: World Police (another fine film I recommend), Matt Damon is quickly becoming cooler than his lame counterpart, Ben Afleck. I think Damon did a great job playing a poker player who has been pussy whipped into never playing poker again, very convincingly. He might in fact be pussy whipped in real life though, so it is very possible he was drawing on that for inspiration.
    EDWARD NORTON is one of my favorite actors. He brings an incredible realness to his characters whether he is playing a crazy like in Primal Fear or a comedic priest in his self directed Keeping The Faith, I know that I can always count on Ed for a good performance. In this movie he played a smirky ex-con who likes mischief even more than he likes playing cards. Match him up with a reserved Matt Damon character and you've got one hell of an odd couple.
    JOHN MALKOVICH was awesome in this movie, just hands down, balls on the table awesome. His accent was fucking fantastic, and he was both funny and menacing at the same time. This is more than I can say for his French-man character in that toilet nugget Johnny English, fuck that movie horrible. Also he is good at eating cookies, he even does that like nobody else can.

DIRECTION AND SCRIPT

    DAVID LEVIEN and BRIAN KOPPELMAN wrote a lot of detail in to the card play, showing strategy and creating a good amount of tension with nothing more than showing a series of card games. But unfortunately this attention to detail wasn't very contagious, in fact the story was kind of weak, and the character development at first seemed interesting but never was really flushed out. The characters were shallow, all be it acted well, and the storyline was unbelievably predictable. If you were to watch five minutes of this movie, I think that you would be able to figure out he whole story. Go ahead, I will time you... I'm just kidding, you should know that is impossible as I have no idea when and where you will be reading this. You silly billy.

THE VERDICT

    In short if you like cards you will probably like this movie more than if you don't like cards. The acting is solid, but the plot is a limp dick. So I guess they kind of cancel each other out. Overall though, I have to say that this movie is entertaining regardless of how predictable it is. You could do much worse, in fact that should be the tag line. It's official I am a fucking genius who should have millions of dollars, so give it to me already!
 
 

RATING: B -

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