Rounders (1998)

I bought Rounders for one reason - Matt Damon. Matt Damon to me isn't necessarily the best actor around, but he is always watch-able, and he seems like a really nice guy which means you feel no guilt watching him and enjoying it. In this film he plays a 'rounder', someone who makes their living doing the rounds of the poker tables. Except he's retired, as in the opening of the film he loses pretty much all the money he has to a Russian (played in an incredibly over the top fashion by John Malkovich). So with a promise never to play poker again he is working his way through law school by doing manual labour. That is until his best friend (Edward Norton) gets released from prison and sucks him back into the world of Poker.

This film works for the simple reason that it has a very strong cast, all of whom work off each other perfectly. The one weak link I felt was Malkovich, and I like him, but his accent was just too jokey Russian, and his performance a little panto here. But luckily he has a small role. This film manages to be both quite cool, but also take the cool away from Poker in a sense, as much of it takes place in seedy basements or clubs and quite often our two main characters find themselves fleeing away from a beating that is looming down on them.

Where the film falls down though is that it's a little bit muddled. It doesn't know whether it wants to be a gritty expose on the realities of professional gambling, or a light hearted flick about poker and friendship. Instead it's neither, and whilst I enjoyed the film while I was watching it, a week later and I'm struggling to remember a great deal about the specifics of it. So like I say, I will watch anything with Matt Damon in it (I'm even planning on going to see We Bought A Zoo, despite the concept making me feel like running for cover), but that doesn't necessarily mean that Matt Damon films are always worth watching. Is Rounders worth watching? Probably. Just don't go too far out of your way for it, catch it on telly, or borrow it off a friend for a lazy Sunday. It's engaging enough, but I'd be surprised if many people truly love this film in the same way they do others.