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Technical Information
Studio: Miramax
Home Entertainment
Year of Theatrical Release: 1998
Disc Format: 1
single-sided, Dual Layer
Image Format: Anamorphic
Widescreen
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Region
Encoding: 1
Sound
Format: Dolby
Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 (pro logic)
Running Time:
121 minutes
Director: John
Dahl
Stars: Matt
Damon, Edward Norton, Famke Janssen, John Malkovich, John Turturro,
Gretchen Mol
MPAA Rating: R
Disc
Supplements:
- Commentary track with director John Dahl, writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman, and actor Edward Norton
- Commentary with poker stars Johnny Chan, Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth and Chris Moneymaker
- Behind The Scenes featurette
- Professional Poker featurette
- Set top Texas Hold 'Em game
- Poker tips from Johnny Chan, Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth and Chris Moneymaker
- Trailers and Sneak Peaks
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It would be easy to look at Rounders as a
celebration of compulsive gambling. The film is about people
who play poker. A lot. But there is a difference between some
of the characters in Rounders and your average compulsive gambler.
A compulsive gambler is in it for the risk.
The win isn’t nearly as important as that brief high during
the roll of the dice or the flip of a card. There is certainly
an element of risk in poker, but at a certain level of play,
skill is a greater factor in winning than chance.
Take, for example, the character of Joey Knish
(John Turturro). The other players call him a “grinder.”
He’s the poker equivalent of a working stiff, only instead
of making a living in a factory or behind a desk, he grinds
it out at the poker table. Knish never takes big risks, and
therefore never really gets big payoffs, but he wins consistently
enough to pay the bills.
Poker has, of course, become very popular
these days. The World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour
showcase exotically quirky players casually betting pots hundreds
of thousands of dollars strong. These guys stand to make a lot
of money in these tournaments and given that you see the same
group of guys over and over, there must obviously be something
more than luck at work here.
The life certainly looks glamorous, spending
all of your time in casinos, with millions of dollars on the
line. Guys like Knish, however, are more in line with reality.
Interviews with some of today’s poker “stars”
reveals an almost bored attitude with the game. Poker isn’t
something they do on Saturday night with the boys. It’s
a job. A career. It's not that the game isn't fun for them;
it's just that they have a very specific agenda to make money.
At the start of Rounders, Mike McDermott (Matt
Damon) is also a grinder. He informs us that he has put himself
through law school with his poker skills. Law school ain’t
cheap, so he must be pretty good. However, he wants more. His
dream is the World Series of Poker. He thinks he might have
what it takes to go “pro," but to do that, he needs
to put together a large enough bankroll to get into the series.
Taking every dollar he has, all 30,000 of them, he lays it all
on the line against a character named Teddy KGB (John Malkovich).
Teddy KGB runs a poker club, is connected
to the Russian mafia and is also one good poker player. Mike
thinks he has Teddy beat with a full house, but Teddy has a
better full house and Mike is wiped out. Dejected, he vows to
quit poker for good. Knish consoles Mike and gives him a job,
but also tells him he’ll be back.
Nine poker-free months go by and then Mike’s
best friend,
Lester “Worm” Murphy (Edward Norton) is released
from prison. Worm actually is a compulsive gambler. The only
problem is that, like Mike, he is so good at poker that there
is very little gambling involved anymore. So Worm’s thrill
comes from cheating. It isn’t enough to beat someone straight
up – he has to bottom deal his way to the top. The gamble
is whether or not he’ll get caught, which he routinely
does.
It takes Worm no time at all to talk Mike
back into the game. Mike, however, doesn’t approve of
cheating. He reasons, perhaps rightly so, that they two of them
are capable of cleaning up with straight play, but Worm wants
nothing of it. He doesn’t care about the money, just the
thrill. But Worm’s antics don’t come without a price
and he owes a massive amount of money to a loan shark. Soon
Mike has no choice but to help Worm out of debt and the two
hop from one poker spot to another trying to build their bankroll.
The interesting thing about Rounders
is that if it had been about basketball or football or some
other sport, no one would question Mike’s dream of becoming
a professional. However, because the film is about poker, his
desire is labeled as a sickness. But Mike isn’t sick,
nor is he compulsive. He simply has a talent and skill for something
that most people only superficially understand. Some
people make a fortune in the stock market. Maybe Mike McDermott
will make his at the poker table.
:::back to
top |
Rounders was released once before
as a very good-looking, but non-anamorphic disc. This deficiency
has been fixed with this new transfer. The image has been cleaned
up and the 16:9 enhancement adds crispness and detail. A lot of
work was put into the cinematography of Rounders to make it a very
moody and dark film and that mood is thankfully carried over beautifully
here. Much of the action takes place in dingy, smoke-filled poker
rooms, which might have spelled trouble, but this transfer handles
it wonderfully.
I spotted no digital artifacting
and only the barest hints of edge enhancement here and there.
:::back to top |
There really isn't much to be said
for the sound on this disc, other than that it's adequate. For what
it is, the sound is very clear and appropriate. This just isn't
the sort of film that requires, or should have a full-on surround
mix. Almost all of the action is dialog-driven, with the occassional
bits of music tossed in. There are a few ambient surround effects
in the poker rooms, but they are appropriately subdued. This isn't
a very dynamic sound track, but it's fitting.
:::back to top |
With an original release that was,
to borrow an appropriate term, short-stacked, Miramax really wouldn't
have had to do much to improve. And yet they put in some nice effort
for this release.
First up are two commentary
tracks. The first features director John Dahl, screenwriters
David Levien and Brian Koppelman, and actor Edward Norton. Mostly
technical, this track is fairly informative about the process of
writing and making this film.
The second track is a bit more fun.
It features poker stars Johnny Chan, Chris Ferguson, Chris Moneymaker
and Phil Hellmuth. Obviously, not very experienced with offering
up commentary tracks, these guys do seem to get distracted by watching
the movie from time to time, leaving quite a few gaps in the track,
but when they do speak up, it is very entertaining. Overall, the
group seems fairly impressed with the film and testify that much
of it is rather realistic. Phil Hellmuth seems to take charge, trying
to coax comments from the other players, and for the most part does
a decent job. They also take a bit of the mystery out of their poker-player
personas and come across as a very likable group of guys who would
be fun to sit at a table with -- as long as I wasn't playing them
for real money!
Next up is a set-top Texas
Hold 'Em game that I found to be a nice concept, but somewhat
cheesy in execution, with awkward game play and betting. Go to Partypoker.com
or some other online Hold 'Em site for a much better electronic
version of the game.
Professional Poker
is about a 5 and a half minute look at the world of poker. Although
not really very informative, it does take a fun look at a World
Series of Poker event that both Matt Damon and Edward Norton participated
in.
The next featurette, called simply
Behind The Scenes Special, runs about 5 minutes
and just takes a quick look at the making of the film. Although
refreshingly free of promotional fluff, this featurette runs just
a bit too short to really be fulfilling.
Finally, there is a section of professional
poker tips. This is broken up into 4 areas, one each for
Johnny Chan, Chris Ferguson, Phil Helmuth and Chris Moneymaker,
and each of these guys offers up several of their own tips and insights.
Understandably, these guys don't really give away any Earth-shattering
tips and much of it will be obvious to anyone who's played any regular
poker, but they will get a new player started on the right foot.
The only gripe I have is that there isn't an option to simply "play
all" for this feature.
Finishing up the disc are some trailers
and one or two hidden features.
:::back to top |
Rounders is one of those rare movies that takes
a fairly realistic look at a real life game. The players don't receive
miracle hands and when they win, it because of an equal amount of
luck and skill. A look at just the surface of Rounders might reveal
a glorification of gambling, but underneath is a story about a real
skill and talent. And for anyone who is a fan of poker, this film
is a real treat.
:::back to top |
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| There really isn't any
sex and the violence is minimal, but this still can't be considered
a family film. The older teens can watch it, but it's just not appropriate
for the youngsters. |
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| -- By Robert Wurth. Copyright
© 2004. |
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