Rounders Critic Reviews

Rounders is such a smart, tough little film that its strengths override its fairly serious weaknesses.Read the full review

Mischievously entertaining...Dahl's film has character in oversupply even if its actual characters are sometimes thin. Poker fever makes up for whatever the story lacks in everyday emotions.Read the full review

This isn't a movie where story matters that much: It's a movie of character and milieu, both of which it evokes brilliantly.Read the full review

For a grimmer and more realistic look at this world, no modern movie has surpassed Karel Reisz's "The Gambler'' (1974), starring James Caan in a screenplay by self-described degenerate gambler James Toback.Read the full review

Damon is a magical actor. His mind, as sharp and focused as a laser, beams out of the face of a vivacious choirboy, and, in nearly every scene, he invites you to share the jet-propelled pleasure of his precocious agility.Read the full review

Most novel is Rounders' message that the real sin isn't giving into vice but denying your God-given talents and not risking it all.Read the full review

Although the storyline is predictable, the intelligent dialogue and top-drawer acting more than make up for the possible deficiency.Read the full review

Because I'm a sucker--I was entertained...The script is good at making you think that it has better cards than it really does. And the actors constitute a royal flush--OK, OK, enough with the poker metaphors.Read the full review

Stylish entertainment and smartass fun when director John Dahl ("The Last Seduction") plays his strong suit (a gifted cast) instead of his weakest (a derivative plot).Read the full review