Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #31 Rounders
Box Office: $22.9 Million
Oscar Nominations: None
Oscar Wins: None
MovieRankings.Net: 84/100
Available To Stream: Paramount+
Rounders is a movie that is less about poker or friendship and much more about following your dreams. Mike McD (Matt Damon) is told by everyone that he shouldn't go to Las Vegas to play against the best poker players in the world. He's almost the anti-Will Hunting in a way. In Good Will Hunting, everyone tells Will to leave town and chase his dreams.
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Roger Ebert compares Rounders to a traditional sports film and he's not entirely wrong. It does have the standard sports movie beats of a talented guy needing to win the big game/beat the best team or player. But it's a much less traditional movie than that by the way it treats the people around Mike McD.
Worm (Edward Norton) is the type of character you usually don't get in movies. He's not a bad guy but does shitty and selfish things. He's not a good guy and has no redemption in the movie at all. You don't usually get characters with such moral ambiguity in movies, I really respect the script by David Levien and Brian Koppelman (who both went on to create the show Billions) allowing audiences to look at this world and not hold their hand during it.
Miramax. Shutterstock Images.I don't know how to feel about Edward Norton's career. He's been in some great movies (#48 The People Vs. Larry Flynt, The 25th Hour, Moonrise Kingdom) and even has another movie on this list. He's been nominated for three Oscars (and hasn't won). But I feel like his career didn't live up to what the expectations were. He was really supposed to be the next De Niro. He was even in a heist movie called The Score in 2001 with De Niro and Marlon Brando and everyone was saying at the time that these were the three best actors of their respective generations.
Then Leonardo DiCaprio was in Catch Me If You Can and Gangs Of New York a year later and no one said that about Norton anymore. Norton is also someone that may be too smart for his own good. He started to get more and more controlling on sets and wanting to change screenplays. People started to not wanting to work with him anymore. I'm not sure how I'd even describe his current career. In this decade, he's had smaller parts in two Wes Anderson movies and was in Knives Out 2. That's it. Watching him in this, you are so quickly reminded how great of an actor he is.
The director John Dahl made some noirs (Red Rock West and The Last Seduction) before making Rounders and you do see that style here. In a normal movie, the Joey Knish character wouldn't have cleaned his hands of Mike McD. But it felt realistic. Other characters like Mike well enough but money almost always comes first with these people in this world. In a bizarre way, that cold authenticity makes the movie work.
I know some people are split on John Malkovitch's performance as Teddy KGB. I personally love it. I know it's wild overacting and the accent is so bizarre but it works for me. I don't think a Teddy KGB-centered movie would work but as a bad guy you really only see twice in the movie, it's perfect. He's the ideal bad guy.
Finally, we all agree that there is no way Matt Damon just lets Famke Janssen leave that apartment. That's just stupid. I can't defend that.
Dave Lewis. Shutterstock Images.31. Rounders
32. Unforgiven
33. Trainspotting
34. The Game
35. Out Of Sight
36. Carlito's Way
37. Seven
38. L.A. Confidential
39. Speed
40. Gattaca
41. Misery
42. Tombstone
43. Ransom
44. Wayne's World
45. The Insider
46. Back To The Future Part III
47. A Bronx Tale
48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt
49. Eyes Wide Shut
50. The Sandlot
51. Happy Gilmore
52. Contact
53. The Green Mile
54. Man On The Moon
55. Boyz N The Hood
56. Grosse Pointe Blank
57. Independence Day
58. The Rainmaker
59. Go
60. The Firm
61. Magnolia
62. The Talented Mr. Ripley
63. Tommy Boy
64. The Usual Suspects
65. In The Line Of Fire
66. My Cousin Vinny
67. Awakenings
68. JFK
69. Toy Story
70. Home Alone
71. Jerry Maguire
72. Titanic
73. Billy Madison
74. Apollo 13
75. Braveheart
76. Edward Scissorhands
77. Cape Fear
78. The River Wild
79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
80. 12 Monkeys
81. Stir Of Echoes
82. Mission: Impossible
83. Total Recall
84. Quiz Show
85. For Love Of The Game
86. Being John Malkovich
87. Men In Black
88. Scream
89. Alive
90. Three Kings
91. Glengarry Glen Ross
92. Die Hard With A Vengeance
93. The Blair Witch Project
94. Twister
95. Dirty Work
96. Election
97. Tremors
98. Any Given Sunday
99. The Wedding Singer
100. Clerks