Search - Rounders [Collector's Edition] on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Profanity Movie Release: 1998 DVD Release: 09/07/2004 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Edition: Dual Layered Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 1 mins Studio: Miramax Members Wishing: 0 Genres: Drama, Psychological Drama, Post-Noir (Modern Noir), Buddy Film, Urban Drama See Also: Rounders, Rounders [10th Anniversary Edition], Rounders [10th Anniversary Edition] [Blu-ray], Rounders [Blu-ray]

John Dahl directed this exploration of New York private clubs devoted to high-stakes poker, with first-person narration from the film's central figure, law student Mike McDermott (Matt Damon), who loses his entire savings to Russian club owner Teddy KGB (John Malkovich). Mike then turns away from cards, devoting his attentions to his law studies and his live-in girlfriend Jo (Gretchen Mol), who's concerned when Mike's former gambling buddy Worm (Edward Norton) is released from prison. She has good reason to worry, since it takes Worm only a matter of minutes to draw Mike back into poker action. When she learns Mike has returned to the poker clubs, she moves out, and Mike begins to lose interest in his studies. Worm has a pre-prison debt, and the threatening Grama (Michael Rispoli) wants the money. Mike not only indulges the irresponsible Worm, he gets involved in Worm's debts. When Grama demands $15,000 on a five-day deadline, the two buddies go into high gear with a non-stop, no-sleep gambling binge that spirals downward toward an ultimate confrontation with Teddy KGB. Darkened club interiors and New York nights are captured by the cinematography of Jean Yves Escoffier, who moved from French films (the 1991 Les Amants du Pont Neuf) to American movies with the reflective surfaces of Excess Baggage (1997) and the patina of pathos found in Harmony Korine's experimental Gummo (1997). Shown at the 1998 Venice Film Festival and the 1998 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Matt Damon - Mike McDermott
Edward Norton - Worm
John Turturro - Joey Kinish
Gretchen Mol - Jo
Famke Janssen - Petra

John Dahl's 1998 noirish poker movie Rounders did not cause any great waves at the box office, but the film has had a long life on home video thanks to the quality of the film and a growing interest in Texas Hold 'Em. The film gets its second DVD release with this deluxe edition. The image is presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The English soundtrack is impressively rendered in Dolby Digital 5.1. The extensive supplemental materials include a commentary track recorded by Dahl, both of the film's screenwriters, and star Edward Norton. The writers continue to express their gratitude for having their first produced script turn out so well, and Norton shares many entertaining stories about how he approached his character and about working with Matt Damon. A second commentary track has been recorded by four of the world's most respected professional poker winners -- each of them winners of the World Series of Poker. A featurette where the experts give some general advice about how to play poker and an interactive game in which the viewer can play Texas Hold 'Em head-to-head against a computer opponent round out this excellent DVD from Miramax. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide