Rounders
Drama
Miramax  (1998) 121 mins R

7.3 (36,056 votes)
In The Game Of Life…Play The Cards You're Dealt.

Academy Award winner Matt Damon ( Good Will Hunting, The Rainmaker) and Edward Norton (The People vs. Larry Flint, Primal Fear) lead a critically acclaimed cast in this story of passion, risk and the extreme price of friendship! Dealt a painful lesson when he blows his hard-earned savings in a high-stakes, underground card club, master poker player Mike (Damon) thinks he's played his final hand when he gives up gambling for law school and a fresh start with his beautiful girlfriend (Gretchen Mol-The Last Time I Committed Suicide).But then, his best buddy (Norton) gets out of prison and in over his head with a ruthless Russian card shark (John Malkovich-In The Line Of Fire, Con Air). From there, Mike's strong sense of loyalty and the irresistible lure of the game draw strong sense of loyalty and the irresistible lure of t...

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Cast and Crew
Matt Damon  ......  Mike McDermott
Edward Norton  ......  Lester 'Worm' Murphy
Paul Cicero  ......  Russian Thug
John Turturro  ......  Joey Knish
Ray Iannicelli  ......  Kenny
Gretchen Mol  ......  Jo
Director  .....  John Dahl
Producer  .....  Ted Demme; Joel Stillerman
Writer  .....  David Levien; Brian Koppelman; David Leven
Notes
Goofs:
Continuity: The card player sitting across from Worm in jail removes a cigarette from his ear twice. (more)

Trivia:
The playing cards used during both games at KGB's place are a deck of red and a deck of blue backed Arrow-design, standard index, wide plastic cellulose-acetate cards of the KEM range manufactured by the United States Playing Card Co. (more)

Filming Locations:
Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA (more)

Quotes:
[first lines]
Mike McDermott: Listen, here's the thing. If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.
(more)

Awards:
1 win & 1 nomination (more)