Rounders poster

Rounders (1998)

Film · 2h 1m · Rated R

Crime, Drama

A gritty, suspenseful world of high-stakes poker unfolds as a gifted player risks everything for a friend.

Pulpy. A late-night trip at a measured pace. Emotionally it is heavy.

Streaming on MGM+, Kanopy (free), Hoopla (free) and YouTube (free).

Rounders parents guide

It stays inside its R, with some innuendo or implied sex and some violence.

Scare
Not scary
Jump scares
None noted
Gore
No gore
Violence
Some violence
Some fighting or peril.
Sex and nudity
Mild
Mild means innuendo, or sex implied off screen, with no nudity.
Language
Strong
Frequent strong profanity or slurs.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

What is Rounders about?

Poker addict Mike McDermott knows the game inside out, but loses his money one night in a game to Russian-American gangster Teddy KGB. Promising his partner Jo he'll give up, he meets up with best friend Lester 'Worm' Murphy, just out of prison and owing lots of money to the wrong kind of people. McDermott becomes his co-guarantor and now there's only one way to raise the money, the pair have to get back into the game.

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

Bittersweet. It earns its ending, but not everyone gets what they want.

Cast and crew

Directed byJohn Dahl
StarringMatt Damon, Edward Norton, John Turturro, Gretchen Mol, John Malkovich, Famke Janssen

More like Rounders

Rounders is on our Noir and neo-noir, Crime on Kanopy and Crime on Hoopla lists.

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Lists with the same feel: Late night.

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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.