I'm going to have to admit it. Matt Damon has charmed me. He has proven to me, despite my intial impression of him from "The Rainmaker", that he is actually a very intellegent actor. When you watch him act you can see exactly what he's doing and why he's doing it. This makes him a very interesting and engaging performer. If you ask me, he was cheated out of the best actor Oscar last year. He still, however, has every single scene stolen from him by the great scene stealer Edward Norton. Norton's character is the kind of guy who everyone is glad exisits, because it means that there is someone out there more pathetic than yourself. And Norton uses this situtaion to produce an actually rather symapthetic character. You hate this man for what he does, yet you can see that what he does he does only because he knows nothing else.

Rounders was another entry into the 90's film noir catageory. The previous entrys into this rather overlooked little treasusre box of a genre are: Pulp Fiction, Pkaying God, Copland, and (obviously) L.A. Confidential. Rounders is not better or even as good as any of those films (except, maybe, for Playing God). But it does suceed on it's own terms. It shows us interesting people. It brings us a complex and intruging plot. It gives us a nice little ending that dosen't just drop two hours worth of plot for two minutes of wrap-up. Asking for more than that in a film is a mistake that all to many viewers make.

Rounders tells the story of Mark (Damon). He's an ambitious young law student paying his way through coolege with his poker winnings. But in the first fifteen minutes of the movie he loses all of his money to a man named, for some odd reason I never quite figured out, KGB. KGB is played by Jhon Malkovich, who does a funny as hell Ruusian accent.

After losing all of his money Mark quits poker and settles down with a beautiful young woman (Gretchen Mol). He gets a truck driving job from another poker player and starts putting his life back together.

Of course unless Mark gets into some shit, the movie has no plot. Enter: Worm (Norton). Worm is an old friend from school, who just got of jail. Back in the good ol' days Mark and Worm would scam people for all they got then use the money to scam more people. But now Mark has quit and the good ol scamming days are over. At least that's what Mark thinks. But as it would be Worm brings Mark back in. After this Mark's life deteriorates. His girlfreind leaves him, he loses an internship job with a judge. And worst of all he gets into some pretty big debt with a very powerful man...

The plot moves quickly and the dialouge is snappy. For a fun, enjoyable experince Rounders hits the spot (yeah, yeah I had to finish the review quick)