More about this DVD  •  DVD Info  •  Movie Main Page  •  Message Board

If you can set that aside, the movie is otherwise a pretty decent guy buddy picture set against the backdrop of illicit gambling (though, as we are told repeatedly by the characters, poker is not gambling; it’s a skill. It just happens to be a skill where most of the participants lose large sums of money for no return). Damon and costar Edward Norton have a lot of fun delivering some exceedingly macho dialogue and director John Dahl, shedding a little bit of the indie cred he earned with sleeper hits Red Rock West and The Last Seduction, supplies a jazzy noir-ish mood that makes the milieu almost as seductive as it is seedy.

Martin Landau, John Turturro, and Famke Janssen do fine work in supporting roles. One-time Hollywood “It” girl Gretchen Mol plays Damon’s nagging shrew of a girlfriend to shrill perfection as if afraid that infamous wet T-shirt Vanity Fair cover was the only thing she’d ever be remembered for (which is exactly what happened). The show is stolen, however, by John Malkovich, who hams it up gloriously as a Russian mobster calling himself Teddy KGB. Malkovich gets most of the best lines (“Verry aggie-resseeve.”) and chews apart every scene he’s in.

The picture has a very formulaic sports movie structure, in which the hero initially loses big, slowly makes a grueling comeback, and then must prove himself by putting it all on the line for the One Big Game. You can tell how this one’s going to end before the opening credits are through. If you think about it, the whole thing is also basically an enabling tool for people with gambling addictions, which I suppose isn’t something to be too proud about.

Not much of a hit when it was first released, Rounders found an audience through home video and was already once released on DVD. Now, largely due to the popularity of Celebrity Poker Showdown, Miramax is giving it a big promotional push with this new Special Edition DVD re-release. Despite its flaws, Rounders is a fun guy movie, filled with plenty of testosterone and performances to savor, even if at the end you feel the need for a Gamblers Anonymous meeting.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Presented in its widescreen 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement, this re-release is a big upgrade from the previous non-anamorphic DVD issued in early 1999. The image is sharp and has a strong sense of detail. Colors are bold and vibrant, and deliver the stylish photography well. Some minor speckling is present on the source elements, but hardly enough to be bothered about. Contrast levels are fine, with rich blacks and plenty of shadow detail.

Minor edge enhancement ringing is visible throughout the movie, especially noticeable in the printing on the playing cards during the close-up shots, but it is surprisingly restrained in comparison to many recent Buena Vista video transfers. All in all, this is a very nice looking disc.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The audio is officially a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix though you’d hardly know it. Seemingly identical to that on the old DVD, the soundtrack is set to a low volume by default and some of the dialogue comes across a little muddy. The jazzy musical score has some decent bass note activity but nothing too aggressive. Surround activity is limited almost exclusively to music bleed and rarely makes use of the split-channel rear soundstage. It’s a decent, competent audio track, just not too exciting.

A French dub track is also available in Dolby 2.0 Surround. Subtitle options include French, Spanish, and English captions for the hearing impaired, as well as true English closed captioning.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Attempting to cash in on the current poker fad, the bonus features on this Special Edition re-release are geared more towards the card playing than the filmmaking. Even the packaging has an obnoxious playing card design and the disc looks like a poker chip.

Proceedings start with a Poker Commentary by champion players Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Moneymaker (yes, that’s his real name), and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson. The four have an amiable interaction, and attempt to cover some points about how much of the card playing was dramatic license, as well as pointing out every bad decision the characters make. Unfortunately, these guys are card players, not movie experts, and whoever arranged this gag commentary seems to have forgotten that not every scene in the movie involves poker. The track has a lot of dead gaps during non-poker scenes, and by the end they seem to have run out of things to say even during the poker matches.

Much better is the Filmmaker Commentary by director John Dahl, actor Ed Norton, and writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman. This one has more of an emphasis on the characters and writing. The participants manage to fill their time without too many dead spots, and even provide a fun story about how John Malkovich learned his Russian accent.

Next are two 5-minute pieces, the Behind the Scenes Special and Professional Poker featurettes. Both are Electronic Press Kit fluff and hardly worth watching.

Champion Poker Tips are delivered by the four players who participated in the first commentary. Each delivers a small selection of very brief video interviews in which they dole out platitudes about “Taking Chances” and “Risking Too Much”. I know very little about playing poker, but even I could have figured most of these out without needing to be told. The tips are not as useful as anyone might hope.

The last major supplement is a Heads Up Texas Holdem interactive game, which takes you through a brief tutorial and lets you play a few rounds. If this is your thing, have a ball. But I’m sure you can find better online.

If you play around with the Special Features and Sneak Peaks menus, you should be able to easily find two Easter Egg features, an unexciting clip about Harvey Weinstein at the World Series of Poker and another video clip in which Johnny Chan does a lousy job of trying to teach poker to a new player.

Like most Buena Vista DVDs, the disc starts with some obnoxious forced trailers before the menu. The same trailers can be found in the Sneak Peeks menu. Strangely missing from any of these supplements is the actual theatrical trailer for Rounders, which was found on the original DVD release.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM supplements have been included.

Parting Thoughts