I mean, look at you. You domesticated yourself for this girl.
No. You took yourself out of life. You walked the fucking line for her.
And the minute you want a little of it back, she walks out on you.
Just like the saying in the poker game of life,
women are the rake. They are
the fucking rake. The fuck are you talking about?
What's saying? I don't know.
Yeah, there ought to be one.
You know what cheers me up when I'm feeling shitty?
What? Rolled up aces over kings.
That right? Yeah. Check raising stupid tourists
and taking huge pots off them. Yeah.
Stacks and towers of checks I can't even see over.
Playing all night. High limit hold' em in the Taj.
Where the sand turns to gold. Fuck it,
let's go. Don't tease me. Let's play some fucking
cards. It's two Dads, one Movie.
It's the podcast where two middle aged dads sit around and shoot the shit about
the movies of the 80s and 90s. Here are your hosts, Steve Paulo and
Nick Briana. Hello, everybody. It's another
episode of two Dads, one Movie. I'm Steve. And I'm Nick. And today
we're talking about the fantastic 1998 poker film Rounders,
starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton and the incomparable John Malkovich.
This is one that I've picked for us. It's a movie that I first saw.
Gosh, I don't think I saw it in the theaters, but I would have seen
it pretty much right after, like, as soon as it came out on, like,
dvd, I would have seen it. I was in college at the time and,
you know, I think the movement around Texas
hold' Em poker being popular had already reached me before
I actually seen the movie. But then watching the movie, it just, it just really
made it even more that I just wanted to play poker all the time.
And I was one of those kids in college that definitely played a bunch of
poker whenever I could. Almost always hold them. Almost always are incredibly low stakes because
we were college kids. Oh, yeah. So, you know, when you went all in,
it was either. It was either you were, you know, pushing in all of your
pretzel sticks or I think the pot got up to about five or six bucks,
you know, so. But yeah, this is, this is a fantastic movie and I'm super
excited to talk about it. Yeah, I can't wait. Same as you, Steve. I watched
this a ton, especially my early 20s, college,
after college times. This movie is so quotable, it's so memorable.
All the characters really stand out. So I'M excited to get into
it. Absolutely. Cool. Let's run down some facts about the movie
Rounders. Rounders is rated R. It was released on September 11,
1998, three years before something else happened on that date. I don't remember exactly.
Running time of 121 minutes. The director was John Doll.
This was written by David Levine and BR Koppelman. This was their first screenplay
that at least that was produced. And they're a writing team that went on to
write several other movies and the television show Billions. They are the co creators of
Billions for them, which is a great show, as I said before, starring Matt Damon,
Edward Norton and John Malkovich. Scores. Rotten tomato. It just clears the
fresh threshold at 64% IMDb. The people rated
a little more highly. 7.3 is a nice solid number for IMDb as far as
awards go. It's a little funky, but there is sort of an award win that
can be tied to this movie, which is that in 1999, the southeastern
film Critics association awards gave Edward Norton best actor
for the combination of his roles in this and
American History X. Now I love this movie and I love his performance in this
movie, but that feels like it's 70%, 30% his American history acts
performance, right? Yeah. Also, depending on where these awards are
located in the Southeast, I'm a bit concerned that they might like the American History
X a little bit more. Hadn't thought of that. But yeah, maybe. Maybe they.
Maybe they took the panhandle. Yeah, this is deep in
Alabama. Did they get the wrong message from it? I'm not sure, but yeah,
anyway, on a budget, a very modest budget in 1998 of $12 million,
it took 23 million, just shy of double its budget.
So not a hit hit, but enough of a success at the box office that
nobody lost their shirt. And then certainly really this movie's impact is not how
big a hit movie was it, but what did it do to American society,
especially young men in America around our age at that time. Boy,
it made us all poker crazy. That's for sure. Absolutely,
absolutely. Beginning of this movie,
it just gets right into it. It puts me in the mood immediately.
This is something I loved a lot and I haven't watched in several years,
but I've watched it so many times. And the second it starts with the voiceover.
Well, it's the tinkling piano first. Right. There's this music that's just playing very
softly. And then yeah, we see Mike, our. Our protagonist
Matt Damon, he's getting up and he's clearly doing something in the house, in the
apartment he's in. He's gathering money up from places. And then the very first line
of narration comes over and it's. If you. Listen, here's the thing. Yeah. If you
can't spot the sucker in your first 30 minutes at the table, then you are
the sucker. That's right. And that's so good. And this prologue is one of my
favorite. It's a great example of one of my favorite,
you know, kind of realities of making movies, which is that they
are a visual medium you should be showing us and not telling us. This entire
prologue does an amazing job to show us what Mike McDermott
went through in order to get to the position he's at when the movie really
starts. Right. Because this prologue occurs and then we skip ahead, I think, like three
to six months or. Exactly. I don't care. But a few months later,
and we really get into the movie proper at that point. But we could have
just been told, yeah, he took his money to, you know, whatever, and he lost
it. I mean, it could have just been told us. But by showing us,
they just do such a better job with it, so. And a brilliant job of
explaining the game of Texas holding specifically to
the people that are unfamiliar. I think it's an excellent way of showing this
is how Mike got where he got. And also this is what he
does and explaining it while the action's happening, while it's
just such a good job. Like, you could show that to anybody as a better
way to explain how to play Texas hold'. Em. Thank you. Yeah, just. I know
for me, like, growing up, you know, I learned a little bit about, you know,
sort of how to play poker from my dad when I was a teenager.
But it was five car draw, you know, kind of standard. I guess that's.
It was more, at that point is more about learning. Well, these are the hands,
and this is what beats what. And, you know, some of that stuff. Less about
strategy and then learning how Texas hold' Em works. In my mind. Now,
that's poker. Other games of poker are those games. Like, if you're just saying
we're gonna play poker, I'm assuming you're playing hold'. Em. Yeah, with. With. With five
community cards and two pockets. Like, that's. That's what's happening, right? Yeah.
And the beauty of this movie is that you're, like you said, it really explains
everything so well. And then one of the things I think I love about it
is it uses industry and sort of community terms
and phrases without explaining them to us, but it does it in such context
that it's obvious what it means. And a couple examples that I have here are
when. When Mike shows up to Teddy KGB's place, we're in the prologue still,
of course. This is. He's brought his many thousands of dollars to go play,
and he asks for 10 stacks of high society. Well, now we know a stack
of high society is $10,000. That's what that means, right? When he sees
Joey Knish in the room, and Knish comes over to him and he doesn't
want to see Knish. It's the last guy he wants to see. And he says,
I hope you're not thinking of putting all that glimmer into play.
And it's like, okay, so glimmer, all right, that's another term. You know, it's like,
let's go find a soft seat in Queens. You know, it's like, oh, a soft
seat. Like, there's these terms that just get used, and you may not know exactly
what they mean or what the etymology is or kind of where it came from,
but it's clear from the context that he's talking about, this game is hard.
That's too much money for you. Let's go find a game that'd be easier.
You can clean up and you go back home, because this is crazy. And Mike's
like, no, man, I'm doing it. I'm putting it all on the line. Yeah.
And they do a great job of just showing us what the poker room looks
like, because you might have the vision of it all being kind of Vegas
and casinos and stuff, when in the reality, a lot of people who make their
living off gambling are in these kind of depressing type places
with these characters and everything. And it immerses you in the world.
Yeah. I mean, even the title of the film itself is a poker term.
A rounder is. A rounder is a professional who goes around to
numerous games, sometimes in other cities, day to day, whatever, to play and to grind
and to earn their living. And that's what a rounder is. So, like, Joey Knish
in this. In this movie is very much a rounder. He's somebody who's sort of
a pro player. This is how he earns his living. Even says, you know,
I got got child support to pay. Right. You know, he needs to make his
money doing this. And so, yeah, the who thing is just full of this.
This. You get immersed in this world immediately. Like you said, the. The visuals inside
the poker room, inside KGB's place. Everything from the fact that,
like, the, you know, there's the. The cages right where the actual money and the
chips are. And it's very cool. Very kind of smoky back room feel to
it, obviously. One thing I want to point out, boxing on television, once again,
if you want a seedy environment, boxing will be televised in the background.
Absolutely. Well, you're probably taking bets on it, I would guess, right? Sure.
Yeah. So we. Yeah, I don't like. I wonder how much we
have to get into, like, the Hands of Heaven. But, like, basically, we're introduced to
Teddy kgb. It's John Malkovich's character. He runs this card room, we're told.
Right. I mean, the narration tells. He's. He's connected to the Russian mob.
And this voice that John Malkovich has for Teddy
is. I mean, I'll be honest, it's ridiculous, but it's
ridiculous in the way that great actors make ridiculous choices. Stick with
them and make them work. Yeah, right. Malkovich is a Daniel Day Lewis type of.
He's. He's at that caliber, in my opinion. He's got that feel of somebody who
really immerses himself in his roles. And I want to take just a second to
mention I saw something recently where it was a kind of an older clip of
Matt Damon in an interview talking about Malkovich in this movie.
And apparently they filmed all of his scenes, Malkovich's, in one or two days.
He was only going to be available for a very brief period of time,
so they had to bring him in and kind of do all his scenes at
once. And, you know, the crew on set waiting for him to arrive, they were
super excited. It's. It's John Malkovich. He's the biggest name in this movie by far.
Incredibly respected actor. And so everybody's is really just palpable tension.
The room waiting for him. Everybody's excited. And he gets there. He's got the tracksuit,
whatever the jacket on. He's got the Oreos with him, apparently, by the way,
something Malkovich himself came up with, the Oreos. Not something that was in
the original script. That was his idea because he's genius. But he shows
up and then, you know, check, check, check, check. Hanging around
like this kind of voice that is just like, I know people from Russia.
I work with a bunch of guys from Ukraine. They don't sound like that.
Like, nobody sounds like that. But he. That was the choice he
made. He commits to it. It makes Teddy KGB an incredibly memorable
character. But apparently on set, it took people by surprise. It took
them aback, right? And sort of, oh, okay. That's what.
That's what we're doing. Okay. All right. And apparently Malkovich leans over Damon across the
table and goes, I'm a terrible actor.
All right, pal. But, yeah. So Mike McDermott is here at Teddy KGB's.
He's brought 30 grand with him because he's going to run it up to 50
or 60, and he's headed off to Vegas to the World Series. That's what he's
gonna do, right? And he's ready to roll, and he's got the cards. So as
he's explaining the game, he's explaining, as the community cards
fall, how good his hand is becoming and how the hand that
he assumes that Teddy KGB has. Right. Is not,
you know, I'm not gonna stand up to him. So he's gonna be. In his
mind, there's. There's no way I'm gonna lose here. And,
you know, it turns out he loses.
Yeah, Teddy gets him. He pushes all his chips in. So this is
a law student who's, you know, playing poker professionally,
but he's using this money to pay for his rent and his tuition and everything.
So this isn't money he can afford to lose. So he pushes all
his chips in. And Teddy kgb, of course, has the very cinema friendly pocket
aces, of course, to beat his ace nine with the community card. So he
ends up with a better full house than him. Yeah. Yep, exactly.
So that's a. What you would call in poker a bad beat. Mike takes
a very bad beat right off the bat. And this, you know,
so now he links back up immediately with his friend Knish. And,
you know, Knish is like, oh, hey, you know, I'll stake you. You. You can
earn it back. You can get back, and I'll just take half your profits,
whatever, no big deal. If you lose it, it's fine. And he's like, no,
no, I'm out, man. Yeah, this is it. This, this. I'm down to the felt.
This was it. This was everything. I need a job. And so Knish apparently has
a delivery truck he's willing to let Mike, you know, drive and pay him to
do that. And that's kind of where the prologue ends, is that Mike's done with
poker. He's out. That's it for him. One thing, back to the KGB game.
This is just kind of an example of how ingrained this
movie was with my friends and I in college. There's a scene at the end,
so Mike is sitting there with this flabbergasted look on his face.
You know, the one hand that could have beat him is the one that the
other guy had. And KGB's lackey comes to
clear the chips off the table. And instead of just scooping them with his hands,
he uses his arm, his whole cross, his forearm.
And again, this is just like the guy washing his fist in toy soldiers room.
Like they just have to show the tough guy's got this big forearm and he
swipes it across the chips. But he only gets like 60% of them.
So he leaves them all behind. And we would do this in college as a
joke, whether it be when we're playing poker or just if you're asked like,
oh, can you clean up the table? And then you swipe your arm and do
like the most half assed job across. So that's just one of the dumb things
in this movie that stuck with us. Oh, it's just for hitting us at this
time of our lives. It was perfect. Anyway, we'll continue. So he's on Knish's truck
right now and he's busting his hump like a regular everyday,
you know, jamoke. Exactly. For about six months later,
I think is what the. The chiron tells us. Couple things I noticed
here is that his wool and leather ball cap is
so late 90s. I think I had one of those. I think the one I
had was like a charcoal gray wool with like the dark brown Le bill and
no kind of emblem on it. Totally ridiculous. But I do think those were fairly
popular at the time. And then just I think the narration in general, the fact
that narration is used as such a major, you know, sort of part of this
is also feels very 90s. I feel like that was really common, you know,
especially in the mid to late 90s. There were a lot of movies that had
that kind of narration. Whether it was like Fight Club or. You know, I'm not
going to think about this off the top of my head, but plenty of movies
of that era felt like they had that kind of narration. Great narration
voice by Matt Damon, by the way. It's. It's really perfect. Yeah. So he's on
Kenesha's truck route and I think he makes a st stop while he's out working
to deliver something that relates to his law school to.
A judge who's clearly some of his professors. Basically these are judges at his law
school. I think it's clear that they both work as judges at
one of the courts nearby, but then are also there teaching these Law students.
And so it's some. Yeah. Something he has to drop off to one of his
teachers. So he pops in and the judges are playing poker.
And he's, you know, he doesn't look like he's tasting blood in the
water or anything. He's very respectfully kind of standing back, but he's also observing the
game. He can't unlock, learn within those. And as these judges are playing poker,
he advises his professor in front of him, he said, no, no, don't fold your
hand. Yeah. In fact, raise. Yeah. What's the pot? And the other,
the other judges kind of look at him like, what are you doing? You just
walked in here. And he very brazenly says, well, we know what
we have and we know what you have, and proceeds
to go around the room after the hand and basically can put every single other
judge on pretty much exactly the cards that they had or the cards
they were hoping for. Showing his skill of reading people and just how
much better his level of poker is than
even these very smart men who have probably been playing together for a long time.
But it's just showing that Mike McD is just above and beyond that. Like,
you can't compete with him if you're just a regular person. It's the kind of
thing where it's like, you can, you can get good at poker in that
you obviously, you understand how all of the hands are
built and kind of, you know, what beats what, how good is the hand you're
holding? What's the likelihood you'll be able to, like, you know, chase a flush or
chase a straight based on what else you know about the hands, Whether it's community
cards or I think they're playing seven card studs. So it's actually the personal cards
are shown in some cases, whatever. There's like, different things. So you can do
all that, but to actually get to, like, rounder level. And that's
sort of, you know, you could be a pro at this. It's so much more
about understanding how people,
generically people. Because these aren't. These aren't tells that he's picked up on these
specific folks. These are just what people tend to do when they're not being careful
and they see their hands. Yeah. You know, and they're thinking about their hands and
they're trying to whatever and, you know, and like seeing what gets. I guess the
guys were folding face up. I always would muck face down myself, but these guys
clearly were folding face up because he comments on how somebody, you know, mucked the
ace that you were looking for or something like that. Right. And he's. He's just
watching all this and it's so much information to take in at once. I think
actually the judge, Abe does talk to him about just like, how do you.
How do you. There's so much to calculate. There's so much to, like, you know,
understand. And he's just like, yeah, you just. I got used to it. And that's
when I wrote down. This movie is actually a sequel to Good Will Hunting.
This is Will Hunting. He's just taken his. This is what he
did with his skill set, all of his math smarts. He just moved from Boston
to New York. That's why, you know, at the end of Good Will Hunting,
when Chucky goes. And he's not there anymore, he's moved to New York to go
play poker and become a lawyer. And that's it. This is where this is.
His name is Mike McDermott, but really, this is Will Hunting. He was driving to
California, but that crappy car broke down in New York, so he had to stay
there. Yeah, great scene. I mean,
just. And the judge and he tells the judges, he said, no,
I'd bust up this game. They say, okay, your first assignment, pull up a chair,
right? Yeah. And. And he says no. He's like, you guys wouldn't stand a chance.
I'd play it blind against you. Which is just. Oh, good flex. Good flex.
So, so far in this movie, for a poker enthusiast, we've gotten a lot of
poker. Yes, it's nice. It's very front loaded with some good action.
The. The judges game. So he goes home after this late
night. He's been working. He made a delivery. And he goes home to his girlfriend,
who is really hot and really pushy and really
kind of not willing to put up with any nonsense from him.
I can't stand her. She's the worst. Really.
She's the absolute worst. I hate it because I
think you could make very valid points about my boyfriend. I saw
him lose his entire life savings at poker. He said he was quitting forever.
I don't want him near that again. She's not good at it. I think
she's unreasonable right away. So he explains.
He says, yeah, so the judges were playing poker.
And I think I impressed this judge with my knowledge. And she misunderstands
on purpose and says, so instead of coming home, you just stayed and played cards
with some judge. And then Mike McDermott's response
was so funny. It's just the perfect guy. Caught in an uncomfortable
situation where you're not lying, but you sound like you're laying. He says, I know.
No, I wasn't even playing. No, they were playing.
I didn't actually drink any of the beer. They had the beer, Mom. I didn't
drink any of the beer. Yeah. She's not sympathetic enough.
And I think, like you said, there is a world in which we get a
better kind of sympathy for her around. That she had to stand by
him while he, you know, rebuilt from the. The crash that he took and,
you know, the whatever and. But it's like they didn't have kids. They weren't.
I mean, it's like he lost his money.
Yeah. He didn't lose her money. Right. It doesn't seem like anyway. Right. They're not
married. I'm sure it affected her, but it's not like he took away from her.
But to also be like, her comment about, like,
oh, yeah, you impress this judge, you know, with like, your. Your card skills.
Like, that's not real. And it's like. Like, are you really that obtuse that you
don't think who, you know, matters in any industry? Like,
it really like to. If I, you know, I work in software, if I
can play cards with the CTO of some company that I want to work at
and they end up liking me when my resume comes across his desk,
that's a good thing. Absolutely. It doesn't matter. I still have to be. Connections are
important, but. Right. Like, who, you know, absolutely matters. So the fact that he got
in good with several. He impressed several judges. There were like six men
at that table, all of whom we are led to believe at least, are judges
somewhere within New York City. Yeah. This is not a bad thing.
No. And to read it as a bad thing is being willfully,
sort of curmudgeonly. And it does not make her sympathetic.
I don't like this character. She needs to be there. She's bad faith hunting.
She's trying to come up. Oh,
Cha Ching, that was good. I like it.
So bad. I mean, not trying to be understanding at all. And so
she. So she leaves. You know, they have this little argument
and she leaves. And he's. I'm going to take a shower before I To meet
up with you. And when she leaves, he just looks down and he goes,
I didn't even play. Like, if I'm gonna get yelled at,
I could have enjoyed the game. I could have made some money. And then it's
like, okay, yeah, sorry, honey. Yell at me all you want. He's, he's about
to go pick up his. Oh, that's right, he has to go pick up.
So sorry, this is, this was the conversation they had on the way out.
And instead of her saying, oh, my God, that must have been terrible for your
friend to be in jail. So good that you guys get to hang out,
she said, I can't believe you still have friends named Worm again.
So judgy and gross. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. So we get
to prison now and we see Edward Norton in his, like, state penitentiary or whatever
he's in, and he's playing cards with a bunch of other inmates,
winning cigarettes off of them. And then the guard comes to the gate
and goes, you know, like, I don't remember his last name, but he's like,
you're getting processed and all. The guy's like, wait, dude, you gotta
lose this back to us. Hey, I won these fair and square, man. Like,
what are you talking about? But he does, I think, give a few of them
back, just in good measure. Yeah. A very insulting amount back. And then he.
And then he throws the cigarettes away on his way out of the gates of
jail. Yeah. So great introduction to Worm because you
can see that, you know, he's street wise, he's clever. I mean,
he's pretty brazen with the stuff that he does. Like, he's not going
to be afraid or intimidated because it was, you know, him in
prison, a white guy playing against four black guys. And he explains later that
they're separate games that he has going. Yep. He's playing games with like the sort
of Aryan brotherhood guys for one thing, that he's got to play games with the
black guys for another thing. And he's got to play games with the guards to
keep them happy. And so he's got this whole thing going on. I did love,
though, in the, you know, the classic sort of like you get everything back.
Whatever you showed up with when you were first, you know, sentenced and put in
prison. They keep all that for you, obviously. And then you give it back to
you. Yeah. So he's putting on his clothes. He's got this leather jacket. He's got
whatever. And he's got a Ziploc bag with a single toothpick in it.
Yeah. That he very carefully is like, yeah, I need that. He takes it,
he puts it in his mouth, but he throws it away minutes after leaving the
prison. Just flicks it off into the street before getting into the car. Like,
all right, this is such a weird thing, but it's so very it fits his
character so well, I feel like. But. But it's such a strange little. He does
like throwing things on. He really does it a bunch get into. But he.
He likes to do that. Yeah. And so the buddies are catching up
and this is a great reunion and you kind of learn that Worm maybe
needs to start putting some money together right away. What he
owes. He doesn't have much time to celebrate his release. He's like, okay,
I gotta pay some people off or my life's gonna be much worse than it
was in prison. He tells Mike that he's got a game. And I have a
game for us. I know somebody who's gonna take us to this game. And it's
a lady that he knows who's a hostess of some kind of rich guy get
together part. I don't even know what these things are. It doesn't make a ton
of house. Is it a country club? Who knows? It's hard to tell how long
he was away. Has he been networking with this woman while he's been in
prison? How did that work? Why, like, it is oddness, but whatever.
We need to get the two of them to a poker game and that is
how this works, so. But Mike's just going to drop him off. Yeah, he's not.
He's not playing. He's not told. He told Joe he doesn't play anymore, so he
can't. He can't play. So he. So he asks,
you know, how have you been playing lately, Worms? Trying to. Right? And Mike
says, well, I'm off it. And he's like, he can't even really comprehend
that Mike would have quit completely. So he's like, well, what do you mean you're
off it? You're catching cold cards or what? He's like, no, I'm done. I don't
play. I love when he hands Worm the money. So he's like,
here, I'll give you the money I have on me so you can go in
and play this game. And he looks, it's 220 bucks.
I mean, thanks, but that's like 11 bets.
I love that response to it. Just the
money that they're used to. Dealing with have to move quicker. It's okay, fine.
So Mike, he drives away. He's been the good boyfriend.
And then I think they probably cut the scene where he's thinking about. It's just
showing flashbacks of his girlfriend nagging at him the whole time while he's driving away.
And he's like, what the fuck am I doing? Let's go back. But he does
go back, and I love it. The hostess that. That Worm knows, that sets this
thing up basically, you know, sees him at the door and is immediately like,
oh, yeah, cool, you're here. It's like, yeah, Worm said you'd be coming back.
And it's like, damn. Worm knows his boy. He knows Mike McD.
He says, I'm not much of a poker player. And she says, bullshit.
Worm tells me, that's precisely what you are. And then she has an arrangement,
basically, where she's bringing these ringers into this poker game and she gets a
cut. Of the winnings, she gets a quarter. So it seems reasonable, right,
if she's laying the trap, you give her 25% of your winnings and split the
rest between you. And that seems like pretty good work if you can get it.
Yep, yep. And they get in there and he's like, we're right back
into our old tricks. So they've already established kind of the
way that the legit poker games have worked and the basic rules of
these different card games that we're playing. But now we're kind of learning about Mike
and Warren had these little scams they could pull. They're. They're smart enough to play
in front of amateurs that they're not going to get picked up on if they're
dealing each other certain cards on purpose or. Communicating, you know, when somebody else is
a dealer, they're able to communicate with each other about what I. What I'm holding
in a way that, yeah, another pro would have picked up on and called them
out on me. Like, guys, you can't do that. But instead, it's just these,
these, you know, rich kind of, you know, trust fund kids. Yeah. And they don't
know what the hell's going on, so they're able to do that. One of the
best voiceover moments I love the visuals that match the voiceover in this movie are
just really so good, where he says, Worm played the role of the loser to
perfection. And it just shows Worms facial expressions as he's like,
really just catching bad cards and going broke and everything. Meanwhile,
Mike is winning enough for both of them. Right. Well, because Worm's dumping his money
to Mike in a lot of ways. Right. Like, he wins enough off the other
guys to then lose a big hand to Mike while Mike wins a few hands
on his own, and they just end up funneling all the money. Essentially, it is
literal money laundering. I mean, that's what they're doing. Yeah, yeah. For sure. Sure.
For sure. Yeah. Yeah. So that's great.
They're busting up the trust fund game. They got a little money going. Yeah,
I think that's. It's not enough for Worm, though, because I think he says he
needs $15,000. And I
don't know if he says, I can't even figure it with the Juice, but the
Juice is one of my favorite characters that can be in a movie.
The Vague or the Juice. Just as it's
always a nice device. Yes. So he takes him to the underground card
room, basically. All right, Worm, I'll get you set up in here. I can vouch
for you at this place I used to play, the Chesterfield. Famka Jansen.
Gorgeous, beautiful, loves poker. I mean,
it makes Mike's girlfriend look so much worse every
time Famka Janssen does anything because she seems like she's. In the world with
him. Clearly would have no problem with him. Him playing poker or whatever.
Clearly doesn't. But, like, you know, she's beautiful. She's taller than him, which I
guess can be. That can be. Not ideal, I suppose, you know, but, like,
what is so wrong with this woman that he has, like, does. Because it seems
like they set it up, or either. Did they date at one time or maybe
they could have. Yeah. There's some kind of tension between. There's definitely. I mean,
she is into him. Yeah, for sure. The whole time. And it doesn't really make
a lot of sense. Why? He's not receptive. No, not at all.
So he gets Worm set up, and I think he basically,
without any discussion, he just says, hey, this is my friend. I'll see
you guys later. And then Worm says, give me $2,000 on Mike.
It's like, wow, that is a lot of money. So he gets his money and
he starts doing his Worm stuff. And he's got a lot of scams and schemes
that maybe not everyone's picking up on, but some people are very suspicious. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, but before. Before we get back to Worm at the Chesterfield, because he's
there for quite a while. Yeah. Yeah. Mike goes home. It's the morning now,
Right. Because they've been out all night, right? It's the morning. They've got a conference.
He's got basically, like, a mock trial. He has to do with some of his
law school classmates. Joe is in his group and a couple other people. But he
gets home and, you know, he basically tells her, like, oh, you know, Worm and
I were out all night, whatever, you know, she's like, you're going to be late,
let me get a shower and it'll be fine. So he goes and jumps in
the shower. She sneaks into the bathroom and looks in his pockets and
is like from his jeans or whatever. And sure enough, there's that big wad of
cash that they won from the trust fund kids. And she leaves it on these
mirror, on the little like, you know, sill under the mirror so that he knows
that she saw it. Basically right. And then she goes off and he's of course
then very late to this conference that he has to have with his classmates.
And before he arrives, we are shown these three people, Joe and
these other two idiots who are just chatting about and
the law school friends, the little law school. Their, Their conversation is the most ridiculous
use of, of language I've ever heard in my life, even for lawyers. One of
them says the key is to be respectful the judges to the judges, but not
obsequious. No, no, be deferential. Shut the fuck up.
God, I was so angered by those. People supporting your
theory that this is a Good Will Hunting sequel. I mean, this is a big
punch in the face to the smart kids. We don't like the smart kids in
this movie. We don't. Oh my God. It's just.
I will say that I'd imagine that
Mike doing the truck for Knish is maybe not getting
a direct deposit in a W2. So a wad of cash maybe wouldn't be abnormal
if it were payday for him. But I think, you know, but she could
riddance. This is when I made a note at this point in the movie where
I was like, the, the storyline with her, with Joe, the girlfriend is, is.
I admit, and I accept that it's necessary to the story.
We need for Mike to have to make a choice
at some point. Now the choice kind of does end up getting made for him,
but like having this person holding him away from the poker game is the only
way that he doesn't just run right in with Worm. Right? So I get why
she's there from a plot standpoint, but it's so heavy handed. I get that she's
pissed off, but she's a complete pill. She's not sympathetic.
It's hard to see it from her side and really be like, gosh,
yeah, she's absolutely right. Mike shouldn't be doing. It's like it just doesn't feel like
that. And I felt like that, you know, we're getting close to
the point where, you know, she, she's not gonna be around anymore. She doesn't last
much longer in the story. And that's good because having him continue to sort
of come back to the apartment just to get scolded is like, not interesting
movie. No, not at all. Not at all. She does
say. So they're at their mock trial meeting and Mike shows up.
And then 10 seconds after he shows up, up, Knish walks in.
Knish has kind of an emergency when he
walks in there and Joe sees him, she says, knish, how are you? And he
goes the same. Oh,
like, there's just so much, like, pathos in that.
Like, he's, he's such a. Like, oh, man. Like you
feel bad for him, even though it's the lifestyle of a man who makes his
living playing cards. And you're like, oh, but he sucks. To be so dead inside.
He is absolutely. He is a hollowed out man.
But he couldn't pull Mike aside for a second in the library. He had to
say, hey, can I take you to a different venue to have a cup of
coffee and we'll talk about what Worm's doing right now, Right? Yeah.
So basically, Worm has been, you know,
working at the Chesterfield, right? He's started with the two grand that he basically borrowed
in Mike's name. Right? Mike's good for it, but he's run
up to, you know, five figures. But he's,
I believe Knish refers to recognizing a mechanic's grip.
So he's like dealing off the bottom of the deck, basically. And this is not
the last time Worm will get caught doing something that, that he shouldn't be.
But Knish, you know, mentions, like, I didn't say anything to anybody, but I noticed
it, so I wanted to come talk to you because if somebody notices it,
it's going to be bad for him. And it's, you know, he's there on your
name. So it's time for Mike to now leave the conference he so
importantly had to get to with his colleagues five minutes after arriving at
most. And is now running back to the Chesterfield Poker poker room to figure out
what's going on with Worm. Good characters here, Roman and
Maurice, the guys that Worm is playing against, who are described as,
you know, they're not connected like kgb, but those are some real Russian outfit
guys like these are. You don't want to connect these guys. And I like the
vaguely just, it allows for a guy to be kind of more
ridiculous and flamboyant if you know that, well, there's some mob connection,
so he can act that way because there's no. And the way those guys look,
they're not in it very much, but the way that they talk, I really.
I really love it. And these are guys that Worm is.
He's busting up, and if he gets discovered, I mean, these are guys who are
gonna beat the shit out of him or worse. Right, exactly. Or kill him.
Yeah, yeah. And. And Mike pulls him outside and Worm
wants to get a hot dog, which he takes like two bites of and then
throws away. But he tells me,
he's like, hey, like, make it look good. Lose someone it back, but don't leave
with all that money. Like, lose their money back to them. Whatever you want off
them, lose it back to them. You can leave with everything else you got,
you know, you see, you'd still be up a bit. Right, if he did that,
but what does he do instead? He just goes in and cashes out. And he
even cashes the borrowed money. Right. Which. The Chesterfield's bad for
letting people do that. Although if you're dealing with gambling addicts, I mean,
probably most of your revenue is off of interest. That is true, actually. That's.
That's probably. They're. They're really. Yes, they're a poker room room,
you know, as a. That's their front for their real business, which is loan
sharking. Yeah. Being able to charge three points a week or whatever on.
On $2,000 is kind of the whole point of their existence. So. Yeah, does make
sense. But of course it's on Mike. It's not even on Worm. Right. So that's
super shitty of him. But I don't think she might even said five points
a week. It was a lot. It was the. I remember thinking the interest sounded
high, but. But yeah. So they. So he cashes
out and he heads to, I think a strip club. Right. Isn't that where Worm
ends up going? Yeah, right. Which. Not the place to go if you're trying to
build a bankroll. You're trying to accumulate money that seems like the opposite
of where you go unless you're working. Right, but he wasn't working. No,
yeah, he wasn't. And he runs into an old buddy of his there,
Grandma. And you know, they never explained why this guy is named Grandma, but he
is. So. Okay. And grandma is. Got some news
for Worm. He's got some really important, important news that all of the money that
Worm owed to all kinds of other people, that a totaled $15,000
initially, grandma bought it up.
So. So he basically all. You know, and it sounded like, for pennies on the
dollar, like he didn't have to pay 15 grand, right? Right. He probably bought it
for four or five thousand spread out among a few people. Nobody really nobody thought
they'd ever get money out of Worm anyway. So this, you know, makes sense to
them. But now Grandma not only wants that, he wants the vig on top of
that from back when Worm first went away. So it's clearly been a while that
he was in prison because it's up. To 25 grand again.
Grandma's not having audited financial statements done for his calculations
or anything. And a line that I like. I don't know if it's here a
little later, but the way Worm describes it to Mike is,
Mike's like, how much do you owe? He's like 15. He's like, well, how much
with the vig? He's like, by his fucking guerrilla math, like, 25. And we
would always refer to roommates or whatever. Like, by your fucking gorilla math.
How do I owe $7 for this pizza? There's four of us. It was 20.
But so, yeah, great.
Grandma is just really proves to be such a
scummy character and just, like, the sleaze of the underworld and a.
Terrible businessman, because what he ends up doing, right? He brings Worm into the bathroom.
He tells him about, you know, hey, I bought up all the money. Da,
da, whatever. I think that's when he admits that, because he asked, where'd you get
the scratch to do that? He said, I've got a partner. I went in with
KGB. So now Worm realizes he owes 25 grand, not really to
Grandma. He really owes it to Teddy kgb. And that is not somebody want to
owe money to. But Grandma then takes all the money Worm has on him.
Grandma knows exactly how Worm makes his money. Why would he
take all his stake? Like, I guess what he's saying is, I'm gonna get anything
I can, and I don't care about the rest of it. Like, I understand that's
a loan shark attitude, but also, it feels like if Grandma really, you know,
really wanted his money, you know, would he just, like, keep it? Maybe he just
thinks Worm would just run. Maybe that's what it is. You take the money now,
you know, he has to stick around to try to build it back up because
he's got nothing to run on. Maybe he'd rather leave with 14 grand instead.
Build up the. And pay him off. It's just. It still felt a little like,
you know, if you've got somebody who, you know, the way they make money is
through gambling, like, leaving Them with nothing you're sure to not get anymore.
Yeah, you know, like, that's just. It seemed like a bad business move by Grandma.
Well, and unfair business practices, too. I think whatever he took off Worm at the
strip club, I don't think he subtracted that from the total. I think that was
just. You lied to me. I'm taking your money. That's a good point. He still
didn't count it out or anything. He didn't even do the Mafia, like where you
take a stack of bills, you look at it sideways and say, ah. No,
he. No, that is. That's the 10 grand he took, the vig. Oh, he had
10 grand on him? Well, 8,000. Plus he had it from the. Okay. And then.
And what he said, because from then on, 15 is the number they owe.
Right. But for the rest of the movie, we talk about 15, not 25.
So the key is. And that's another reason why he would take it. Right.
Is if vig is. Is. Is due the second it's accrued. Right. I mean,
you may not pay the principal back for a while, but you pay that vig
every week. Yeah. And so the fact that it built up that much, I could
see. Seen. You know, that's why Grandma took it right then. But that's why.
So now worms back to nothing. He's got no money. They. He's at least negative
2000 kind of. Right, exactly. He owes the Chesterfield two. He still owes grandma KGB
15. So that's. And he's got nothing to work with, so he's
in deep. Basically, he's in trouble here. And then one place
that the plot kind of separates. So we leave the Worm character now,
and Mike is looking to speak to his professor.
I think he might have had to bring something to the professor. And this is
the guy who's also going to be presiding over the mock trial that
him and his team are working with. This. Okay, I do
love. The professor asks will he sit down for a drink with him?
Yeah. And he says, what are you drinking? And he says, gin, Always gin.
Again, it just. There's this defeat in his voice, kind of like
Knish saying the same when he. When he's asked how he is is this
scene. I don't know how necessary it is. I feel like it's a very long
story of the professor ultimately, just saying be yourself.
And. And it's good. He's a. He's a good act. Martin Landau
is a great actor, but I don't know. It broke up the poker
action. Because there's been so much cards and like just so much great shit so
far. So this was kind of a lull. This is, this is where you go
get your popcorn. I think that's fair. But I would say it's, it's a pretty
crucial because we know later, you know, if we look ahead to the movie,
right. Like we've both seen this a hundred times, so we knew it was coming.
He later has to ask to borrow money from this judge. Right.
And you know, I think that without this storyline of,
you know, how the way
he explains it, right. Is that, you know, when I was allowed to leave the
yeshiva and come and do go to law school and make that my life's work,
I was done a mitzvah and now I need to do one for you.
You know, that's like I need to repay that really. That's how I owe in
that way. And without that background, I don't know why there would be any reason
that he would actually give money to Mike
later on. So I think that, you know, establishing that clearly there is a relationship
here. We got a little bit of it at the judges game, right, when he
was, when Mike was just impressive. Right. But now there's like this element of them
bonding a little bit over, you know, sort of the fact that there
is a world with, to which they believe they should be belong and then
the world to which they actually do belong and that there's a difference there.
There's a bonding that happens there. I also think it's just awesome because,
you know, what is this little bar and why is this guy got bottle service?
Why does he have an entire fifth of gin that he's drinking Neat. I like
when you can just get the bottle. Yeah, I mean, it's tough there.
I, I, well, I appreciate the deep analysis because I was just like,
the lesson here is that you need to listen to old people's boring stories
if you ever want to ask them for anything. I mean, that's also kind of
true, to be honest. You do need to pay attention to, you know, your elders
before asking them for money, especially significant amounts of it. But, but no,
I think, I think it did, it did give us a backstory that was,
you know, necessary enough. Plus, you know, getting to watch Martin
Landau on screen is never a bad thing. Let's go on a little speech and
he says, we can't run from who we are. Destiny chooses us. Which, which could
fit in like any sci fi movie or literally any movie. Luke Skywalker Worm
is with Mike and he's at the apartment, right? And he says. He says,
I need you to tone it down. A great Worm saying, tone down what,
motherfucker? So good. So they
get into the apartment and they realize, oh, my God,
she took your sheets. Yeah, she took everything. She's like. She's down. Stripped down to
the mattress, man. It's gone. So she's gone. Joe's gone. Joe took everything
out of the apartment, and she's out of there. And now Mike's by
himself, and he's just. But Worm, being the good friend he is,
says, all right, let's go gamble about it. Yeah,
go to Atlantic City. One of the best speeches to get him fired up for
Atlantic City here. That might be a good intro to the episode.
I already have that marked down. Okay. 5314 to 5421.
So everyone listening. You already heard it. But yeah, that's going to be the intro
clip for sure. It's just that would get me so
fired up. Like, we. We would do Vegas or Reno rather than Atlantic City,
obviously. But just the idea of, like, the things that get you charged up
to go gamble, and especially going from these dreary confines of
the New York City underground poker scene, too. Oh, we can win some
money off some real idiots here and get, like, noodles brought to us and pour
way too much soy sauce in our noodles. And stuff like that. There's no such
thing as noodles, but that's okay. So they.
They end up going. So Worm and Mike, all right, let's go to AC Forget
about this woman. Like, this sucks, but let's get out of here.
And they sit at the poker table. Another line that I love when
they realize that these are all people familiar to us. This is all
our regular poker crew who are now at the tourist poker table. Yeah. And he
says, welcome to the Chesterfield South. Which I enjoy that.
Yeah. One of my favorite lines from Worm is right around here where,
you know, they all kind of. So Worm has gone off initially to bang
a hooker, basically. He's got some needs. Relaxation specialist. Exactly.
That's right. Relaxing. Yeah. But so, yeah, the crowd is a bunch of the Chesterfield
folks. And then I think Knish shows up and is sort of like,
hey, you know, I'll sit with you for a bit. You know, whatever. Then Worm
shows up and he wants to take chips from Mike and just play. And they,
of course, will do that. He has to buy them. But when Ganish says,
like, hi. Basically says hi to Worm, and Worm says something like, you keep grinding
out that rent money. Joe, it's noble work you're doing. It's so,
like, such a dick move. Clash of the styles, you know, Like, I don't respect
you. I take big bites and big risks and maybe I end up in jail,
but, you know, you're a wuss for just, you know, winning what you can reasonably
and not getting caught. I think more than one character says either to Knish or
in reference to Knish throughout the movie, that he sees all the angles but doesn't
have the blood falls to play anymore. Right. And it's true. And it's. And.
And, you know, his retort is, this is my job. Yeah. I got
a child support. I got a mortgage. Like, I got rent or whatever. It's like,
this is. This is how I make my living. Yeah. This isn't thrills for me.
This is, like how I support my family, so. Which definitely makes sense when they're
sitting at the poker table. Another such a good voiceover match with the visuals
when they're talking about the Taurus at the table and people having different
facial ticks or things they do with their hands that. Right. Tell, you know,
if he acts Brit, if he acts bold, then he's got crap cards
and the way a cigarette is smoked and all these things that he's saying.
But again, so much information there that really lets you understand, like, I don't
know how to do what Mike McD does, but I know what that kind of
guy's looking for. So you kind of understand him in this environment. Yeah. An interesting
little side note in this sequence where you're having tourists sort of get up and
get, you know, sit down the table, and then they get up and leave,
whatever. While all the. These sharks are there. Two. There's two men who show up
at one point, both wearing, like. Like suits. Like they're there maybe on business or
something, and just kind of let the. Badges on and stuff. Exactly. They're like.
They're there for, like, a conference. That is David Levine and Brian Koppelman, the film
screenwriters. Oh, nice. Yeah. So they decided to insert themselves into there losing
their money to their characters. So. Great. This is
just some needed levity, I think, in the middle of the whole plot of the
movie. Because Atlantic City wasn't really the solution for them to fully build
up their bankroll to be able to pay off Grandma. No, but it is.
It is when the movie really starts in a lot of ways. Right. This is
really the beginning of Act 2. Right. We've gone through Act 1. We're now into
Act 2. We're into the meat of the film. And this is really when the
movie takes off. And. Yeah, this is not. This scene does not move forward.
The central challenge of getting Worm, you know,
out from underneath Grandma's thumb. But it obviously is an important piece.
And it's. It's there where Worm admits to Mike that
he's got this. Oh, right. And I think even where he tells him that it's.
No, he doesn't tell him it's KGB till later. That's right. Till the till.
Till they break up. But. But he tells him how much it is. He tells
him it's a lot. That it's 15, you know, maybe 25. Whatever. And so it's
a big deal. Right. And Mike realizes this is some serious. And that. And that,
you know, he knows Grandma. Grandma's not somebody, you know, they used to work together.
It almost sounds like Grandma used to work for Worm in a lot of ways.
Yeah, but I was your lackey. Yeah, right, Exactly. I wasn't your partner. I was
your lack of. But, you know, they clearly have a history, and these people know
each other. And so it does seem. Mike does seem concerned. Right. That it's Grandma
that he has to deal with. Yeah. And Mike's life still
has to continue after this because Mike has the mock trial coming up.
That's true. And I think this is the next thing after AC Is he
shows up to the mock trial. Of course, his team of dorks are all there.
And then all the judges, some from the poker game, some just new ones,
just have the best disapproving. Like Waldorf
and. What are the guys? Stadler and Waldorf, Statler and Waldorf and the Muppets.
Like, old man disapproving looks on their faces. And he comes
in and immediately it. Up, screws the boots. He just starts talking about the
wrong thing. Yep. He's replaced. Yep. And that's
pretty much it for him and his involvement with that. And with Joe.
And Joe, her, like, trying to insert poker
terminology into all of her bitchiness towards him. Like,
what are you gonna do? Talk to the judges about. Or write a thesis about
high stakes poker? Like, use, like, some deeper vocab at
least, you know, you should always fold a poker hand when you have bad cards
in your poker hand. Like, you didn't learn anything.
Like, you're a terrible girlfriend. You weren't. You would have some slang if you were
listening to this guy all these. Years, show a little interest in your boyfriend's.
Like, well, not just hobby but literally what defined his life for a period
of it. You could show some interest, Joe. Come on. Crazy. So, best juxtaposition
of the movie, I think. So Joe saying, well, you know, you always have to
fold your hand. Shut the up, Joe. And then Mike's
back at his apartment. Nearly empty apartment, and he's just like. You know
what, I'm, I'm just watching some old VHS of the World Series of Poker.
He's watching Johnny Chan against Eric Seidel.
And there's a knock at the door. It's Petra Vamke Jansen
shows up looking good as hell, but with some bad news for him.
She says, hey, you know Worm, he didn't lose the money back.
In fact, he won four grand more. And then he took all the money.
He didn't even pay your two grand back. So you're into us for this?
And Mike reacts, so cool. Oh man. He's just like, oh yeah,
we talked about that. Okay, cool. He basically didn't want Petra to understand that Worm
did that without Mike's approval. Yes. He wasn't trying to rat him out. He was
basically just like, oh, oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah. No, I get that. What's it
up to? Oh sure, sure. But you know, he clearly is like nervous about it,
but he's playing it like everything's straight, everything. Such a solid friend and really,
you know, keeps his cards. He's not showing his hand.
Right, Exactly. Petra knows that he's watching.
She knows the exact part of the exact World Series of Poker that he's watching.
And she offers to stay. He's just been dumped by his girlfriend and
now he has the hottest, most poker loving woman who is
flinging herself at him, who offers to stay and
he doesn't. Basically drapes herself all over him.
And I guess like, look, I think the only way I can excuse this in
my mind, Mike, is that he's underneath the surface, is so
incredibly enraged about what Worm has done that
he knows that if she sticks around, it's not he's not able to enjoy himself.
It's going to be be stupid because he's just gonna be pissed all time.
And sure enough, he throws what must be what one or two glasses he owns,
he throws his glass against and shatters it. I mean, he's clearly super pissed about
Worm as well he should be. But that must be, that's the only thing I
can accept as like a reason to not let Petra stay at that point.
Yeah, that's exactly what I wrote. Is that I think and I'VE under.
I understand being that mad and how good it must feel
to just chuck a scotch glass at the wall and have it shatter.
That probably feels pretty good in that moment, you know, at least until you have
to clean it up. I. People. What? What is it? The old. The old Chestnut
is throwing glasses into a fireplace. I kind of feel like, okay, then that'll handle
itself. Something will happen there. But yeah, it seemed like, oh, man.
Yeah, exactly like you said. He's like, I need to explode.
But I can't do it in front of her, so I need to get everyone
out of here so I can do it. And yeah, he finds Worm hiding out.
Right. And I guess this is in the gym where he used to hide out
as a kid. Yeah, it's like the school they went to as a kid as
kids. Kids. It seems like they went to prep school together. That's where they went.
And this is the gym there. So he was hiding out because that's where the,
you know, he used to deal with bullies and bullies would come after him a
lot, apparently. We get the idea. Worm was sort of a little slight kid and
so dealt with bullies a lot. And this is where he would hide. Except we
definitely. It's definitely older than that. Like. Like he was a teenager at the time.
Because they talked about how. Yeah, you were hiding from so and so. Oh,
yeah. What did I ever do to that guy? You fucked his mother.
Oh, yeah. She was a nice looking older woman. She was nice. She was
that. Mike tells Worm during the scene.
He says, you're fixing to go down hard. It's almost like you want to.
Which I really. I love that line. But if you're
a paroled felon, are you gonna break into a high school?
It seems like a high profile bad thing to do. You know,
you don't want to get caught there. But I think he's. He feels like he's
slick enough. Nothing Worm is concerned at all about. About,
you know, Johnny Law in general. He. He's got. He's got KGB to worry about.
I don't think anything else matters at this point. And he knows KGB's not give
a. He broke into a school of stairs. Right. So. So. But they got to
go talk to Grandma to figure this out. And I love the walking
lip herpe that answers the door at Grandma's place. That woman
has got some nasty growth on her face. Good Lord. You know, you want
to spin you guys cops like, no, like, we gotta talk to Grandma. Get out
of the way. Grand gross but yeah, so they, they gotta go talk to grandma
and try to get this shit squared. They set up grandma as a scumbag.
So. Well, his place is disgusting. He's clearly, you know, a pimp,
a loan shark, a drug dealer, all the worst things you could be. And then
he's wearing like a 1930s cartoon child red pajama and
a pork pie hat and he's.
And then he abuses his dog just to kind of show the dog
is sniffing at something and he goes and you know, pulls its head away or
was it chewing on the couch or something. I never quite understood. So one back,
I was thinking back when I used to watch this, I used to think that
the dog like on the floor and he's like, you got
to catch him while he does it. And he like rubbed his nose in it
or something or did something like that. But this last time watching it felt like
maybe he was. He gnawing at the furniture leg, like chewing at the couch leg
and he kicked the dog or something. Whatever it was, it was awful. He's terrible.
And yeah, he looks like, like a mix between Ralphie from Christmas
Story and Heisenberg. Like it's the most ridiculous outfit anyone. Well,
he's wiping his hands on his pajamas. Second most ridiculous
outfit. Cuz he wears something more ridiculous later in the movie. But like. Yeah,
but, but totally awful. And, and basically Worm can't keep his
mouth shut. So he mouths off at grandma. But Mike is like, no, no,
no, it's okay, it's okay. It's good. If you think he's good for it,
then it's on you too. So now Mike's in. They're both in. And they.
Mike at this point still believes. To grandma he has no idea KGB
is involved at this point still, so. But he believes he now owes 15 grand
to grandma just like Worm does. That's on both of them. Fifteen grand in
five days. In five days. So one of the things they decide they can
do is how many games do we know again? This is where the term rounder
comes, right? They know about all these different games. They can make the rounds,
literally and go to them. And it's a great montage that kicks off.
And they are, they're playing all these different plays. I love the great Greek guys
at the deli they're playing, you know, it's like, like what did you have jacks?
Does this look like a man who's beaten by jacks? Like so good.
Yeah. So I wrote down the games they had. They had the union game the
union hall game. They had the cigar shop. Okay. Oh, that's what people at
the cigar shop. Because I thought that the. The kind of the
trust fund type kids from earlier were the most like,
douche chili people in the movie. But someone. One. The Cameroon
rapper on this one, nice and oily. That always killed
me. I'm never into cigars, so I don't know what the that means, but it's
very funny. And then we had. And then
Mike, of course, wins the hand and has to say, I have what's known as
the wheel. It has, you know, describing it like a cigar, which just to rub
it. In a little enough kick to win me the high and the low.
Then they had the Greeks, the just jacks game. They had the golf pro
game. And that's one where Mike got shook a little bit that,
you know, hey, look at this. I bluffed the big ringer. Yeah, yeah. There's a
lot more where that came from. You know, the arrogant golf pro. And he just
decided. I think Mike would have ultimately prevailed in that game, but just decided like,
I'm not feeling it. I'm too tired. Yeah. You know, we got to get out
of here. And then Worm takes him to get their mafia shave, the straight razor
shave at the barbershop. Which I never think of as something that
would be relaxing or fun, except that when I think of this movie, I'm like,
oh, I just need, like a straight razor shave. That's all I need. Yeah,
I guess I've been up for two days straight. That's all I need. Oh,
my God. So funny. But, yeah, so they are. They're getting close, but they're not.
They don't have 15. They get about 7K. Right. Okay. So they still got a
ways to go. And they've been going at it for about three days, I think,
at this point is what it sounds like. So Worm says, hey, I know about
a municipal workers game. It's a little upstate. That's like a.
That's like a four hour drive. So they got to rent a car. Yeah,
I mean, that's. They got. This is like serious. But he's like, no, no,
no, this is good. These guys, you know, they're. They're going to be soft and
they're. They're bringing a lot of money to the table. This is gonna be perfect.
So they go up to the municipal workers game. Yeah. Which ends
up being what? Instead, in municipal workers, they were all police.
That's right. And the funniest thing is the troopers, basically,
they pull up there, and they see all the police cars.
And Mike says, I thought you said municipal
works. They work for the city. No, they work for the state. And they.
And then Worm says, okay, so when you get in there, this is the guy.
It's like, what have you been doing for five hours in the car? Like,
right. How's the plan? Should the whole time be, let's get our story straight.
Oh, my God. It's like, sorry, I wanted to listen to Dark side of
the Moon five times in a row. So, yeah. So no conversation
during that. So Mike gets in there, and it's going pretty well. It's a
room full of cops still in their uniforms for the most part.
And he says that he knows this guy's cousin from the hunting lodge.
Right. Which is enough of a. Okay, you seem fine. Come on and
sit down with us. Well, even there's a recognition. So Worm actually does know the
guard whose cousin is playing this game from the prison. And. And there's
even a moment where when Mike walks up to the cousin and
introduces himself. Oh, I know you know your cousin, so. And so you're one of
his students. And it's a reference to where he's talking about. Are you from.
Were you inside? He goes, no, no, no, nothing like that. Like, I know him
from the hunting lodge or something like that. So, yeah, there's a. There's a moment
there where it's like, I don't know if they would have let him play.
Maybe this is why Worm doesn't go in initially. I don't know. Maybe that was
just Mike's request. But, like, there seemed to be an element of if he had
been an inmate, they weren't gonna let him sit. Yeah. Which makes sense. Totally.
But. Totally. But, yeah. So that was a fun way to do it without,
you know, that guy spilling the beans on what, you know, is going on.
But, yeah, And Mike said he's doing well. I think he says he's up,
you know, a couple grand at this point. Daylight can't come soon enough.
And he. He's playing the game. And then a
sentence happens in this that I feel like if either of us
announced it as we walked into our house, our wives would just leave us
right away. And that's. The guy comes in, he says to everyone,
hey, I met this guy down at the bowling alley. Says he likes to play
little cards as he brings Worm in,
because Worm was supposed to just go amuse himself, and he can't help himself.
So he was talking to someone. So he gets brought in from the bowling alley.
Alley. But I love that. Oh, hey, let me tell you two credible things
about this stranger I'm just bringing into A, I met him at the bowling alley.
And B, he says he likes to play a little card, so clearly he's cool.
To be fair, all the best relationships I've had through my
entire life started off as random meetings and bowling alleys. I mean, clearly that's
where you find the highest caliber people in the world for sure. It's where the
best of the best hang out. I mean, he wasn't bowling for
sure. Sitting at the bar. Specifically bowling alley bar, which we
know is really where the best. This guy, like, I met this guy drinking at
the bowling alley. He likes to drink at bowling alleys and play cards. He should
come join us. All right. Oh, man.
Okay, so worms in now. But the thing is, worms not playing straight up.
Worm might be good enough to hang straight up or at least to not put
at jeopardy anything that Mike's done so far. But Mike's noticing
that Worm is doing his kind of. Yeah. Because worms trying to. He's trying
to accelerate everything. He's trying to floor it with all this stuff.
Somehow Worm is able to deal precise card.
I mean, it seems. I would like to know how this works in real life
versus the portrayal. Right. So this is the way it works. It's called bottom dealing.
And I don't understand the mechanics of how it works, but it is a concept,
Right. That exists in reality. And first of all, depending on if. How you can
learn how to shuffle certain cards in certain orders. Right. If you're, if you're.
If you see, people sometimes will like, cut card cut decks as they go.
If you do that enough, you can kind of see, okay, I got this card
here, this card here. You know, whatever scene. Maybe now you know what, like the
top, top four cards on your deck is? You can shuffle to where now they're
now on the bottom. So now you know what the four cards on the bottom
are. And as you're dealing off the top like you normally would when you want
one of those four cards. Let's. Maybe you placed aces down there. Whatever. You can
deal off the bottom instead. If you do it right, it can be hard to
see that that's what happened. But one of these state troopers is clearly
staring at Wurm's hands while he's doing this.
Yeah. And sure enough. Enough he notices something off. Yeah.
You know, he doesn't even necessarily seem like he knows for sure what's going on,
but he says, I'm catching a hanger. Again, a term. I'm not really sure,
but it's clearly a poker term. But I have said it a hundred times in
my life. I still don't know what it means. But definitely, if you're doing poorly
at poker, you say, I caught a hanger. Just blame somebody else. There you go.
But, yeah, so they catch him going, and the way they decide to. Because they,
you know, the cops in this game don't know. Worm and Mike know each other.
They introduce, you know, they said hi to each other as if they'd never met
before at the beginning. And, you know, they want to see, are these guys professionals?
Are they. Are they playing or, you know, are they. Are they taking them for
a con? You know, whatever. And sure enough, you know,
Worm dealt the exact card Mike needed to get a full house,
like, whatever. And that was all the proof the cops needed. And they beat the
ever loving out of these two. I mean, really, there had to
be some broken ribs up in this place. It was. It was a pretty brutal.
Beat down and take every dime they had. Have. Yeah. I mean, the combination of
they got money stolen from them at a poker game and
they're a bunch of cops, makes them really good at beating people up. I think
these guys just got it so bad, and I think it's like, you have
no recourse. You just tried to steal from us. Who are you going to call
us? And they deserve to get their ass kicked,
like, going into this game cheating and pulling, you know, 40% of the money
that was in the entire entire game out of there. Right? Yeah. So that's it.
Worm is. He's out. He's gone. Yeah, yeah.
Basically, Mike's like, let's go back. We'll talk to Grandma. We'll get some extra time,
whatever. We'll come in. He's like, no, Grandma's not gonna give us extra time.
It's not about Grandma. He goes, what do you mean it's not about Grandma?
Grandma's got backing. Well, who's grandma got back? Kgb.
And this is when Mike now learns he doesn't owe 15 grand to
grandma. He owns 15 grand to Teddy KGB. As we've been told
numerous times throughout the film to this point. Point, you do not want to owe
money to Teddy kgb. Y. So Worm decides he's just going on
the lamb. He is just. I don't. He doesn't even have the car. He's just
heading off. I don't know where he's going. Worm says, like, Your girlfriend Joe used
to say, if you ever have a bad hand of poker and your cards are
bad, you should always put the cards down and fold them. Because it's a bad
hand of poker. Yes. Don't play the bad poker hand in the game of poker
that you're playing with your bad poker hand. That poker hand is not good.
You shouldn't play that poker hand. Enough game of poker. So now Mike is.
Is kind of the most tail between legs guy we've seen so far in
the movie. And he goes to the. The bath. Yeah,
the public Russian bath, which I've never spent any time
in New York City. I love seeing this kind of stuff because I'm just like,
oh, ew. The amount of bacteria I'm imagining just being in
that room makes me so grossed out. Yeah. Like, oh,
these are people who I would never want to hang out with. It would be
better if we're all. Just hang out of body hair that must have been in
those. In those bodies of water. Just disgusting. Absolutely. Yeah.
But, you know, Knish is there, and Knish has always been helpful
to Mike, but he also, look, I'm running Knish,
llc, and I have to pay for my lifestyle and my children
and stuff, so I need to be able to recognize when somebody's a real problem
gambler or somebody is not worth throwing my money at.
Right? And Mike's basically saying, look, I don't want your lectures.
I don't want to hear any. And going back to my earlier point,
he listened to the judge's story, and he tells Knish,
I don't want your lectures. And Knish says, all right, you're not getting any fucking
money from. Fair. Fair point. Listen to those lectures. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So,
you know, and he takes a little brow beating from Knish, and I think he
deserves it and recognizes that he deserves it. But he's also like,
look, I don't have time. Like, this isn't the time for this.
All I need is the help. And then he explains to Kanish why he
first went after kgb, Right, with his bankroll the
first time. Right. He went to Atlantic City. He went to the Taj Mahal,
and he sat down. And who showed up while he was playing there? Johnny Chan,
the world champion, shows up. And Johnny Chan is playing,
you know, this other table. He's not playing at Mike's table. Mike has to get
up and go over there. But Chan's playing and everybody's coming and just giving him
money, throwing money away to him just to say they sat with Johnny Chan applied
play. So Mike sits down and. And he's got
kind of a garbage hand, but he decides I'm gonna bluff him. I'm just gonna
beat him. I don't have the hand to beat him. Just one time. One time
I'm gonna beat him. And sure enough, he. You know, he stares Johnny down.
The raise, the check, raise, re raise, all this stuff. And he goes. And he
goes all in. And. And Chan, you know, looks like
he's gonna call, but then he checks his cards again. He mucks him, you know,
so Mike takes the pot down, and I love this line. Johnny goes, so,
did you have this it? And he goes, sorry, John, I don't remember.
And it was like, you know, two seconds ago, right? It's just like. It's just
such a great power move kind of line. But that's how Mike knows he's
good enough to do this. You know, he knows how to do this. He got
a bad beat at KGB's in the prologue, and that happens to everybody,
unfortunately, when it happens and you're all in with every chip you own. Yeah,
that's a bummer. But, you know, he could beat these guys. He can do it.
Yeah. And. And it doesn't sway. I mean, it's kind of a nice little show
of his, still kind of respect and friendship with Knish. Because at this point,
he knew he wasn't going to get the money, but he still said, hey,
look, man, I know you think I'm crazy, but I'm not crazy. And this is
why. Yeah, so Mike's desperate. The other source.
The other potential source for the funds he has to go to is the professor.
Yeah, yeah. He's got to go to the judge and talk to him. And this
is where, you know, there's. There's this call back to the story that the judge
told him about leaving yeshiva, not becoming a rabbi, which was a, you know,
shame to his parents and all this stuff. But he was basically allowed, you know,
his parents didn't stop him physically, basically, from going into law and.
And following his life's work. And so that was, you know, what he said was
like a mitzvah done to him. So now he owes and has to do a
mitzvah back sort of, you know, more cosmically. He owes, you know, and so
he says, yeah, if it has to be right now, I can give you $10,000,
which is, you know, that's an astronomical sum of money.
I do have a little bit of an issue with this, though, because he is
given a. Mike is Given a check for $10,000, where'd he go? He goes
to a check cashing place. They're 24 hour check cash place. Those exist. That's totally
logical. But he shows up to KGB's place to play Parker with $10,000
no fee check cashing. Am I right? Am I supposed to believe there's a free
no fee check cashing in the middle of the night willing to hand over five
figures without taking anything? Like maybe he would have eight grand.
They're going to take 20% off of the top of that to do that check
cashing. So regardless, they didn't want to get into the details. I think of
like why the money amount would be different. But the point is he gets 10
grand from the judge. The judge basically is honest to him and says, I don't,
you're not going to be able to pay this back ever, whatever, but just get
out of your trouble. I don't ever need to see the money again. Just take
this money and get out of the trouble you're in. But of course he doesn't
need 10 at this point. I'm obviously don't remember, did he need 15? Do you
need 25? I don't remember. He needs some larger amount of money than that to
pay KGB back back. Yeah, I think he needs,
yeah, I think he needs 15. Right. So, but he
gets there and this is the perfect sign of a gambling addict where
he's like, okay, well I'm here to pay back my. Hey, is this casino still
open? Well, it's like, I know, I think he was always showing up intending
to play. The 10 wasn't enough to pay it off. He had to get in
the game. Exactly. It's like it's my money for eight more hours. Basically he says,
right, it's my money until I guess they're doing to like sun up or something.
I don't know what because it's clearly not eight hours to midnight the night.
No, right. It's late, middle of the night. So it must be something where it's
like, oh, until sun up, you know, maybe they have until nine. It's like business
hours. Right. But he's got some amount of time to play.
And so basically, you know, instead of just playing like a
normal, you know. Yeah, like here's some chips, go play at a table. KGB offers
him, all right, let's sit down. You and I, head to head. We'll do,
you know, whatever, heads up or whatever. And you put down your 10 and I'll
put down my 10. And whoever walks away with all the chips, ships, that's who.
You know, like the debts paid basically. Either way, doesn't stop until one of us
has it all. Yeah, has it all. And this
is like, obviously, so many of the things John Malkovich says during this
final Act 3 scene are fantastic. But one of my
favorite words that he says, and I don't hear people quoting a lot, is very
aggressive. It's so ridiculous.
Again, his. His invention of different Russian ways to say English
words is just so impactful. Yeah, very aggressive.
So, Mike, is he finally, at some point in the game,
I think he picks up on a tell that Teddy
has relating to his Oreos. Right. So the Oreos that are always sitting next to
Teddy and they've got a little masking tape on him that says, do not touch
with X. You know, nobody touched these. It's clear. So when Mike lost
the bad beat at the beginning of the movie, KGB picked up one of his
Oreos and he sort of twists it open, you know, and he looks at the
side with the cream and the side that doesn't have the cream, and he pops
one of them in his mouth. And he pops and he chews him and he
eats him. And then he beats Mike with the card. So he had the better
hand. There's a hand where Mike is. Got a strong hand,
and he thinks KGB might be bluffing. So KGB picks up the Oreo
and looks at it and opens it, but then doesn't eat it. He puts it
back together. He puts it back in the tray and mucks his hand. And Mike
wins the pot. And so Mike then realizes, oh, that's his tell.
If he eats the Oreo, he's got the hand. And if he doesn't,
then he puts the Oreo down. And this was the brilliant part of this,
too, is then he tells kgb, I know your tell.
Yeah, I got it. Because he realizes he could let him go on eating.
Even says this right in the narration. I could let him go on eating those
Oreos all night and whatever, but I needed to do this faster.
Yeah. And it's going to rattle him more. It's going to throw him off his
game so much that he's been found out. It's such a great, really, really smart
play by the character in that moment. That's right. And. And Mike, now he's
won the 10k from KGB. And. And what he says is,
he says, now Teddy could be paid off, and I'm halfway to paying back the
professor. Right. At this point. Right? So you did okay, 15 grand and half.
Five grand. Yeah. And KGB, in his ever taunting
manner, he says, it's so bullshit. Anyway,
I'm still up 20k from this last time I stick
it in you. And does the grossest, like, air hump with
like, whatever he's doing with his mouth.
He must have creeped out everyone he tried that for. I mean, it's just,
it's perfect though, because it's just like a guy who doesn't fully
understand the culture but knows how to be a scumbag in any language. And this
is the thing that he does. Oh, man, it's. It's perfect and disgusting and everything.
So, yeah, so basically Mike puts the 20 grand back into play and
KGB has 20 more grand brought, you know,
whatever, right. You know, he brings the money back in and they're going to keep
going because they got a few more hours, it sounds like, right? And you know,
they play back and forth a bunch. And then we get to a
really interesting hand at the end where, you know, I don't remember the exact cards,
but I know Mike has a couple of, of suited but split cards in
his pocket. I think might have been like 85, something like, like that, I think.
And then the flop is like, I'm going to get it probably wrong, but it's
like 467. It's something that looks. It's a rainbow. It's. They're not suited.
It's not a flush draw, I don't think, initially at least. Or maybe it's a
little bit of one and then. But you know, they're not connected cards for the
most part. So it doesn't look like much. There's no pair of the drop.
There's, you know, all the things you would look for if you're playing of like,
well, what's the likely hand here? There's not a lot of obvious. Right. Right hand.
And KGB is just taunting him about
what card you know is coming or isn't your fate. You know,
he's basically taunting him too about what's gonna happen to
you in a couple hours. Grandma's right there. He's gonna you up. And he's like,
you know, this is. He's watching over this like the angel of death. And as
the cards come down and KGB continues to bet, it does look like a flush
draw. So it looks like, oh, you want a flush draw, Mike?
Oh, okay. You know, kind of thing. And at this point, it almost, it's.
It's funny because it almost feels like it doesn't matter what KGB has. Because there's
nothing on the table that does much other than finish
the straight, the inside straight that Mike has. So it's like, you know, there again,
we're not. There's no pairs. There's not a real good flush draw. There's like.
There's one where it's like maybe, you know, two cards or something, or I don't
know, but it's not. There's nothing, like, real obvious. So it's like, yeah, what could
KGB be holding? I think even has, like, pocket aces or something. Yeah, he had
something that was something good against, like, not much help. Right? Looking. Looking at the
table being, you know, very kind of a crap table, whatever.
And. And he goes and he puts down the river. And it's like, oh,
that is it. It's done. It didn't help you.
It's the whole thing. And he's just taunting Mike and taunting Mike, and it's like,
what does he say? It's like, was it the ace didn't help you or something
like that? Is that what he says? Like, yeah, like, whatever. The last card,
like, oh, that couldn't have helped you. And progressively during this
scene, this is another phrase that I learned just from this movie that we
say all the time. Splashing the pot. Oh, yeah. Which I think just means just.
Just messily putting your chips messing up.
As opposed to moving stacks in. Right. And kind of keeping them neat, you know,
he said, don't splash the pot in my club. I will splash the pot
whenever the I please.
And the way he was laying the cards, so when he put that last card
up, there was still like a pile of. Of chips among the card. So it
just looked like chaos. Yeah. And it turned out. And he said,
you know, this ace couldn't have helped you. And Mike says, you're right,
Teddy. That ace didn't help. And he turns around his card
to show he's basically had the best possible hand the whole time,
but has been slow playing it as if, you know, the best.
The best line for me in the movie. Yeah, the card didn't help. I flopped
the nut strike straight. Yeah. And it's like, okay, so deep. Unpack that
line for people. Right? So, like, the nut is. Is your
winnings, but this also, in this case, means best possible hand. Right. The best
straight that you could make given the cards that are on the table is the
one that Mike makes. So he's got that when he got it on the flop.
Right. The river card or the turn card didn't matter. The river Card didn't matter.
He flopped. So got on the flop, the nut straight, the best hand on the
table. And it's just like a gray, great, succinct line that, again, if you didn't
know these poker terms, teaches you these poker terms in no uncertain terms.
Just, boom. That is what those things mean. And, you know, that's when his
KGB's guys get pissed, you know, whatever. Because KGB is,
like, what. He's, like, freaked out, and they're about to, like, it looks like they're
gonna beat Mike's ass, basically. Yeah. I mean, they. They don't know how to respond
to that. And, you know, kgb, like, as much as he's the. This scumbag
underground character has some kind of a code, right?
And. And respects the integrity of his own game, even if it's
at his own expense. Well, I think it makes sense because he's running a card
room. So it's like, if people think you can come in here and win and
then just get your ass beat and have your money stolen from you, nobody will
come play, right? So he does have that incentive to just be like that.
And it's, you know, one of the. I think, probably the most quoted of John
Malkovich's lines, right? He beat me straight up.
How many extra vowels got put into those words?
So at. At the end of this.
Right? So they had put first 10k versus 10k. Right.
KGB one. And then it was 20k versus. Versus 20k.
Right. Or I'm sorry, Mike won. It was 20k versus 20k.
Grandma seemed really pissed at the end, but. Right.
I think Mike said after that that after paying Grandma, I'm left
with three. So Grandma got his money, Grandma still got paid.
Yeah. And he got significantly more than he paid for the debt in the first
place. I think he wanted to beat Mike's ass. I think that's what he was
pissed about. But, yeah, it's like, clearly KGB
must have bought back in a couple times because he walks away with almost 70,000.
He says something that. And he's able to pay the professor back. He's able to
pay Grandma. He's able to pay back the Chesterfield. And he's still got. Got the
30 grand that he lost initially back in his pocket,
and he's headed to Vegas. He meets up with Joe one
last time. I don't know why we need to close that.
I think it should have ended with, like, him driving away in a cab and
then Joe, like, crossing the street, not paying attention, just getting hit by the cab
and flying like, 35ft up in the air. Landing in a dumpster
might not have quite fit the. The style of get some yakety
sacks in this. So he has the
speech to Joe and basically hands her the money, says, can you make sure the
judge gets this? And then I do like this line.
And she says, call me if you ever
need a lawyer. And he says, I will, and I
will. It's not.
I got to disagree. It's like the worst exchange ever. Because, like, first off,
off, what he's doing is not illegal. He's playing cards.
Like, this is not. You know what I mean? It's like. And he's going to.
Going to go to Vegas to do it. So it's like. I don't know what
his lifestyle is, though. He's gotten in a lot of turmoil. If you had a
nagging, shitty ex girlfriend who left you in the middle of the night who happened
to be a lawyer, is that who you're contacting to defend you in a criminal
trial? It's not who I'm contacting. I think
he just needed to say what he needed to. To make sure she didn't,
like, throw that $10,000 in the trash and say, I'm tired of your dirty gambling
money. He's like, I just need you to complete the task here.
But, yeah. So then Mike, where's he going? I'm heading to Vegas.
The winner of the World Series. The grand prize of the World Series of Poker
is a million dollars. Earlier, they were talking about how the game is not
about luck, it's about skill. So he's driving. The cab driver says,
you're going to the airport. Where are you headed? Vegas. Vegas. Good luck.
Yep. And Mike just says, yeah,
thanks. And there he is, off to Vegas. This movie, I feel like, could have
used. Like, I would love to see what Mike and Worm have been up to.
Yeah, well, and there was, like, talk. About a sequel at times, but I
don't think it's happening. A sequel doesn't really. I don't think makes sense. But,
I mean, it will be kind of interesting, but. But it's like, I would kind
of just want to know, does Worm. Do Worm and Mike ever link up again?
Like, because where we don't even know really know where Worm went off to.
Mike's head off to Nevada, so he's not going to be anywhere in the area
anymore. Where they left each other, they said was like, four hours outside the
city. So they were significantly far upstate in New York, it sounds like, or in
another state. And Yeah. I don't know that there's really a world in which
Worm stays, you know, on the radar enough that Mike is able to
track him down again, necessarily. Yeah. I mean, and it seems like he probably
just ends up in whatever local jail, the prison in Binghamton.
That's just where he'll end up back. But great,
great, satisfying ending to this movie. To get
to see him take on kgb, win his money back, and he ends up right
where he started. And I love this movie. It's funny.
I really love this. I absolutely do as well. It's so funny. There are plenty
of movies where the character essentially ends up, quote, you know, back where they started.
And it feels like, well, why the did we watch all this for, like,
what was the point? And this is not the case here. There is still like.
Like so much character development that occurred because the, you know,
back when we started, he really isn't. He's not a law student anymore. Right.
He's left school. He's left, you know, his girlfriend. They're no longer
together. That's not holding him in the city. And, you know, it's. It's. He's ready
to really start the part of his life that. That he knows all along that
that's what he wanted to do. And so he's back where he started in that
he has his money back, but really, he's in a very different place. Yeah.
And it really has advanced as a character. Character. Yeah, for sure. For sure.
I would say if you're watching this movie at home,
I'd recommend don't watch the credits, just because after you watch
such a great movie and then you see pop up executive producer Harvey Weinstein,
it's not going to be your favorite thing. So I just recommend
that. But, yeah, I guess we got to get to rating this one. This was
an awesome one. I really enjoyed watching it and chatting about it. And it's funny
how, like, we went to school in different places and watched this with different groups
of friends, but we picked up on so much of the same, the quotes and
the things that we really love about this movie. So do
you want me to rate for it? Okay. So, again,
a classic. It gets me excited. There's certain parts of it
that drag, but I really can't hold it against it because the components
of this movie, to me make up enough that this is a four and
a half for me out of five. It's rewatchable. It's well acted.
This is just Damon's wheelhouse of being the guy who's smarter than all
the other guys. Will Hunting too. Yeah. And. And Edward Norton
is just incredible as that character. I loved
all the different games and the descriptions of the kind of deeper poker lore
and the. And the techniques and everything like that. So, yeah, I'm giving this a
four and a half out of five. Absolutely loved it and would watch it again
probably very soon. Yeah, I was gonna say this. This is one of my favorite
movies of all time. Like, you know, easy top 50 for sure. Probably like
a top 30 potentially, overall movie for me. Funny enough, we did not
discuss our ratings ahead of time, but I also wrote down four and a half.
This is. I'm a 4.5 out of 5. So we are 9 out of 10
on this movie altogether, which I think is absolutely earned. I do not feel ashamed
of that at all. It might be significantly higher than sort of the general populace,
but I think especially given the age we were when this movie came out,
it was so incredibly impactful on our, like, early and mid-20s,
I think. Especially the number of, you know,
poker tournaments played in, like, friends houses and stuff.
You know what I mean? Yes. Yeah. Buy in's 100. And you just sit there
until somebody's got everything, you know, and it might take seven, eight hours. Like it
happened and it happened a few times. Yeah, four and a half out of five
for me. Fantastic movie. Yeah.
So that was Rounders. We gave it a nine out of 10. And Nick,
why don't you tell us what we're gonna see next? Okay. Well, coming off this
banger, I think I have another one coming up that we're gonna like very much.
And I just dropped the year. I think it's 91 or
92. We're going to California and we're gonna enjoy some
sun and some surf and some bank robberies and president masks.
We're gonna be watching Point Break. Oh, man. From the early 90s.
We got Keanu Reeves, we got Patty Sways, we got.
Got Gary Busey, we got all kinds of classic characters,
a little Anthony Kiedis. I think this one is going to be a lot of
fun to talk about and I really look forward to it. Huge fan of this
movie. You know, Katherine Bigelow was fantastic directing it.
One of my favorite movies directed by a woman and
just, you know, absolutely phenomenal. We absolutely will not be watching,
discussing, or otherwise acknowledging the existence of the remake from a few years ago,
because that shit. But no, the original Point Break is wonderful.
Super excited to watch that. One cannot wait. And I hope you'll
all listen along when we get there in a few weeks,
probably. No, I guess next week. We'll do it next week. Yeah. But, yeah.
So if you wouldn't mind, you know, if you're here listening, go on
Apple, go on Spotify, throw us a review. It's, you know, five star rating,
doesn't hurt. It helps people find the show. If you want to email the show,
you can do that at the show@2dads1movie.com. That's the number two and the number
one. And yeah. So this has been Rounders and this has been 2 dads one
movie. I'm Steve. And I'm Nick. And thank you so much for listening. We'll catch
you next time. Thanks, everyone.