A little drunk on its own arcane exotica as a gambling movie, Rounders is a film that takes us inside a world of high-stakes card players but falls short on such essentials as character development and relationships. Still, it is a real curiosity, written by a couple of guys (David Levien and Brian Koppelman) who appear to know something about the dark underbelly of card hustling for fun and profit. Matt Damon stars as a reluctant law student who can't put aside his subterranean career of playing poker and blackjack for big money. After he loses his post-grad nest egg to a weird Russian kingpin (John Malkovich)--and also loses his disgusted girlfriend (Gretchen Mol) in the process--Damon's character turns to an unreliable old buddy (Edward Norton) for a dangerous game of sharking wherever there happens to be a game underway: frat boys, cops, bad dudes, you name it. Norton appears to be living out every young actor's fantasy of re-creating Robert De Niro's prot! otypical head case in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets, and while his performance is burdened by obvious quotation marks, his estimable talent still shines through. Damon's charm and intelligence bring some oomph to the curiously flat proceedings, and while his hushed, soul-bearing scenes with Martin Landau (as a law professor who takes a shine to the kid) seem gratuitous, they're still nice to watch. Behind all this is director John Dahl (Red Rock West), who is not exactly at the top of his game here but who brings his distinctive toughness to the crime-noir tone.--Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Bored with life on Mount Olympus Hercules (Arnold Schwarzenegger in his debut film) decides to visit Earth against the wishes of his father Zeus. Zeus explodes with anger and hurls a thunder-bolt at Hercules who plummets into the sea and is rescued by a freighter bound for New York. There he is befriended by Pretzie (Arnold Stang) who whisks him away from a brawling free-for-all with his shipmates. The plot thickens when Zeus' wife Juno sends the dreaded Nemesis to take away Hercules' god-like strength. Some local hoodlums have just bet a small fortune on Hercules in a weight-lifting competition and when he fails to win a chase all over New York is on.
Bored with life on Mount Olympus Hercules (Arnold Schwarzenegger in his debut film) decides to visit Earth against the wishes of his father Zeus. Zeus explodes with anger and hurls a thunder-bolt at Hercules who plummets into the sea and is rescued by a freighter bound for New York. There he is befriended by Pretzie (Arnold Stang) who whisks him away from a brawling free-for-all with his shipmates. The plot thickens when Zeus' wife Juno sends the dreaded Nemesis to take away Hercules' god-like strength. Some local hoodlums have just bet a small fortune on Hercules in a weight-lifting competition and when he fails to win a chase all over New York is on.
For a long term space mission reclusive scientist Jeff Peters (Malkovich) builds his exact double in android form! However as Peters has no social skills he is unable to program Ulysses (also Malkovich) with a personality. Thus an eccentric woman is hired to educate the mechanical man on human behaviour and she is soon falling in love. However is she in love with Ulysses or Peters?
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