Runner Runner

Greetings again from the darkness. I can sit in a theater and watch a mediocre movie, but when it comes time to write about it, there is no motivation or appeal. The most positive comment I can make is that it stars two very pretty men.

This one has "paycheck project" written all over it. Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake simply go through the motions as if someone is feeding them their lines through an ear piece. Gemma Arterton should never stoop to such a mundane and lifeless role ... though her hair and make-up are terrific. Only John Heard and Anthony Mackie come across as professional actors, and their minor roles are so limited, they barely register.

Writing partners Brian Koppelman and David Levien co-wrote the excellent Rounders, but this one merely teases the dark underbelly of online gambling. It has neither the depth, plot or character development that we would expect from a movie with this premise and cast. Director Brad Furman showed promise with The Lincoln Lawyer, but this one comes across as being rushed through production with faux-style.

The closest comparison I can come up with is last year's Savages, directed by Oliver Stone ... and even that one was more enjoyable. Rather than a MPAA warning for Language, I would prefer a heads-up whenever the filmmaking team really doesn't care much for the project. At least I could spend my money and time watching a different movie.

I get this movie maybe being a high 6 or low 7, but a 5.3?? That's just crazy! I loved most of what this movie offered. It had a great story line, in-depth characters, and a great setting. Honestly, I was just refreshed from having to see another sub-par superhero movie, but I digress. I really liked JT and Batfleck in this movie. Both of the characters had a lot of depth to them as well as some mystery. I'll give it to you that the ending was sort of predictable, but I didn't think that it made the movie any weaker.. I thought the Costa Rica and online gambling ideas that the movie was based on were really fresh, new, and something of worth. I also really enjoyed the corruption bits of it as well. The cast in this movie, I thought, did a really good job.. And every hole was filled pretty much. I don't know what else you really expect in a movie.

I was sorely tempted to write a single word review of Runner Runner: Pointless!

But I'll resist and expand slightly.

The trailer strongly suggests an intelligent, exciting thriller of crime and intrigue with A-list stars, action, drama, plenty of danger and a soupçon of violence. The realty of Runner Runner is somewhat blander.

Richie Furst (Justin Timberlake) is a Princeton student with moderate financial worries, who supports himself through online gambling. When he risks everything (except the price of his airline ticket to Costa Rica, clearly) on a game and loses, he discovers he has been swindled and heads south to confront the man behind the poker company and scam, Ivan Block (Ben Affleck). Block is so impressed with Furst's balls that he offers him a job with eight-figure returns. With the chance to join the super rich, all the pleasures it encompasses and, predictably, a beautiful woman, Rebecca (Gemma Arterton), who equally predictably is Block's girlfriend, Furst's life couldn't be any better. Then FBI agent Shavers (Anthony Mackie) interferes.

The ingredients are there but it just doesn't work. The characters are half-written shadows of people about whom we don't care. There is no depth, detail or intrigue to inspire us to invest our attention and, though we try to second guess the plot and look for the twists and double crosses lurking in the background, it transpires there are none to speak of and what we see is the sum total of it.

Timberlake is on something of a downward trajectory after the superb The Social Network. Neither Bad Teacher nor Trouble with the Curve ignited and his turn in Runner Runner, though adequate, does nothing to persuade us he's an A-lister in Hollywoodland.

Affleck, however, was ridding high with the supreme success of Argo and the promise of more box office clout with the forthcoming Gone Girl and Batman vs. Superman. Runner Runner isn't going to damage his career but it certainly isn't going to boost it.

Meanwhile, there are times when Gemma Arterton frequently forgets to act (and can't pronounce Antigua) and Mackie is lumbered with a role that diminishes even the 'heights' of Pain and Gain.

Somebody really needs to shake director Brad Furman, turn him around and point him in the direction of a sequel to his fine The Lincoln Lawyer.

Runner Runner isn't a bad film. It's just a bland, boring, forgettable, dull thud with no echo.

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Ben Affleck has made three great films in the last few years, all of them starring and directed by the man himself. It's rather puzzling therefore - after 'Gone Baby Gone', 'The Town' and 'Argo' - what Affleck saw in Brian Koppelman and David Levien's script or in director Brad Furman to commit to star in this by-the-numbers thriller that arguably adds little to the cred he's built up so far. Indeed, it's an odd choice for a multi-hyphenate at a critical turning point in his career when pretty much everyone in Tinseltown was prepared to cast him as a has- been.

In spite of this, Affleck and his co-star Justin Timberlake are about the best things that 'Runner Runner' has going for it. The title here refers to a card that either completes a hand or significantly improves one, which is what Affleck's gambling magnate Ivan Block sees in Timberlake's Princeton maths whizz Richie Furst at least at the start. But really, fancy titles aside, this is no more than yet another cautionary tale about a young, ambitious up-and-comer who gets way over his head when he is lured into a world of crime and corruption by a smooth-talking, charismatic criminal.

Set against the backdrop of the online poker industry, Furman tries to spin a sleek fast-paced number using the sun-drenched locations in Puerto Rico to stand in for Costa Rica. Just as Block lures Furst into his world of riches, the director best known for his work on the Matthew McConaughey thriller 'The Lincoln Lawyer' stuffs the screen with lavish digs, fancy cars, cool boats, private jets and stylish beach parties in the hopes of pulling a fast shimmery one on his audience. To his credit, all that glamour does succeed to mask the movie's flaws during its brisk setup.

And yet as soon as Furst's giddy ascent into the shady world of Block's business is complete, what ensues is pretty much a downhill journey. There's absolutely no surprise that an overachieving FBI agent (Anthony Mackie) will turn up to enlist Furst in order to take down Block, or for that matter the fact that said agent is willing to risk even Furst's life in the process. Neither is it any less predictable that Furst will fall in love with Block's right-hand woman Rebecca (Gemma Arterton), further aggravating the animosity between mentor and protégé.

But perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the plot lies in how simplistic Furst's plan to demolish Block's criminal empire turns out to be, an utterly predictable chain of events that only serves to cast aspersions on Block's own intelligence in the first place. Just like 'Lawyer', Furman employs a whole lot of snazzy camera techniques to distract his viewer from the plot failings, but even the casual viewer is likely to find the denouement underwhelming. In fact, the same can be said of the entire slicked up movie, which quickly runs out of any smart moves once you see through its bluff.

That is, even as Timberlake tries his darnest to inject the same kind of smarminess of 'The Social Network' into his character. The boyishly charming actor exudes enough wide-eyed naivety at the start to convincingly gear-shift into desperation as things go awry, but it is a clichéd role that does him no favours. On the other hand, Affleck underplays his character's villainy, and though some may find his performance too nonchalant, it is nicely calibrated to surprise when he reveals a dastardly evil hand.

Yet this is a movie that hardly deserves such subtleties, since just about everything is ostentatious to a fault. To Furman's credit, he does what he can with a tepid script to draw in and retain his audience's attention, but there is so much he, or for that matter his stars Timberlake and Affleck, can accomplish. So entirely forgettable it almost ceases to matter, 'Runner Runner' is ultimately a 'Loser Loser'.

Right, well I must admit that I had already formed an opinion about this movie prior to having seen it. Why? How? Well, simply because of the lead cast being Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake.

And now having seen it, I have to admit that I am more than genuinely surprised at how entertaining the movie was, thanks to director Brad Furman, but also because of Affleck and Timberlake actually performing quite well. I will actually go as far as admitting that this was the best performance I have ever seen from Ben Affleck. That says a lot actually, because I usually stay well clear of his movies.

The story in "Runner Runner" is about Richie (played by Timberlake) who loses 17.000 dollars on an online gambling site, and finds out that he was cheated. So he goes to Costa Rica to inform the owner of the site, gambling mogul Ivan Block (played by Affleck). Offering Richie a job with money and a luxurious lifestyle, Ivan soon have him working in his gambling dynasty, but all is not well beneath the golden surface.

Story-wise "Runner Runner" is entertaining, although the story hardly seems plausible in any way. But hey, it is the movies after all. What makes this movie work was primarily the acting of Affleck and Timberlake.

A predictable story, yes. But the movie is well-worth watching nonetheless. Just a shame that the movie didn't offer any twists and turns, nor does it really challenge the intellect of the audience.