Rating of
2.5/4
No need to start Running although it's mediocre
ikkegoemikke - wrote on 11/28/17
Besides the fact that "Runner Runner" is a poker term , and you'll see Timberlake play online poker for a night, there won't be anything anymore related to a poker game in this movie. So don't expect a movie like "Rounders". "Runner Runner" is about managing an online gambling site on the Internet , the immense amount of money that is earned by the website owners and the fact that there is fraud on a global scale. "Everybody gambles !" is the first thing Richie Furst ( Justin Timberlake ) says in this film . Whether it's on a gambling site or on the stock market , real money or fake money somewhere on an online gaming site . Gambling became a normal thing in our daily lives.
This movie is not a quality piece of work.It is fairly predictable and full of imperfections in the script .The only positive I saw were the two protagonists Affleck and Timberlake . Ben Affleck is perfect for such a role as a clever, shrewd and dangerous criminal who deceives everybody . At least he's doing better as in "Daredevil". That was a pathetic performance . He's super cool, but not cool enough to play a superhero.
Justin Timberlake is not a top actor , but he's not that extremely bad. In "In Time" I thought he was only mediocre. But in "Trouble with the Curve" he delivered an excellent performance . In this movie , he plays in a convincing way a rather intelligent university student who already earned a lot on Wall Street in the past.Unfortunately, he has lost a fortune there ( also not in a nice way apparently) and now he tries to gain it back by gambling on a website of which he's an "Affiliate". But normally he should know that this really is the worst solution . Luckily he didn't lose all his money so he still can book a ticket to Costa Rica.
Now for some implausibilities. First, no one would think about travelling to an exotic country to confront a gambling kingpin with his loss. Second,that person won't give in for such a tiny unimportant person. And certainly not with only some dull statistics showing that the pattern of a particular player deviates from a normal gambler. And third, if that person would admit that something went wrong and afterwards offer a very lucrative job, I would scratch my head and become really suspicious about that. Those are a few questionable facts in this film,in my opinion. Gemma Arterton again plays a stupid meaningless role in this movie. Just playing her beautiful self once again. Her makeup,hairstyle and feminine forms are the only thing you can look at admiringly. "Runner Runner" is a mediocre crime with a few thrills on a beautiful exotic location with a good looking cast, as well in performance as in appearance. A movie that's not to boring but so meaningless that in a week you're wondering what it was about anyway.
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