Runner Runner (2013)

Runner Runner is an unengaging, uneventful, poorly written and deadpan acted film.I cannot really think of a positive thing to say about it. The premise is a surefire thing, I don't see how they could fail so badly. Give me a bloody reason to care, is it really that hard to do that at least. I mean, Timberlake sits at his computer, with a bunch of people around to distract him while he gambles his life savings. They don't even show the actual poker games or talk about it, they show him sitting there forever and people coming and going talking to him. Show the bloody game, show how he outplayed people and then how he got outplayed by a cheater knowing his hole cards and show his reaction as he loses his life savings as each card drops. If you are not going to give the characters any depth and nothing for the viewer to care about, then there should be action at least, but no none of that either. Timberlake you are being blacklisted.

Week 4: Runner Runner: Tomatometer rating is 8%First month in on this experiment. I will admit this is easier to do than the previous experiment as far as scheduling but man oh man viewing wise it's pretty tough. This week we have Runner Runner directed by Brad Furman of such films as The Infilitrator and the excellent The Lincoln Lawyer and starring Justin Timberlake, Ben Affleck, Gemma Arterton and The Falcon himself Anthony Mackie. This movie tries to hook you in with its poker disguise. You think this is about digging into the illustratious world of online gambling. You think it's about a college student who finds himself cheated by this site and he tries to dig his way into how everything works. You would be wrong sadly. It lures you in much like a gaming site and then pulls a fast one on you. This is your standard gangster/drug cartel movie. Justin Timberlake is lured into this world by the excessive lifestyle. It makes sense since he used to work on Wall Street but he's blinded to the ruthless and cutthroat world being perpetrated by Ben Affleck's cartoonishly named villain Ivan Block. They pronounce it different ways in an attempt to make you forget how silly the name is unlike The Snowman's Harry Hole. Honestly you've seen this movie before and done much better. Ben Affleck is pretty good as smarmy asshole. He plays that pretty well. Justin Timberlake is a little too old for this role. Gemma Arterton is a non entity in this film and her relationship with Justin Timberlake's character expects us to believe they fall madly in love with each other and would do anything for each other to leave this life. That relationship is not built up well enough. It's not believable. Most of this is not believable and everyone is a garbage person in some form. This is a bland and generic movie. I would skip this one. I give this film a D.

When a poor college student who cracks an online poker game goes bust, he arranges a face-to-face with the man he thinks cheated him, a sly offshore entrepreneur. Runner Runner was a giant box office flop when it first came out and the reviews weren't that good either and since 2013 i have seen the film 3 times and personally i think it was pretty good. It's not another 'Casino' or 'Oceans Trilogy' but it's a pretty good film and personally i liked both Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake in this movie and the same goes for Gemma Arterton, Anthony Mackie and the late John Heard. You know exactly what you're getting into it does have a few action set pieces, a lot of gambling and even tho you can see some things happening from miles away i was still impressed by it it's something that neither of this actors have done before and it was something that i enjoyed and if you didn't that's alright but maybe give it another chance.

This is the Dream Team movie. I love Ben Affleck. I love Justin Timberlake. There is nothing better than the two of them together for this movie. Sure, it's a really sh*tty movie about gambling. It's basically 21 with Ben Affleck playing Kevin Spacey and Anthony Mackie as Laurence Fishburne. The story is so dumb, it is perfect. Who needs a good story? Who needs good acting. You have f*cking Ben Affleck and f*cking Justin Timberlake. I could just watch these guys sit in a room together talking. I don't need a loose storyline about alligators and cheating and all that bullsh*t. It's in there, they made d*mn sure they had some stupid storyline in there. I can't wait for Runner Runner 2 starring Mark Wahlberg and Eminem. In fact let's call it Faster Faster. They won't be online gambling though, they would do something even duller like golf or bowling. An underground bowling team, led by Mark Wahlberg, cheating it's way to the top brings in unsuspecting Eminem for the final show. Perfect. Anyway, this was a f*cking awesome movie if you like the two actors, if you don't, don't bother watching the movie.