Runner Runner (2013)
Runner Runner – Play, or be played!
Justin Timberlake———————————–Richie Furst
Ben Affleck——————————————-Ivan Block
Gemma Arterton————————————Rebecca Shafran
Anthony Mackie————————————-Agent Shavers
John Heard——————————————-Harry Furst
Michael Esper—————————————Billy Petricoff
Directed by Brad Furman.
Screenplay by Brian Koppelman and David Levien.
Richie Furst (Timberlake) is trying to pay his way through university and he has been forced to stop his questionable income. So to make his tuition he sits down and plays a long game of poker online. He loses everything and then figures out the other player was using an algorithm to fleece him out of his money.
Instead of going public with this information he goes directly to the man that is running the website….Ivan Block (Affleck). So Richie flies to Costa Rica to confront Ivan and of course Ivan is impressed with Richie. So instead of getting his money back Richie gets his money back and a new job working with Ivan. Rebecca (Arterton) is provided for some eye candy and as a Bond girl she is fun to look at. Agent Shavers (Mackie) gets Richie between a rock and a hard place, forcing Richie to work with the FBI.
This movie proves that Justin Timberlake is not ready to be the lead in a movie. Ben Affleck is playing a Gordon Gekko rip off where he is going to show his young protege the tricks in the game. What we wind up with is a movie that is contrived and boring. Anthony Mackie’s character Agent Shavers is a waste of time and left me wondering who the target audience actually was. A misguided adventure to Costa Rica with very little payoff.
The talent was there in this movie but it failed to deliver. The clever twists truly fall flat and the story just did not draw me in. I thought Justin Timberlake did a very good job in The Social Network but he fell short of the mark in this one.
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Runtime: 91 Minutes
Production Budget: $30,000,000.00
Box Office
Domestic: $19,316,646.
Worldwide: $62,675,095.
CC Rating: 5 out of 10
Screenplay: I could not find the screenplay.
Directors’ Previous Movies: The Lincoln Lawyer, The Take.
If you liked this try: 21, Rounders, Boiler Room, The Wolf of Wall Street.