[Movie Review] Runner Runner (2013)

Posted on October 4, 2013 by thegrandshuckett in Movie Reviews // 0 Comments

Plot Summary: 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.

Director: Brad Furman

Writer: Brian Koppelman, David Levien

Runtime: 91 min

Main Cast:

Ben Affleck as Ivan Block
Justin Timberlake as Richie Furst
Gemma Arterton as Rebecca Shafran
Anthony Mackie as Agent Shavers

Review: by Anthony and Lee

We are fans of Justin Timberlake because of his many appearances on SNL and some of his movies, such as Black Snake Moan, and Ben Affleck has come into his own after Argo as a better director and actor. So, we knew we had to see Runner Runner.

What We Liked:

Ben Affleck as the bad guy was the only good thing we have to say about the movie. He was great and delivered some of the best lines.

Anthony Mackie, while delivering another solid performance, seemed out of place in his role as Agent Shavers; however, he did dominate any scene he was in and brought some much needed reality to Timberlake’s fantasyland.

What We Didn’t Like:

The acting, apart from Affleck’s and Mackie’s, was just not good. Both Timberlake and Arterton seemed to be phoning it in in all of their scenes.

The main characters were just plain morally corrupt. They kept making bad, selfish decision after bad, selfish decision; yet, somehow they kept being rewarded for them. We just couldn’t get behind any of the characters enough to care what happened to them.

Part of what makes a great poker player, whether online or in an actual casino, is knowing when to hold ’em or fold ’em, and Timberlake’s character just didn’t seem to be capable of that.