Simply Perfect

Great Film overall

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Money. Exotic locales. Money. Sex. Money. What's not to like? Not only are those things part of the appeal of "Runner Runner" (R, 1:31), but they're also what tempt the lead character into a situation that eventually threatens to deprive him of everything he's working for.Justin Timberlake plays Richie Furst, a brilliant student in a master's mathematics program at Princeton. When his attempts to fund his education through online poker backfire, he gets desperate. Now, Richie isn't just your average gambler. He knows poker, and gambling runs in his family, as we understand when we meet Richie's father (John Heard). Richie uses his knowledge of gambling, mathematics and computers to gather proof that he was cheated. He flies to Costa Rica to confront the man behind the poker website in question – Ivan Block (Ben Affleck), an American entrepreneur who may or may not be a legitimate businessman.Their encounter leads Ivan to hire Richie to help him run his website. Richie's good at it and it's a shortcut to everything he hoped his Ivy League education would bring him. Meanwhile, a relationship develops between Richie and Ivan's former lover, Rebecca (Gemma Arterton). Things are going swimmingly for Richie until Anthony Mackie's FBI Agent Shavers steps in and tries to threaten Richie into turning against his employer. Will he or won't he? Which of these characters are the criminals and which are just doing their jobs? The answers eventually reveal each character's true allegiances, just as Richie seems hopelessly boxed in on all sides.This is an above-average thriller that keeps you guessing. Justin Timberlake has legitimate acting chops and it was fun to see Ben Affleck take on such a morally ambiguous character, and nice to see that he didn't overplay his hand. This movie is part "Ocean's 11" and part "The Firm", but still manages to feel original. The twists and turns are many, but allow the audience to keep up and enjoy getting the answers to those questions I mentioned earlier. "Runner Runner" isn't what I would call brilliant, but it's reasonably well-constructed and pretty entertaining. "B"

If Justin Timberlake's name was shown at the beginning of this film, I didn't see it. I spent the whole movie impressed by how much this actor looked like him.Timberlake stars with Ben Affleck and John Heard in "Runner Runner" about Richie (Timberlake), a Princeton grad student who is gambling online and signing up other students to do it as well. He's taken to task by the chancellor (Bob Gunton). Richie decides to bet what money he has in an online poker game. He loses everything. When he studies the poker program a little bit more and does averages, etc., with a friend, he realizes he's been cheated.He then travels to Costa Rica to confront the tycoon responsible for these sites, one Ivan Block (Ben Affleck). Richie believes Block would want to know about this since it is cheating customers.Block explains to him that some of his programmers turned out to be unethical, apologizes, comps his room, and credits his gambling account with the money he lost.Block winds up offering Richie a job rather than returning to school, and Richie, seeing the money he could make, stays on. As time goes on, he finds out that Block is a ruthless swindler who will do anything to get his way.The FBI approaches Richie for help gathering evidence about Block and initially, he rebuffs them. The web then becomes more tangled; when Richie tries to leave Costa Rica for home, he is stopped. Block then buys Richie's father's (John Heard) $187,000 gambling debt to keep Richie where he wants him. Block owns everything and everybody. How is he going to get out of this mess? This movie could have been a lot better than it was, but it falls flat. Richie is the main character, and he and his father are both idiots. I think they were supposed to be likable, so right away we're in trouble. It was very hard to connect with these characters making so many obvious mistakes.The acting was so-so. I can't agree about Ben Affleck being horrible. He comes off as a real nice guy, and that's just what sleazes do - otherwise, they couldn't rope anyone in. He's relaxed, he has a smile on his face, he offers you the world, when in truth, he's taking you for a big fool. Someone like Al Pacino or Andy Garcia, who look like tough guys, would have been wrong choices.This is really not worth seeing. Maybe as a rental, that's about it.

The story is just a decent attempt to approach the world of online gambling. Strangely, it only focused on the subject for the opening minutes, and then it threw away the gambling thing and shift the focus to The Costa Rican casinos. Then from there it goes to be very predictable and boring; the lead character falls for the boss's woman and gets betrayed because of it but he outsmarts the boss and gets away with it. The acting overall is just plain. Justin Tmberlake has really lost his charm for movies.His face doesn't really nail those serious expressions and ended up making him look like a baby-face. Ben Affleck's try at the antagonist also falls flat since he didn't get any mean looks out of him the entire movie. Gemma Arterton's presence is just a waste since she doesn't really falls in significantly here.

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.