Review of Runner Runner (2013) by Tony B — 04 Oct 2013

I saw RUNNER RUNNER yesterday after work! Right now I feel like that guy at the end of Soylent Green who shouts, "its a cook book! It's a COOK BOOK!" only this time I'm shouting, "It's terrible, IT'S TERRIBLE!" Now right now you may be asking yourself, "Terrible? Pray do tell how? Who is responsible for this? What is Runner Runner?" Well first off, Runner Runner is a movie starring Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck, directed by Brad Furman, and written by Brian Kopelman and David Levien, the same crew that brought you films like Rounders and Ocean's Thirteen.

Its a story of a college student(Timberlake) who gets cheated at offshore online poker and after a meeting with the site's shady creator(Affleck), becomes a top analyst (or something) for the very same same site.

It isn't long however, that the student recognizes that not all is well in the world of semi-legal online gaming and his employer is not all that he seems to be. Now with that in mind you may be thinking, "oh ok, so this is one of those movies where I need my thinking cap and I really need to pay attention because this film is sure to be littered with betrayal and clever twists.

I'll no doubt find myself saying things like, 'oh that was the guy from the beginning!' or 'oh I remember he said that you can only get out of it if you do this BUT you could also...Ahh, I see.

'" Well you'd think you would and this movie thinks you will too but more often than not you'll find yourself saying, "well that was the easiest decision you could have made" or "why WOULDN'T you have done that?" The movie wants so much to be like a casino version of The Last King of Scotland but its just not written ANYWHERE near as competently and Ben Affleck's acting is just not good enough to sell him as the ruthless kingpin they need him to be.

Timberlake is not bad but he's not good either, he's just there. He says his flimsy, poorly written lines and it comes off as him being bad but really, its hard for anyone to look good saying some of the things that he says so the fact that I don't just outwardly hate him in this is a plus in a weird way.

The camera work is alright but just barely, and there's a really REALLY poorly shot chase scene in here that just about made me ill. I could go on and on and say a ton of other things about how bad this movie is but I think you get the picture.

Its a bust. Runner Runner gets a 1...out of 5.