Runner, Runner

Cast of Characters:

Richie Furst - Justin Timberlake

Rebecca Shafran - Gemma Arterton

Agent Shavers - Anthony Mackie

Ivan Block - Ben Affleck

Director - Brad Furman

Screenplay - Brian Koppelman & David Levien

Rated R for language and some sexual content

      Justin Timberlake, Gemma Arterton and Academy Award winner Ben "Batman" Affleck star in Runner, Runner, from the writers that brought you Rounders. See, Matt Damon had his poker movie, so now his bromantically involved partner has to have his too.

      Richie Furst (Justin Timberlake) once had a promising career on Wall Street. His financial history prevents him from receiving any financial aid while attending Princeton University for a master's in marketing. To make ends meet, he recommends students to online gambling sites, for which he receives a cut. After the dean threatens to expel him for his extra-curricular activities, Richie decides to risk all the money that he currently has in a game of online poker, so that he can pay for his tuition.

      Of course, he loses everything. We wouldn't have a movie if he didn't. Convinced he was cheated, Richie travels down to Costa Rica to confront Ivan Block (Ben Affleck), who runs the biggest online gambling empire in the world and is also on the FBI's Most Wanted list. He, rather conveniently, meets up with Ivan, who fires those that were cheating, credits Richie's lost money back to him and gives him a little something extra to cover his master's degree. It doesn't end there though when Ivan offers him a job, assisting him in his site work. Seven figures a year, he'd be stupid to run from that.

      When I first saw the trailer for Runner, Runner I thought it looked like just a bunch of phoned in everything. Then I saw that Brad Furman was directing and it was written by Brian Koppelman and David Levien. Furman hasn't had an extensive career in directing, having only filmed three movies to date, but his last film, The Lincoln Lawyer, was a fun, effective thriller with a top notch cast headlined by Matthew McConaughey. Koppelman and Levien have certainly had their fair share of misfires with Walking Tall, Ocean's Thirteen and the very disappointing Runaway Jury, but they managed to bounce back with The Girlfriend Experience. Let's not forget they also started their careers writing a terrific little poker film called Rounders and then followed that up with the fun and entertaining Knockaround Guys. Now, you'd think "getting back to their roots" would be just what they need with another poker film. Too bad this film is such a by the books, connect the dots, color by numbers mess of a thriller that neither thrills or entertains. The biggest weakness here is by far Justin Timberlake. I won't go as far as to say he can't act. In the hands of a great director and writer (Fincher and Sorkin with The Social Network), Timberlake can deliver a solid supporting performance (I am curious to see how he does in the hands of the Coen brothers with Inside Llewyn Davis coming out later this year). They key word though is "supporting". Timberlake can't carry a film to save his life. I realized that a few years back with In Time and this film only confirms that. Watching him attempt to do all the heavy lifting here was like watching some scrawny high school punk try to impress his friends at the gym by unwisely lifting a set of weights everyone knows he can't lift. Come the third act, that scrawny kid is practically screaming for someone to lift the barbell off his chest. Ben Affleck, well what's there to say? I'm not an Affleck hater. He's made a number of poor, poor, poor film choices, but he is a great actor when he's on his game and he's a fantastic director. Here, he's clearly phoning it in and a part of me cuts him some slack anyway. He most definitely got snubbed at the 2013 Oscar's for Best Director and got revenge by winning Best Picture for Argo, so I was thinking whatever, take your paycheck, Ben and chew the scenery in your sleep. You've earned it by now. As for the writing, it's bad (Richie thinking I'll just straighten everything out in Costa Rica is naivety at its worst), it's predictable (John Heard shows up as Richie's dad at the beginning only to show us that near the end he's gonna become Ivan's "prisoner" to send a message to Richie) and the dialogue gets so cheesy at times if you're lactose intolerant you'll probably die. By the way, Ivan, crocodiles aren't slimy. That's a misconception about reptiles. They're scaly and I expect even poorly written, stiffly acted and highly predictable films to do a little research and know the difference... but I digress. Halfway through the film, I just wound up doing the same that I did for Grown Ups 2 - like staring at Salma Hayek for the remainder of the film, I just admired Gemma Arterton here. Then again, I could do the same in a much, much better film earlier this year, Neil Jordan's Byzantium.

      Sure, the film has a decent setup, but from there it just falls apart. There are some nice scenic location shots of Puerto Rico and more importantly Gemma Arterton, but this is such a bland, mediocre, poorly paced thriller with a conclusion that had me wondering how Timberlake's character could get away free when he acts dumb enough to not even win a coin toss. Plus, we got to see another one of those "FBI Agent shakes his fist at the sky when the protagonist gets away, but then just smiles through his awwww, shucks! moment". Certainly, there's an audience that'll eat this up and have fun with it. I'm not one of them. I give Runner, Runner a D+ (★½).

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