MOVIE REVIEW - Runner, Runner

Runner, Runner starring Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake is the shear definition of "swing and a miss."  

This movie is a behind the scenes look at the online gambling industry that has become huge business world wide.  Sounds like it could be interesting, but it's really not.  In fact, this movie looks bored with itself and has the look of being made a long time ago, and is just now finding itself in theaters.

It's the story of Richie (Timberlake) who is a graduate student at Princeton.  He is paying his college tuition by playing online poker.  He is about 60 grand in the hole to the university, and then loses all of this money online.  He and his brainy friends find out that they in fact, have been cheated by the online company (what a shock).   So Richie decides to go to Costa Rica where the company is based and confront the owner, a huge gangster type named Ivan Black (Affeck).  Sound ridiculous already?  It is. 

He then befriends Ivan and they become partners to a degree, and Richie bags going back to the states to finish school so he can lead a life of being a big wig in the online gambling business. Trouble is Ivan is playing him, and then all the backstabbing begins and so on and so forth.  Guess what?  Ivan is really a terrible guy, and Richie is really a smart guy, and the FBI is involved, and then there is some form of a silly romance where Ivan and Richie are sharing a woman....please make this stop!

This movie could not be any less interesting if they tried. It looks like a million other forgettable movies and goes nowhere.  Right up front, do you or anyone else really care that some privileged Ivy League kid is having a hard time paying for college?  Yeah, me either.  This is one of the cardinal flaws of this flick.  No one cares one bit about our "hero."  Game over.  And Affleck is simply going through the motions here, the whole time asking, "When do I get paid so I can go home?"

You don't care about the principles, and the whole thing is just so....uninteresting.   What a waste of time and money.  And what a horrible flop its opening weekend with two big stars in the lead.

Runner, Runner.  Run...the other way!