In poker lingo, you ‘call’ the movie hoping that you will get a ‘full house’ or atleast a ‘straight’ worth of an excitement but it turns out to be pure ‘bluff.’ Runner Runner clearly bluffed all the poker patrons who went for the movie in the hope of getting some ’rounders’ or ‘casino royale’ kind of game scenes but there is not a single scene of table poker play. Yes, not a single scene!!
Basically, Runner Runner is a poker term that refers to a card that completes a hand or improves it.
A smart Princeton guy (Timberlake) funding his college education through online poker winnings and commissions lost a big amount and with the help of mathematics and probability proofs went straight to Costa Rica to meet poker website owner Bloch( Affleck). How Affleck brings the guy into business with some masterplan back of his mind is what the movie is about. How Timberlake handles his boss and FBI is basically the story. With Gemma Artheton, the beauty in between and a FBI agent, the plot takes predictable turns and twist with nothing novel to offer.
Leave alone poker, the normal moves and twist are also not worth mentioning and one can easily ‘fold’ the movie watching and can wait it to come on HBO or star movies.
Acting wise, surprisingly Timberlake stands out from rest of the cast with Gemma looking pretty everywhere. Affleck tries hard to pull out bad guy role but fails. The others don’t have much to do.
P.S. Affleck really needs to pull his weight (acting-wise he looked confused here) as the hardcore Batsy fans have huge expectations from him!!
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