Runner Runner

Runner Runner starts off with a solid draw, then folds on the flop.

Even the best player can only go so far with a bum hand.

One of the film's biggest problems is that Richie is an unsympathetic and rather dim character. The badly drawn role does the likable Timberlake no favors.

This is the kind of movie that, in order to puff itself up, quotes Meyer Lansky, Napoleon and Native American sayings. But according to Hoyle — as poker players would say — the film really just does boilerplate Hollywood drama.

Runner Runner is a bad run of cliché clichés.

The film might take its name from poker subculture, but it lacks all the urgency, single-mindedness and swiftness that the title implies at its most literal. Runner Runner is a bummer. Bummer.

In its early moments, the movie evokes everything from "The Social Network" to "Casino." By the end, the film has become as exciting as a game of Old Maid. R-rated thrillers are hardly ever this dull and listless, but this movie manages to eradicate all of Timberlake’s charisma and makes you flash back to Affleck’s "Paycheck"/"Gigli" era. How does this even happen?

Occasionally bad or more appropriately named "convenient writing" aside, Runner Runner is simplistic hollywood entertainment. It never aspires to be anything super exceptional and it certainly doesn't dissappoint. It's weaker than 21, a somewhat similar movie but it offers up enough enjoyment to make it worth seeing. The trailers spoiled some of the plot and i think this is the kind of movie that would be more enjoyable if you went in knowing nothing about it. A lot of the f-bomb dropping seems unnecessary. The acting is passable all around. It was interesting to see the soon to be Batman in a villain sort of role. I wouldn't say he did a great job as Ivan Block but I also wouldn't say he did a terrible job either. The romance side plot between Gemma and Justin is laughable at best. Gemma's character in general seems very token, much like every other side character. Justin Timberlake did fine. I've never felt like he was a bad actor so maybe that's why I'm ok with his performance. Some of the twists near the end were good, but there were also some things that happened that were kinda iffy near the end as well. Really it's as I said before, it's good entertaining movie, and absolutely nothing more. Not one single aspect about it is exceptional and only a couple things are bad about it. Ultimately, it's a movie that knows it needs to entertain, something many much higher profile movies tend to forget.

I had many laughs while a watch this movie. You know why, for who else it could be, none other than our Ben Affleck. He was in a negative role in the movie but for me he looked more like a chocolate boy who is ready to romance than vicious villain. I liked his acting but not as a villain. I am not doubting his capable of performance but I felt the character should have been replaced with another actor. Then the movie would have been in a different position than now. Justin Timberlake and Gemma Arterton were okay, at least the best parts came from theirs portions. The movie had a good and convincing story but not freshly written script for this particular movie. Throughout it was predictable including the end twist so it is hard to amaze you with its content in anywhere of the length and breadth of the movie. In a simple word to explain the movie, it is like a chess game where two players move their pawns carefully to gain victory over another. The good thing was the locations which are out of usual United States and minus was there's no thrilling stunts or scenes except the ending. For me it was okay movie, can be tried out once, only if you are interested but I won't recommend it to skip either.

I never used to understand what critics meant when they said that a movie "never quite knows what it is", then I watched Runner Runner. Justin Timberlake, yes he does acting now, stars as the sort of main Richie Furst who leaves college to become part of Ben Afflecks business (Batman Industries). While Affleck compensates for pretty much every other performance in the movie. Timberlake just makes them look a lot better. It's not that he can't act he just actually he can't act it's as simple as that. Gemma Arterton plays the girlfriend of every male character in the movie, and is obviously still trying to recover from St Trinians 2, but does it well. With the exception of the slightly intriguing premise (which probably looked good on paper) that is the only positive thing about Runner Runner. Everything else mainly the plot is very easily forgettable or all over the place or both. It goes from drama to thriller to romance to drama to action to crime and back to romance, that's only the first 10 minutes. I would explain how varied the whole movie is but I can't remember more than 20 minutes of the 100 minute runtime. However I can recall being slightly entertained or at least not bored. Which was actually quite surprising because there was not one explosion, a rare thing to see in any movie nowadays. Actually I'm not 100% sure there were no explosions because it was so easily forgettable. Undoubtedly not worth watching.

Terrible movie, I went to the theater when it was out did not know what this was seen it afterwards I felt like my life was wasted watching this. The story is very Terrible and Justin Timberlake acting is the worst I seen and I watched the love guru and in time(both staring him and where terrible). Ben Affleck acted great although that did not help the movie it self. Overall this movie is about a college student who got scammed on internet gambling and tracks down the guy who owns the site (****) then he hires him to work online for him then the rest of the movie gets very stupid and terrible the end.

Although I'm not too sure with the chemistry between a Grammy-winning pop megastar and a Oscar-winning actor (who's going to be in the Man of Steel sequel as the new Clooney *ahem... Batman). JT has some huge talented skills, but he can't act in a traditional style of a poker-esque movie. Runner, Runner has a list of great cast like Gemma Atkinson and Anthony Mackie, but there's nothing new in the movie. I feel very disappointed at Justin Timberlake's movie career status because he's not yet a full Hollywood A-lister and just like Taylor Kirsch and Colin Farrell and even Ryan Reynolds, he's just not making a name for himself when it comes to becoming a musician turned actor. Affleck's performance in Runner Runner is lesser than Gigli and more than Argo. But I think he took a few steps backwards before he even got nominated for his work in Argo. It was supposed to be a good thriller, but then again I just might go see "Gravity" instead. I think I should wait for a rental, but I don't wanna see Runner Runner right now. If you like poker movies, try "Leaving Las Vegas" or "Casino Royale" and maybe you're just in time to play the cards right.