Blu-ray Review - Runner Runner

Runner Runner
Director: Brad Furman
Starring: Justin Timberlake, Gemma Arterton, Ben Affleck
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: January 7, 2013
Retail: $39.99
ASIN: B00GICP86A
Running Time: 91minutes
Rating: R

Review:

Arriving on DVD and Blu-ray last week (January 7, 2013) was the gambling-thriller Runner Runner from director Brad Furman and stars Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck (Yep, the future Bruce Wayne/Batman). Special features include House of Cards - The Inside Story of Online Poker (Exclusive to Blu-ray) and deleted scenes.

I've never been a fan of Justin Timberlake's music or film roles, but he won me over in the underrated Clint Eastwood's vehicle Trouble with the Curve. I have always thought Ben Affleck's acting has been extremely wooden or just god-awful at times, so my expectations for Runner Runner were quite low.

Somewhat based on a real-life professional poker player, Nat Arem, Justin Timberlake plays a Princeton grad student, Richie Furst, who has been paying his college tuition by referring students to a online poker site, in which he receives a fee. He once had a wonderful  career on Wall Street, but things happen and now his only source of income is through his gambling scheme that is until the Dean learns of his activities and tells him to shutdown his operation or get kicked out of school.

With no other choice, Richie closes his business, but takes all his earnings and enters an online poker game, in the hope of winning the rest of his college tuition. Despite his poker experience, Richie loses everything!

After compiling evidence that the another poker player had cheated, Richie heads to Costa Rica to confront the gambling tycoon named Ian Block (played by Ben Affleck), the owner of several online gambling websites. Richie shows him the statistics of the poker game, where the coders have recoded the website, so they can cheat. Ian fires everyone who was involved in the cheating scheme and offers Richie a chance to make millions by helping improve the gambling sites. Richie accepts the offer, unaware of the dangers that lay ahead of him.

Like I said above, I'm not a fan of Ben Affleck, but it seems age has improved his acting skills, as he does a decent job in Runner Runner. Justin Timberlake also gives a great performance, as well as the other actors/actresses in the film. The online gambling plot is interesting, but the writing became bland after twenty-minutes; jumping around to one complicated scene to the next, as if the film was heavily edited. The romance between Timberlake and Gemma Arterton seemed a little forced at times. Runner Runner looks great, but it has many flaws. Overall, Runner Runner is film with no substance. I neither liked it nor hated it.

*Disclaimer - I received a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.