Runner Runner

Runner Runner

Rating 5 out of 10

This movie was hammered in the reviews getting only a 9% rating from rottentomatoes.com.  Knowing that I went in with low expectations.  Had planned to see the movie Carrie but everyone I talked to said it was not very good or scary at all.  So when I got to the line of scrimmage I called an audible and went to this one.

I'm not sure if Runner Runner deserved all the bad reviews.  It's not a great movie but not a bad one either.  It doesn't let plot holes or even common sense get in the way of moving the story along.  Richie (Justin Timberlake) is a brilliant Princeton student hoping to graduate soon a get that high paying Wall Street job.  He is paying his way thru school by playing internet poker and being paid to steer other students toward certain internet gambling sites.  The school finds out what he is doing and puts a stop to it just as bad luck would have it he has a huge student loan coming due where if he doesn't pay it he will be kicked out of school.  I thought student loans came due AFTER you graduate? Oh well, moving along.

When Richie takes his life savings and decides to do an all or nothing win on the internet gambling site and loses he goes into the code to figure out he was cheated.  Seems if he could do that he could figure the code on how to win? Oh well, moving along.

Of course the thing to do is fly to Costa Rica and have a face off with the big boss, Ivan Block (Ben Affleck).  What could go wrong there?  Block admires his spunk and hires him on the spot.  In a matter of months works his way to the top of the ladder being Blocks right hand man.  The more Richie sees the more he realizes how corrupt it all is.  There is a love interest for Richie in Rebecca (the very hot Gemma Arterton) who works for Block yet it's never really explained what she does.

This will make a decent rental.  Watch it and don't think too much.  The acting is pretty good.  Ms. Arterton is about as attractive as any movie actress in recent memory.  With the low expectations I liked the movie enough to get a moderate thumbs up.