Pluskylang Great Film overall

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Michael Ledo Ritchie (Justin Timberlake) is a student at Princeton. He goes on line and gambles away his tuition money, and afterwards realizes that unlicensed off shore on line gambling web sites are dishonest. GOSH! Richie gathers the statistical evidence and travels to paradise to meet up with Ivan Block (Ben Affleck) the owner of the web site. Block recognizes Richie's genius and invites him in for a big slice of the pie. Richie recruits some of his nerd friends to help him out. About 30 minutes into the story the FBI (Anthony Mackie) confronts Richie and wants him to be an informant...or else he can never go back to New Jersey and maybe New York. Richie is faced with a dilemma of being super rich in paradise with Ivan's girlfriend Gemma Arterton clinging to him or Newark. Oh what to do, what to do.No one plays for free.The film is mostly a light action drama. Timberlake and Affleck looked good on the screen and tried to give some life to a tired script but only succeeded in appearing unconvincing in their roles, especially Affleck. The dialog had some good lines, but needed more. It wasn't a film that I could get into. I couldn't help think about "21" which is a far better gambling film.When you play against a computer designed to take your money, it isn't gambling.Works as a rental.Parental Guide: F-bomb. Implied sex. No nudity

blanche-2 If Justin Timberlake's name was shown at the beginning of this film, I didn't see it. I spent the whole movie impressed by how much this actor looked like him.Timberlake stars with Ben Affleck and John Heard in "Runner Runner" about Richie (Timberlake), a Princeton grad student who is gambling online and signing up other students to do it as well. He's taken to task by the chancellor (Bob Gunton). Richie decides to bet what money he has in an online poker game. He loses everything. When he studies the poker program a little bit more and does averages, etc., with a friend, he realizes he's been cheated.He then travels to Costa Rica to confront the tycoon responsible for these sites, one Ivan Block (Ben Affleck). Richie believes Block would want to know about this since it is cheating customers.Block explains to him that some of his programmers turned out to be unethical, apologizes, comps his room, and credits his gambling account with the money he lost.Block winds up offering Richie a job rather than returning to school, and Richie, seeing the money he could make, stays on. As time goes on, he finds out that Block is a ruthless swindler who will do anything to get his way.The FBI approaches Richie for help gathering evidence about Block and initially, he rebuffs them. The web then becomes more tangled; when Richie tries to leave Costa Rica for home, he is stopped. Block then buys Richie's father's (John Heard) $187,000 gambling debt to keep Richie where he wants him. Block owns everything and everybody. How is he going to get out of this mess? This movie could have been a lot better than it was, but it falls flat. Richie is the main character, and he and his father are both idiots. I think they were supposed to be likable, so right away we're in trouble. It was very hard to connect with these characters making so many obvious mistakes.The acting was so-so. I can't agree about Ben Affleck being horrible. He comes off as a real nice guy, and that's just what sleazes do - otherwise, they couldn't rope anyone in. He's relaxed, he has a smile on his face, he offers you the world, when in truth, he's taking you for a big fool. Someone like Al Pacino or Andy Garcia, who look like tough guys, would have been wrong choices.This is really not worth seeing. Maybe as a rental, that's about it.

rbrb First rate movie showing the dangers of gambling especially on line gambling.A whizz kid student is duped by an on line gaming site, so he seeks to find out why from the boss of the gaming site.....The film has a thoughtful and intelligent script with plenty of drama and sufficient action.I cannot understand why the voters on IMDb give such low voting.During the picture I needed to ask who was the charismatic young lead actor.This movie scores highly for me as it reveals realistically the dangers of betting on line.8/10

FlashCallahan Richie is a student who's having trouble paying his tuition.He helps other students who want to gamble online, but for a small fee. When he gambles online himself, he loses but believes he was cheated.He goes to Costa Rica, where the site is generated from, and shows the owner, Ivan Block, proof that he was cheated.Block then offers him a job which he takes, and begins to learn how he does business. But the FBI want to nail Block, and intimidate Richie to help them......The structure for films like this are as old as the hills.Good guy confronts a high powered businessman, said man offers big money, there's always a good looking girl involved, cops close in, businessman tries to frame good guy, and so on.When you watch this film, you could be forgiven with thinking that the makers have completely ripped off Wall Street, because the narrative flows in the same way that movie did, Guy thinks he's made it, but his world comes slowly crashing.Even the dad's get involved in both movies.To criticise this movie would be too easy, it's been done hundreds of times before, much better, but for a piece of fluff movie, with nice locations, and good looking people, you could do a lot worse.Timberlake isn't the best actor in the world, but he can hold his own, and he has decent chemistry with Arterton, who is really just there as a plot point to get Richie and Ivan in some sort of subliminal feud.If you thought Affleck was great in movies such as Paycheck (which he obviously did this movie for), Gigli, and Deception, you've got him back here.He's phoning it in, and you know he just took the part for the money, and the holiday.Mackie is the best thing here, bringing a little tension and humour to a stale narrative.It's a dud, for sure, but it's a guilty pleasure.Take a gamble.