Last week we had a run of bad movies with one and two stars being handed out, so hopefully things will change this week, but that change wont be coming with Runner, Runner.
Justin Timberlake stars as a poor college student who gambles his savings away in an online poker game. He has the smarts to figure out he was cheated and decides to track down the owner of said poker site, Ivan Block (Ben Affleck). When he finds Block in Costa Rica, his fortune takes a turn for the better and he starts working for Block and living the high life. What follows on from there is anyones guess as Runner, Runner starts falling apart rather quickly.
The story, while remotely intriguing is executed with the all the grace of a large elephant, blindfolded and set on fire in a china shop. It’s clunky and doesn’t give itself time to breathe, which is very apparent given it’s 91 minute running time. Don’t get me wrong, of course its possible to get a decent movie in that time frame, but it just doesn’t happen here. At times it feels like a montage of scenes with many of them feeling forced, contrived and just shoved in with little sense nor meaning. In places it looks like theres been obvious reshoots with shitty greenscreen thrown in behind the actors.
And speaking of the actors, we genuinely have a fine cast here, Timberlake, Affleck and Gemma Arterton all take a pay cheque here, without breaking so much as one bead of sweat. With the exception of Anthony Mackie, nobody else seemed that bothered putting in any kind of performance, with the exception of maybe 2 seconds from Ben Affleck in the latter half.
Besides the story and acting problems, this movie is incredibly hard to connect with. It’s very one dimensional and quite alot of the time its like looking at something through a shop window, where you have no intention of buying anything.
Runner, Runner is ultimately a waste of every bodies time, including yours, so do what all the wise gamblers do. Quit while you’re ahead and don’t bother. More a massive non-runner than anything else!
