I wasn't dying to see this new movie Runner Runner but I like Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake appeals to my gay side so I decided to give it a try. I wasn't quite sure what it was about besides poker which I've played two times and discovered that I have absolutely no poker face whatsoever. But this isn't about real poker. Its online poker which I absolutely don't understand why people play. This is about Timberlake's character Richie Furst which is so not a real name getting in trouble in college for helping an online gambling company. He is told to stop so bets all his money college money on a site called Midnight Black and discovers that they are cheating.
This part confused me. This guy who is broke has the money, after losing it all, still is able to book a flight to Costa Rica, rent a room, and have enough pull to get a face to face with Affleck's Ivan Block. Yeah. That happened. So Block feels bad for Furst being ripped off and fires the team that ripped him off and hires him just like that.
Richie is doing well and getting in deep with all this nonsense when of course he meets a woman named Rebecca that seems to be the neighborhood doorknob. He gets with her, Block is all like “I see you met a new friend!” and she is all “Tee-hee!” and Furst is all “Derp! Latina Vagina!” which is totally a thing.
Source: Personal Experience.
So while Furst is enjoying the sweet life and making money he starts getting in with Block's dangerous ass friends and you know they're dangerous because they have accents. He gets his ass beat and tries to run away back to America but the FBI led by Anthony Mackie who I now like. They try and make him help them but he tells Block and Block is all “Calm down, they cant do shit we're not in America.” Next thing you know guys are fed to alligators, double crosses are being double crossed, Furst's loser ass father is brought to Costa Rica, and you can tell how the movie ends half an hour before it does.
This was an okay but not anything to rush out and go see. Affleck is good, Mackie is good, but Timberlake does not know how to play getting his ass kicked well. I understand he is pretty and all but when you get your ass kicked as many times as he did in this movie you'll end up with more than a damned black eye.
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3 comments:
I wonder if this is ever so loosely inspired by the story behind Bodog gambling company.
Its something that happens all the time so it can be inspired by any maroon that is losing their money playing a game on the computer.
Sure, but the Bodog gambling company went off shore and the owner Calvin Ayre, and how the US government wants to indict him. From Wikipedia:
"In February 2012, Ayre and three other individuals were indicted by the US Attorney for Maryland on charges of illegal gambling and money laundering related to conduct that occurred before the 2006 passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in the US. Ayre released a statement via CalvinAyre.com saying he viewed the indictment as “abuse of the US criminal justice system for the commercial gain of large US corporations.” Ayre also noted that the US Attorney had seized Bodog.com, a domain that had been dormant since the Bodog brand revoked its licensing agreement with MMGG the previous year. Ayre holds an online gaming license in the country of Antigua that is subject to a longstanding World Trade Organization dispute with the US government and which may figure centrally in the resolution of this dispute.[23][24]"
I basically thought Affleck's character Ivan was loosely based on this guy, but then I don't know anything about this film other than your review!
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