Hey Webmasters! New Photo Album Service Launched - Check it out!
Hold your bets on this movie. It’s predictable the whole way through. The only thing fresh in this movie is the setting.
Matthew McConaughey (Sahara, Contact) stars as Brandon Lang, an ex-college quarterback still trying to go pro six years after permanently injuring his leg in a game-winning touchdown. Living now in Las Vegas, he records messages for 1-900 numbers. But when he takes over the number for sports predictions, he moves to the top of his game predicting 80 percent winners every week.
Enter Al Pacino (The Recruit, Godfather movies). Pacino stars as Walter Abrams, a sort of gambling tycoon in his own right. For a percentage of their winnings his sales people encourage his clients to bet more than they can afford with their bookies. Walter says that what he does is not illegal, even though people place illegal bets as a result of his services.
After hearing about the success of Brandon Lang, Walter recruits him to make all the top sports picks for his business and teaches him how to sell the picks. He even changes his name to John Anthony.
| |
From here the film continues its predictable path of Brandon continuing to excel and making lots of money for himself and Walter before… Without giving too much away, I think you might see where this is going. Suffice to say that in the end lessons are learned.
This film is apparently quite realistic when it comes to terminology used in the sports gambling industry and this might also turn people off from this film. However, this setting of sports betting is also about the only thing that makes this movie fresh. Just about everything else in the movie is clichéd as it follows a basic down to top to bottom to good outline.
One good thing that this film does do is present an accurate picture of just how addictive and dangerous gambling can be. McConaughey’s character hasn’t gambled in over five years and yet he helps other people to gamble their fortunes. Pacino’s character claims to be a sober gambler, but is secretly betting his fortune on his new golden boy. The real tragedies show their light, when Brandon is at the bottom of his game.
Despite its predictability, this film is not totally without merit. The better parts of this film are scenes where McConaughey and Pacino face off, either as Walter tries to bring Brandon in or as Brandon tries to push Walter away, and where Walter’s wife tries to mediate between the two.
Pacino does turn in another excellent performance given the poor script. He has some excellent moments doing what he does best: making you wonder just where he’ll take his character next. This truly makes it unfortunate that the rest of the movies is not as fresh as Pacino tries to make his character when allowed to by the director.
McConaughey delivers a performance that is average at best. Although he does have a couple scenes in which he shows he is capable of more. In other words, with a better script, he performance could have been a lot better. He does have some great moments though, particularly when he’s facing off against Pacino near the end.
Rene Russo kind of takes a back seat to the battle of wits raging between Pacino and McConaughey, yet proves to be what holds them together. But again, the poor script holds her back from being able to truly deliver a performance that she’s capable of.
If you’re a fan of Pacino or McConaughey, this film might be worth checking out on DVD from Blockbuster, but for now save your money for a better movie at the box office..
Bravenet Blog 
Blog Community
Get a Free Blog
Manage your Blog
bravenet.com