RUNNER RUNNER Blu-ray Review
All I could think of while watching Runner Runner this week was how much I hoped that Ben Affleck would be better as Batman. The online poker thriller is directed by Brad Furman and also stars Justin Timberlake, Anthony Mackie and Gemma Arterton.
When the internet was created I doubt anyone imagined how big of a role it would play in everyone’s daily lives. You can do just about anything online, including gamble. Offshore gambling sites are a billion dollar industry that are giving casinos some big competition. Runner Runner is set in the world of high-stakes online gambling. Justin Timberlake plays Richie Furst, a Princeton University Master’s student who turns to online gambling to help pay for tuition. The house, or web in this case always wins, and Richie loses his life savings. He heads to Costa Rica to confront gambling tycoon, Ivan Block (Affleck) at a gaming after he believes he was cheated. Instead of being chased out of Costa Rica, Richie is given a job with Block. His money problems are a thing of the past. After he’s approached by an FBI agent (Mackie), Richie finds that everything is not on the up and up in Block’s gambling empire. Shady payoffs, violence and intimidation cause Richie to fear for his life.
Runner Runner takes itself way too seriously and has very little thrills. That coupled withe the script and the poor plot caused me to mentally turn off halfway through the film. This is Affleck’s worst role in a long time. He and Timberlake is hard to believe as a number crunching Masters student, but he did the best they could. Unfortunately, their on-screen presence can’t save the film. The rest of the cast is pretty solid, but there is only so much that can be done with a horrible script. One of the only things going for the movie is the Costa Rican location.
The AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1 makes the tropical colors pop on screen. The high detail is overwhelming at times, but is nice overall. A lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix pushes the ambient noise out without overpowering the dialogue, which is better than many films. There are only two special features, which is typical of a film of this caliber. It features deleted scenes, most of which it’s easy to understand why they were deleted. House of Cards – The Inside Story of Online Poker featurettes have some interesting interviews.
The film is only worth a rental if you are looking for something to waste an hour and a half watching. I think it would be better watched when it arrives on Netflix or Hulu Streaming.
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