WHO’S IN IT?
Justin Timberlake (The Social Network), Ben Affleck (Argo), Gemma Arterton (Byzantium), Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker), David Costabile (Side Effects), Sam Palladio (Episodes), Oliver Cooper (Project X), Ben Schwartz (The Other Guys), Laurence Mason (Ali), Louis Lombardi (The Spirit), Bob Gunton (The Shawshank Redemption)
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer), director; Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Ocean’s Thirteen), writers, co-producers; Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception), Jennifer Davisson Killoran (Red Riding Hood), Michael Shamberg (Contagion), Stacey Sher (Django Unchained) and Scott Steindorff (Lawless), co-producers; Christophe Beck (Crazy Stupid Love), composer; Mauro Fiore (Avatar), cinematographer; Jeff McEvoy (The Lincoln Lawyer), editor
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Richie Furst (Timberlake) is a student at Princeton University who signs on for online poker, only to be quickly swindled out of his tuition fees. Desperate to confront the man responsible, Richie travels to the remote island location of the website and sets up with a meeting with its owner, Ivan Block (Affleck). Just as quickly seduced by the perks of wealth and the position of Block’s protégé and right-hand man, Richie is also bogged down by FBI agent Zbysko (Mackie) who wants to use him to capture the criminal Block…
WHY SHOULD YOU BE EXCITED?
Even though some of his choices have been a bit hit-and-miss throughout his career, Justin Timberlake is back in leading man territory in the new thriller Runner Runner. And he’s joined by someone who’s been on their own rocky path.
The colossal fall-and-rise story of Ben Affleck is one that is set to make the Hollywood history books, for all the right reasons. Ten years ago, his star power (fuelled by earlier turns in Armageddon, Pearl Harbour and Good Will Hunting) was all but killed off by his roles in Daredevil, Paycheck, Surviving Christmas, and most notoriously the failed gangster comedy Gigli in which he paired up with squeeze at the time Jennifer Lopez. Four years later, after a couple of failed acting reboots including his praised turn as George Reeves in Hollywoodland, he took on the director role in the crime thriller Gone Baby Gone, and it became a surprise hit. In 2010, his sophomore picture The Town was received even better, and got an even bigger audience. And of course, do we even need to mention Argo? Now, he is a fully-fledged, Oscar-winning writer-director-producer with a happy family co-headed by Daredevil co-star Jennifer Garner and the respect of all the major players in Hollywood. Oh, and the highly-coveted role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in the upcoming Batman vs. Superman movie. Yeah, no biggie.
But, as that last point stated, he is also an actor and able to choose his roles more wisely this time. With that said, Affleck takes on the role of the corrupt businessman Ivan Block in Runner Runner and just in the trailer shows how much his acting has truly matured. The Walter White to Justin Timberlake’s Jesse Pinkman, he seems to be the most interesting aspect of this movie, but not what entirely makes the movie.
Aside from also having Gemma Arterton and Anthony Mackie in supporting roles, director Brad Furman has additional gravitas after his stunning work on The Lincoln Lawyer and could just well have strength in a high-concept studio movie as well. How he does it is anyone’s guess, but Runner Runner still seems to be an entertaining thriller which could benefit from stars Timberlake and of course Affleck as well as its engaging story of money, deceit, and a whole lot of online poker.
