Hi, Bryan Here….

  Even the title is bad. ‘Runner Runner‘ might have looked good on paper and with director Brad Furman (‘The Lincoln Lawyer‘) hiring Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake, and Gemma Arterton in this online gambling thriller, you might be excited to see this movie. Fortunately for me, this was only 90 minutes. But it was a long 90 minutes of laughable, cheesy dialogue, zero note characters, and virtually non suspense, with the exception of a short scene with crocodiles. The setup is decent enough, but was poorly executed on all levels. I don’t expect this flop of a film to make any real money at the box office.

‘Runner Runner‘ suffers from its slow pace and and lack of suspense, which is sad, because this is supposed to be a high octane thriller with fast cars, fast boats, and bad guys. And yes, it has all of that, but at no point do we feel on the edge of our seats or worried for our characters. Every actor might as well had a blank mask on, because no emotion poured out of them, besides the rare instance when someone yelled at someone else. Timberlake and Affleck are likable on-screen, but suspenseful thrillers are not Timberlake’s strong suit, and Affleck only seemed to be reeling off his Oscar win here, while Arterton is only here to look pretty. This film is better left to view once it comes out on cable for free, and even then you’ll want your hour and a half back.

-Bryan Kluger