Two for the Money [HD]

For the Actors
TWO FOR THE MONEY takes on the topic of Sports Gambling and makes a serious attempt to turn it into a movie. The story is apparently based on a true one (as per the opening screen statement) but it is from the pen of Dan Gilroy that the well-drawn characters are realized. DJ Caruso (Smallville, The Salton Sea, The Shield) knows his way around matters such as these and his pacing is fine, allowing for the isolated 'arias' in the film to work well. The problem, for this viewer, is the topic: how interesting can bilking chronic gamblers over football game wagers possibly be?

The story is related by Brandon Long (Matthew McConaughey) who begins life as a sports hero and just at the moment when he is ready to break in to the Pro Football domain, he fractures his leg in a winning touchdown. Six years later, and still dreaming of making it as a player of football, finds him in the numbers game with a talent for picking winning teams and calling 900 numbers to urge gullible...

TWO FOR THE MONEY
The general premise, man gets sucked into the world of sports gambling and then tries to find a way out of it. Thats the whole story in a nutshell.

Really, the story is nothing new. Actually quite formulatic. I can't really say that there is anything new. But the thing about this movie is the acting.

The acting is great. Matthew M. is suprisingly very good. I don't think he is a bad actor, but I don't see him as a breakout actor for his acting abilities. He is quite good in this movie though as the arrogant sports-to-go-to man for gambling tips. Jeremy Piven, though in a small role, is very similar to his character on Entourage, but you know, he's great as that character as he is in this one. Al Pacino is always good. Acutally, he's great in this movie. The only problem is that his character is very conventional Pacino. Always yelling, yelling, yelling, getting mad, being scary. But, Pacino is good at that. Though Pacino is presenting nothing new here, he is very...

Avoiding This Film Is A Safe Bet.
There's no easy way around it. "Two For The Money" is a bad movie. A very bad movie. It pains me to say this for the following reasons. I'm an avid, life long sports fan and a great admirer of both Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey's work.

Alas, the film is a formula "hick in the big city" tale that revolves around the shark-like world of sports booking. McConaughey plays Brandon, a young studly former athlete who possesses a gift for making game picks on the 900 lines in Vegas. Pacino plays Walter, the chain smoking kingpin owner of a sports book advice line with an addictive personality. Walter catches wind of Brandon's abilities and woos him to New York to polish the diamond in the rough and make him his next golden boy. Sound interesting? It's not.

Clearly poor dialogue shares the blame, but McConaughey delivers a disappointingly shallow, paper thin performance that offers nothing for the viewer to sink his teeth into. You get the obligatory hickory...

Click to Editorial Reviews