For me this movie sounded like it had it all. Al Pacino. Sports. Betting. Renee Russo. Jeremy Piven. And I kinda like Matthew McConaughey. But I must say I was disappointed. The movie seemed a bit scatter-brained. They did not do a good enough job...
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For me this movie sounded like it had it all. Al Pacino. Sports. Betting. Renee Russo. Jeremy Piven. And I kinda like Matthew McConaughey. But I must say I was disappointed. The movie seemed a bit scatter-brained. They did not do a good enough job explaining the world of sports betting, so making the viewer believe that a guy like “Brad Lang� could be whisked away to New York and make hundreds of thousands of dollars after a few good weeks of picking games, doesn’t seem very believable. Anyone who watches football (and places a bet or two) knows you can have a couple of HOT weeks, but no one is going to show up at your door and pay you bags full of money to do it “professionally�. I also didn’t enjoy the mystery surrounding all the “ailments� that Al Pacino’s character had. It made it very difficult to say if his character was a hero or a villain. And if you spend the whole movie wondering about this it can take away from the storyline. Renee Russo was great as usual. But I thought it was interesting that they painted her with a disturbing past like drug addiction and sexual abuse. She doesn’t really “fit the bill� as that type of character.

Smaller roles by Jeremy Piven and Armand Assante were very well cast. I almost wish they both had more prominent roles in this movie. Overall I rated the movie 2 ½ stars. The reason was with such a fine cast, they should have been able to put out a better product.