Runner Runner

The leads, including a demeaned Gemma Arterton, are sparkling high-rollers but no one really emerges a winner from this forgettable low-risk, low-stakes drama.

The actors hit the jackpot, but only in terms of their paychecks. The audience gets a tension-free, tight-assed, Casino ripoff that leaves them thoroughly fleeced.

Director Furman and cinematographer Mauro Fiore make lovely work of the tropical light, but the film has none of the loose-limbed energy of Furman's stealth hit, The Lincoln Lawyer.

The mannered speech is fun, the players are charismatic, and director Brad Furman maintains an agreeably brisk pace.

It looks like everybody's lying, and that's only because the acting is pretty bad.

The movie mostly wants to look timely and seem topical. Instead, it feels irrelevant.

Though the film is over before it ever gets going, the good-looking cast doesn’t make the substance-free story worth enduring.

The slickest piece of garbage you'll see all year.

Devoid of the flair of excelling in anything specific.

Runner Runner is a slick, daft and unabashedly entertaining Hollywood thriller. It doesn't do anything new with the formula, but it knows how to engineer it in the correct way.