Runner, Runner 2013

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It feels like a halfhearted bluff and has the stale smell of yesterday's after-shave. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: He's back! Behold, the second coming of . . . Badfleck. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Even when you have no clue what they're talking about, you know exactly where the movie's going and can pretty much tell from your watch how and when they'll get there. Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: Despite [its] stacked deck of a cast, "Runner Runner" adds up to little more than a charmless, paint-by-numbers thriller ... Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Runner Runner is a run-of-the-mill rise-and-fall story, treating its hero to fabulous, exotic luxury before tugging the rug out from under him. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's not that "Runner Runner" is predictable. It's that you don't care, either about the characters or what happens to them. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: The mannered speech is fun, the players are charismatic, and director Brad Furman maintains an agreeably brisk pace. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: You see "Runner Runner's" hand before it's played, and there's nothing to keep you playing. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: Do Affleck and Timberlake, who together should have enough cash to make Midas jealous, need a payday this badly? That's the only real mystery at the heart of Runner Runner, a dull, slow-jog of a thriller that's less whodunit than why bother. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Could have been a legitimately great film, instead we're left with the trappings of one, with mere opulence substituted for substance. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: It looks like everybody's lying, and that's only because the acting is pretty bad. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: An uncompelling, sketchy telling of an intriguing crime story. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Even with Affleck doing his Rat Pack best, by the end of "Runner Runner," the chill is gone. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Here is a film in which a man is covered in chicken fat and thrown into a pit of crocodiles, and you still can barely keep your eyes open. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The movie mostly wants to look timely and seem topical. Instead, it feels irrelevant. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The film will make a decent rental in a few months time. But to lay down good money now, to see it in a theater? That's a chump's move. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Be aware, poker fans. "Runner Runner" is bluffing. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: The movie is like a set-up to a set-up. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Feels like it could drag on forever, and drag us down into a purgatory of stupefaction with it. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Various subplots are given short shrift and the whole thing feels more like a Cliff's Notes version of a longer piece than an actual finished motion picture. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: 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. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "Runner Runner" is less than mediocre, but it's not repellent, which means that to watch it is to root for it - and to be disappointed. Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: After an intriguing setup, Runner Runner devolves into a by-the-books thriller. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Takes us inside the world of Internet gambling which proves every bit as fascinating as you'd imagine, by which I mean, not at all. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: It is oxymoronically a thriller that fails to live up to the genre, playing it safe from start to finish with an insipid hero, a pedestrian plot and a conclusion that is as predictable as the phases of the moon. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Provides the world with very little except some great clips for Ben Affleck's eventual Golden Globe Life Achievement reel. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Even with its glossy Costa Rican setting, Runner Runner is a vacant excursion with plot holes the size of a small Caribbean island. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: You want the movie to get outrageous, but it's too dignified to go there. Much like its central villain, it can't decide what it wants to be. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "Runner Runner" is a bummer. Bummer. Read more