Two for the Money (2005)

From my favorite movies..

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I am not a massive sports or sports movie fan. But then this film is more about gambling, ambition and greed.The main character is sucked in to a new and exciting world by Al Pacino's character who takes eccentric to new levels.The film is fairly slow and the plot flows along fairly gently, which is just as well because there really isn't a lot of substance to it.The characters are engaging and just enough happens to keep you interested.The majority of the film centres around the affect of success and the motivations that drive the successful on.This is good for an idle Sunday afternoon. Good performances and production but nothing special going on and no fireworks.

Two for the Money is a 2005 release that dives head first into the volatile world of sports gambling. Our tour guides: Walter Abrams (played by Al Pacino, who chews a lot of scenery here) as an owner of a sports consulting operation and Brandon Lang (Matthew McConaughey), a former college football star turned sports handicapper, who acts as Walter's innocent protégé. What starts off as a high energy romp turns dark and restless. Granted, this is not your ordinary sports flick. Its non-linear storytelling works because of the performances (Rene Russo is also effective in a supporting role as Pacino's character's wife). If you revel in the idea of Pacino playing himself, this is a must see. D. J. Caruso (The Salton Sea) directs. Dan Gilroy (Freejack) penned the script.

Al Pacino stars with Matthew McConaughey and Rene Russo in "Two for the Money," a 2005 film directed by D.J. Caruso.Pacino plays Walter Abrams, a man with a serious heart condition, a wife, and a child. As his wife says, "he's held together by meetings. If it has an "anonymous" after its name, he goes to it." A former compulsive gambler, he now runs a sports betting business. He becomes interested in a former football player, retired due to a knee injury, named Brandon Lang (McConaughey). Lang gives out accurate predictions and point spreads on a 900 line, and Abrams invites Lang to work for him.Lang moves to New York, where Abrams changes his name to John Anthony, dresses him professionally, and ultimately puts him on television. Anthony is very successful - the business gets a percentage of every win, and Anthony does very well by his clients.Unfortunately, as Abrams himself says, Anthony is not a psychic - which Anthony seems to forget, becoming too interested in golf games with his clients instead of research, and the inevitable happens. "John Anthony" then must come to terms with the complex man he's working for and how and if he's going to get back in the game.This is a good-looking film with Pacino sucking out all the air in the room, overpowering both McConaughey and Russo with his take no prisoners acting. McConaughey is one hot number, and there was a time, when he first started acting, that he wanted to be another Paul Newman. Then he was pulled into chick flicks. The result is a successful career but not necessarily a successful acting career. Therefore he's not really a good match for Pacino.Jeremy Piven plays another analyst who works for Abrams, and he does an effective job, as does Armand Assante, a bettor who doesn't like to lose - he's really excellent in a short role.But Pacino rules - you can sense this man's volatility and you have no idea what he's going to pull next. This is definitely a film for Pacino fans. It's not terribly original, but there are some good scenes and some witty dialogue.

Al is a great actor so it's very annoying to see movies where he's a bad guy. It's like a dear friend turning into an enemy! You know all his capacities but sadly he uses them in a bad way! There, he plays a cynic and Machiavellian boss of a sports counseling firm. His motto is to turn his collaborators into money vacuum by all means. In a great scene of collective therapy, you understand that he is really ill.Beyond Al, the cast isn't really interesting (McConaughey is a masculine Playmate, never missing an occasion to show his body, Russo not much convincing) and the story a bit obscure: if sports bets are illegal, how can they advise freely? Why do they say it is tax-free?