How sad is this?

Don't listen to the negative reviews

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Not perhaps the worst film of all time but possibly the most bland and uninteresting. Characters you can't care about suffering first world problems that you can't get excited about. Waste of 2 hours. I am not sure it is possible to fill the required ten lines of text for this review, because the is so little of interest to say about this film. I really can't believe somebody didn't just say no. I can't believe Al Pacino is in such a weak film. I think a film about the trials and tribulations of Al Pacino going to the supermarket and cooking lunch would have been more interesting, perhaps his newspaper could be slightly damaged as a major plot twist. That would be one up on this film.

There are myriad movies about a young man who has an amateur's gift for something. Then he enters the big leagues, the enterprise becomes demystified, he faces inner or outer demons, overcomes them, achieves momentous success, and returns to his roots, a man in full.That's pretty much the tale of McConaughey, an amiable naif giving comments and advice on a backwoods radio program who's talent is for figuring out who's going to win football games.He gets a call from Al Pacino, who runs -- well, I don't know what the enterprise can be called. It's a large room full of experts on football who sell betting odds over the phone, rather like stockbrokers, only this is serious money. Pacino is expansive and seductive, almost a reprise of his role in "The Devil's Advocate." He takes over McConaughey's life, buys him expensive suits, advertises him, and puts him on a TV show. Pacino's wife, Rene Russo, takes a shine to McConaughey too, but nothing untoward happens. McConaughey's a likable guy -- until he gets cocky, superior, and begins to take time off to play golf. A series of failures bring down both him and Pacino, until the climactic Big Win.The characters are superbly written by Dan Gilroy, and the dialog sounds like the Fourth of July parade in Disneyland. The violent language sparkles with a hilarious profanity. Pacino's metaphors rise to the heights of poetry. I can't reproduce any here.The score is unobtrusive, the location shooting evocative without showing off, and Conrad Hall's seasoned photography catches it all nicely on celluloid.All the performances, major and minor, are fine but there are times when it's hard to discern a character's motivation. Pacino and McConaughey have a complex relationship, switching back and forth between deep affection and creeping suspicion. The switches sometimes come too quickly and for reasons that remain murky. I don't know why Pacino embraces McConaughey instead of just kicking his ass out, when McConaughey comes up with a string of losers, and I don't know the significance of making big bets on the flip of a coin (twice). Last scene: a refurbished and renewed McConaughey in old clothes, a pack slung over his shoulder, a smile on his face, boarding the airplane that will take him back to San Placebo where life is simpler and he can become a middle-school coach with perspective.The story doesn't link its episodes together very well but the pieces on occasion become works of art. Not majestic works of art, but not Grandma Moses either.

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.

I found this movie to be very entertaining and the idea does come at a good time as sports gambling is bigger than ever. It portrays the pros and cons and dangers of betting on sports and with several big names, the movie is worth while for someone who hasn't seen it yet. I think some of the acting was overdone and I thought the movie was just too "fake" at times. I know they cannot show real NFL games but some of the sports highlights and broadcasts were just blatantly not real and sometimes over the top. I think the acting was over the top as well, especially when everyone is sitting around watching the big games towards the end.One specific scene where it is too "fake" for me is when they go 14-0 in the big weekend. In the final game they are watching Pacino says "if they score we win." There was several seconds left on the clock and the team that scored had the lead. In any football game, the team with the ball would have downed the ball and ran the clock out. 100% this would happen every single time, especially in the NFL (and with a 1 possession lead). I just personally think the games and plays were thrown together so carelessly that it's almost offensive to any sports knowledged person viewing the movie.Personally, I do not find McConaughey's character believable. His characters turns a complete 180 and he is way too over the top at moments. He becomes too arrogant and non-likable. While I know that people change, I just think the acting wasn't as well portrayed as it could be.One problem I do have with the bad reviews and some of my comments is that this movie is actually based off of a true story, so while people complain about certain scenes and certain plots, the movie is supposedly following the life of the real Brandon Lang, as he told it and explained the events that had occurred.One personal comment about one thing the movie portrays. In the scene where Amir lost everything and calls McConaughey's character and is yelling at him, following with Lang's character reflecting on how he just ruined someone's life, I personally hate this stereotype. I do not like this scene at all as it is a terrible portrayal of how people's lives are ruined with sports gambling. Amir's character obviously won several hundred thousand dollars, minimum. Then he lost everything in a couple weekends. It shows how some betters will bet everything they have and lose. The movie portrays Lang's character as being at fault here, and trying to have the audience understand that while sympathizing with Amir. I find this to be ridiculous as there is no one at fault but Amir, and the movie does not show enough that it's the better's fault. Amir had a family and took several hundred thousand dollars and lost it all. Yet the movie tries to show that it is completely Lang's fault, and because of this, he has to get out of the business because he can't handle ruining people's lives. This scene just really bothered me as I think Amir's complete collapse just shows his addiction for gambling and his desire not to stop.