''Runner Runner'' is a 2013 American

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by

Brad Furman Brad Furman is an American film and music video director, producer, and writer. Career Furman grew up in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania. He is Jewish and attended Friends' Central School. He later went on to study at New York University (NYU ...

, written by

Brian Koppelman Brian William Koppelman (born April 27, 1966) is an American television and film writer, producer and director. Koppelman is the co-writer of ''Ocean's Thirteen'' and ''Rounders (1998 film), Rounders'', a producer of films including ''The Illusion ...

and

David Levien David Levien (born December 9, 1967) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is co-creator, executive producer, and showrunner of Showtime's '' Billions'', along with Brian Koppelman. Some of his credits include ''Ocean' ...

and starring

Justin Timberlake Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and dancer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Prince of Pop", ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' honored him as the b ...

Ben Affleck Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and three Golden Globes. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educatio ...

Gemma Arterton Gemma Christina Arterton (born 2 February 1986) is a British actress. After her stage debut in Shakespeare's ''Love's Labour's Lost'' at the Globe Theatre (2007), Arterton made her feature-film debut in the comedy '' St Trinian's'' (2007). She p ...

and

Anthony Mackie Anthony Dwane Mackie (born September 23, 1978) is an American actor. He gained wide recognition for portraying Sam Wilson / Falcon / Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with the film '' Captain America: The Winter Soldier ...

. The film was released in the United States on October 4, 2013, received generally negative reviews from critics, and grossed $62 million.

Plot

Richie Furst used to have a lucrative career on

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

; this history prevents him from receiving tuition assistance at

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

, so he funds his master's degree by referring students to

online gambling Online gambling (also known as iGaming or iGambling) is any kind of gambling conducted on the internet. This includes virtual poker, casinos, and sports betting. The first online gambling venue opened to the general public was ticketing for th ...

, for which he receives a cut. After the dean threatens to expel him for these activities, Richie tries to win his tuition using his excellent

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

skills in online gambling, but he loses all his money to a cheater, something he can prove by statistics. Richie travels to

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

to confront Ivan Block, who runs the biggest empire of online gambling websites in the world, including the one Richie lost his money on. After Ivan sees the statistics, he finds that

coder A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a program ...

s have modified the software to allow them to cheat. After firing those involved, Ivan tells Richie he will pay him millions per year to stay in Costa Rica and assist with the site. Richie slowly begins a romantic relationship with Rebecca Shafran, ex-lover of Ivan, who appears to have no objections. Ivan has Richie

blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...

a gaming affiliate with videos of his infidelity to force him to sign with Ivan.

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

Agent Shavers kidnaps Richie and threatens to ruin his life in various ways if he does not assist in getting Ivan convicted. Shavers cannot do anything legally as he has no authority in Costa Rica, but he takes advantage of this to use tactics that would be illegal and unethical for law enforcement inside the U.S. Ivan tells Richie that everyone in the organization ends up confronted by Shavers at some point. Over time, Ivan's organization is revealed to be less than ethical. He sends Richie to

bribe Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official duty, to act contrar ...

Costa Rica gaming director Herrera with too small a payment, which leads to Richie being beaten. Ivan tells him it comes with the territory of such a lucrative career. When Richie tries to leave the country, Shavers has drugs planted in his bag and offers to overlook them if Richie agrees to cooperate. A local police officer reveals that the police dislike Ivan but that he would buy his way out of any trouble and destroy whoever tried to take him down. Richie's friend Andrew Cronin, who works on the software design for Ivan, suggests that Ivan is running a

Ponzi scheme A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays Profit (accounting), profits to earlier investors with Funding, funds from more recent investors. Named after Italians, Italian confidence artist Charles Ponzi, this type of s ...

; the players' accounts have no actual money, and Ivan uses the money as his bank account, keeping just enough to allow players to cash out when they need to. Aware that Richie might be wanting out, Ivan buys the massive poker debts of Richie's father and brings him to Costa Rica, using him as a hostage. Ivan throws Herrera and his bodyguard into the river to get eaten by the crocodiles but pulls them out before they are eaten. Cronin disappears and is later found nearly beaten to death. Thanks to Rebecca betraying Ivan, Richie finds out that he has been setting him up all along; Ivan is about to move his operations out of Costa Rica, planning to leave Richie behind as the

fall guy Fall guy is a colloquial phrase that refers to a person to whom blame is deliberately and falsely attributed in order to deflect blame from another party. Origin The origin of the term "fall guy" is unknown and contentious. Many sources place ...

. Richie gives out massive bribes to local officials, including low-level police officers. When the moving day hits, Ivan calls to sarcastically apologize to Richie, telling him he will be busted, as Ivan flies away on a private jet. When Ivan lands, he finds he has been betrayed: the bribed pilot has instead flown him to

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

, an American territory. Shavers and other FBI agents move in to arrest him as Richie and Rebecca fly away on the private jet. Shavers says they are free to go because Richie left a flash drive for him containing sufficient evidence to convict Ivan.

Cast

as Richie Furst *

as Rebecca Shafran *

as Agent Shavers *

as Ivan Block *

Michael Esper Michael James Esper (born December 1, 1976) is an American actor, best known for his stage work. Early life Esper was born in Manhattan and raised in Montclair, New Jersey. He is the son of acting teachers William and Suzanne Esper, of the Wil ...

as Billy "Pet" Petricoff *

Oliver Cooper Oliver Cooper (born ) is an American actor and filmmaker. He made his film debut as Costa in the found footage teen comedy film '' Project X'' (2012), which earned him two MTV Movie & TV Award nominations. Following his breakout role in ''Pro ...

as Andrew Cronin * Christian George as Wilson *

Yul Vazquez Yul Vazquez (born March 18, 1965) is a Cuban-American actor and musician. He has appeared in '' Runaway Bride'' (1999), ''Bad Boys II'' (2003), '' War of the Worlds'' (2005), '' American Gangster'' (2007), ''The A-Team'' (2010), '' Captain Phill ...

as Delegate Herrera * John Heard as Harry Furst * James Molina as Esteban *

Louis Lombardi Louis Lombardi (born January 17, 1968) is an American actor known for his roles in ''The Sopranos'', ''Fantasy Island'', and ''24'' and also as the bartender in ''Battleship''. Early life Lombardi was born in The Bronx, New York City, the s ...

as Archie *

Vincent Laresca Vincent Laresca (born January 21, 1974) is an American actor. Laresca is of Panamanian and Italian descent. He first appeared in film in the 1992 movie ''Juice,'' as Radames. Since then, he has appeared in many popular films, including '' The De ...

as Sergeant Barrancas * Bernie O. Ramos Robledo as Handlebar Mustache *

Sam Palladio Sam Christian Palladio Scott (born 21 November 1986) is an English actor and musician. He is best known for his starring role as Gunnar Scott in the ABC musical drama series ''Nashville'' (2012–18). Palladio has also had recurring roles on th ...

as Shecky *

David Costabile David Costabile (; born January 9, 1967) is an American actor. He is best known for his television work, having appeared in supporting roles in several television series such as '' Billions'', ''Breaking Bad'' and ''Better Call Saul'', ''Damages ...

as Professor Hornstein * Jordan Beder as Paul Arnaud *

Bob Gunton Robert Patrick Gunton Jr. (born November 15, 1945) is an American character actor of stage and screen. He is known for playing strict authoritarian characters, including Warden Samuel Norton in the 1994 prison drama ''The Shawshank Redemption'', ...

as Dean Alex Monroe *

Ben Schwartz Benjamin Joseph Schwartz (born September 15, 1981) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his recurring role as Jean-Ralphio Saperstein on the NBC sitcom '' Parks and Recreation'', his starring role as Clyde Oberholt on the Sh ...

as Craig *

Dayo Okeniyi Oladayo A. Okeniyi (; born June 14, 1988) is a Nigerian-American actor, popularly known for playing the role of Thresh in ''The Hunger Games'' and Danny Dyson in ''Terminator Genisys''. Early life and education Dayo was born in Jos and grew up i ...

as Lionel

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

took place in the summer through the winter of 2012 in

and on the

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

campus. Despite the fact the film has several graphic indications that all events are taking place in

none of the scenes were shot in the

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

nation.

Reception

Box office

In its opening weekend, the film came in third place with $7.8 million behind ''

Gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

'' and ''

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2'' is a 2013 American animated science fiction comedy film. The sequel to ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'' (2009), it was directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn (in their feature directorial debuts) a ...

''. It grossed $19.3 million in North America and $43.4 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $62.7 million.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Runner Runner'' holds a rating of 8% based on 120 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "It has an impressive cast and an intriguing premise, but ''Runner Runner'' wastes them on a bland, haphazardly assembled thriller with very little payoff." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Runner Runner 20th Century Fox films 2013 films 2013 crime drama films 2013 crime thriller films 2010s American films 2010s English-language films American crime drama films American crime thriller films American films about gambling Appian Way Productions films English-language crime drama films English-language crime thriller films Films about poker Films directed by Brad Furman Films produced by Leonardo DiCaprio Films produced by Arnon Milchan Films scored by Christophe Beck Films set in Costa Rica Films set in New Jersey Films set in Puerto Rico Films shot in New Jersey Films shot in Puerto Rico Regency Enterprises films