Ralph's Movie Reviews: TWO FOR THE MONEY

Sunday, November 6, 2005

TWO FOR THE MONEY

Sports drama

BACKGROUND
Betting is illegal in 49 states, but giving people advice on betting is not.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Matthew McConaughey: former football player turned Las Vegas odds maker
Al Pacino: Walter Abrams, owner of a sports betting hot line business operating out of New York city
Rene Russo: Toni, Walter’s long-suffering wife
Jeremy Piven: Jerry, one of Walter’s star sports line win-predictors

REVIEW
This is a terrific insight into another one of those “grey zone” activities that are legal but just. Helping people to gamble for some is a question of morality. Not for these guys. It’s their living.

And it’s a business full of energy; especially as played by Al Pacino who’s at his volcanic best…it’s almost scary to watch.

There are several loose ends, questions that don’t get answered but hey, the movie does not pretend to be a documentary.

CLASSIFICATION

for pervasive language (frequent use of the f-word and other swear words), a scene of sexuality (can hardly tell if they’re naked or not) and a violent act (not really).

P.S.
Promoted as “based on a true story”, perhaps those who make use of these hot lines know without having to be told, but for the rest of us there is nothing in the credits or elsewhere providing any clue as to who was the real person.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.