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Critics Consensus: Despite its sportsmanlike swagger, Two for the Money's aimless plot isn't worth betting on.
Critic Consensus: Despite its sportsmanlike swagger, Two for the Money's aimless plot isn't worth betting on.
All Critics (109) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (85) | DVD (8)
Original screenwriting gives way to clichés, and the resolution, while offering closure, seems false -- too much a case of the filmmakers wanting to have their cake and eat it, too.
It really works as a study of gambling.
The movie has a lot of built-in flash and is thus mildly entertaining, though the running time grinds it down.
Pacino is having a blast, and so might the viewer, at least until our scenery muncher finally gobbles all the foliage mid-way through the picture.
If Two for the Money maintained the same backbone as its alluring stars, it could have done much more than just break even.
Big, loud, glossy and entertaining.
Even at his worst Al Pacino can charm the birds from the trees, but in "Two For The Money" pigeons are the only species visiting.
While there are parts of Two for the Money worth watching, it's ultimately not one worth putting your money on.
Por trás de uma trama aparentemente convencional, esconde-se um inteligente estudo de personagem beneficiado pela estupenda atuação de Pacino (que conta também com o belo desempenho de seu companheiro de elenco, McConaughey).
The initial set-up is interesting enough but the film rapidly loses its way in the middle and ends up a horribly confused mess, with sub-plots and entire characters simply disappearing into thin air.
Pacino's performance is only a few degrees shy of full-bore scenery-chewing, but the veteran actor stomps through this movie like a small Italian Godzilla.
Pacino rants and McConaughey flashes his pearlies in this craptacular mess.
To be honest, it's not *that* bad considering it's a movie about sports betting. I didn't expect to sit through all of it as it was, but I got increasingly more and more bored as it went along. There wasn't enough story outside of the betting, though the two lead characters were strong and had potential to be interesting. More Alexandria would have maybe improved the story. I think some of it is down to me. I really aren't into sports and sports movies. At all.
Super Reviewer
The thing about a business that makes and sells picks to sports bettors is that, technically, it's not gambling... except for the fact that it is. What was good about this film was the recovered gambling addict (Pacino) and his wife, the poorly acted but more-or-less believable ex-drug addict (Russo). They walked and talked like rehabbers, no question. But what was really frustrating was the pervasive fear that Pacino would go back to gambling... his business is based on making the right picks. He's been gambling all along! The film is anything but subtle, and though it's promising through the first half, it loses control in the second, throwing in a bunch of scenes that unnecessarily delay the resolution, and distract from the movie's point, that you can't win them all. Still, there is a decently-plotted classical tragedy element to McConaughey's character (pride goeth before the fall), and Pacino is always fun to watch. Too bad this film's only half-baked, it had potential.
This movie sucks like a vacuum!
Walter Abrams: "Stats are not enough, you need a voice! These are gamblers ready to risk what they can't afford for what they can't have, you're selling the world's rarest commodity: certainty, in an uncertain world." D.J. Caruso's Two for the Money stars Matthew McConaughey as Brandon Lang, a former college quarterback whose life plans changed when he suffered a career-ending injury. Brandon turns out to have remarkable skill at picking winning football bets. Eventually, he comes to the attention of Walter Abrams (Al Pacino), a very successful business tycoon who runs a giant gambling operation. Walter brings Brandon to New York and introduces him to a glitzy, fast-paced, money-drenched lifestyle that Brandon eagerly soaks up. When Brandon's magic touch begins to falter, Walter starts to turn on his protégé. Soon the two men are attempting to outwit each other, with Walter's wife (Rene Russo) caught in the middle. Review Well, I saw this movie yesterday, and although I wasn't disappointed, I wasn't terribly thrilled, either. I imagine it would be different for someone who was really into sports, sports gambling, or maybe was a compulsive gambler himself. For me, the relationships were interesting, and Al Pacino certainly chewed the scenery in his role as a kingpin sports prognosticator. I would say that he was over-the top except that I know actual people from New York who are really like that. Matthew McConaughey was as good as I have seen him and ripped as ever. I would recommend the picture for beefcake fans, but there really wasn't enough to make a meal of. Not my type of picture, more suitable for sports fans.
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