Two For The Money

Fortunes are won on Sunday and lost on Monday in Two For The Money, a high stakes drama set in the adrenalised world of wheeler-dealer gamblers, where riches are made and destroyed with the flip of a coin. Reckless players, with millions of dollars on the line, engage in a who's-conning-who game, where the bets are high and the losses even higher.

The film opens with college footballer Brandon Lang (Matthew McConaughey), busting a gut to become a pro American Football star, until he has a debilitating accident that sees his dreams come crashing down. Needing money to support his family, he ends up working in a two-bit, windowless cubical of a Vegas 900-number racket, until his luck changes and he is asked by his boss to do the sports forecasts, where he has an uncanny ability to consistently pick football winners.

He becomes somewhat of a phenomenon and catches the eye of Walter Abrams (Al Pacino), a recovering alcoholic-turned-betting-advisor, whose ruthless lust for power ensures that he will stop at nothing to get what he wants - and he wants Brandon. He tells him to write his own cheque and move to New York and live a life he has never imagined.

Abrams is the boss of the biggest sports advisory service in the country and Brandon is a washed up quarter back with a talent for picking match winners. In Abrams's mind, he is the key to selling 100 per cent certainty in an uncertain world: sports gambling.

Accepting the offer, Brandon enjoys his status as Walter's golden boy, growing more and more comfortable in the high-rolling lifestyle, as he is groomed into a shrewd front man. Finally, his ability as a tipster reels in the big fish, especially Puerto Rico's notorious Novian, a gambler of outrageous means who plays in a league of his own and plays hardball when he looses. From this point on, everything goes downhill and Brandon's Midas touch deserts him. With millions hanging in the balance, it becomes a deadly battle of wits.

The film has a great cast, fantastic eye-candy and a half decent storyline, but is unlikely to make it onto anyone's Top Ten. It lacks the ability to excite and the originality to avoid the stereotype.