Runner Runner
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: October 4, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
20
Negative:
11
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 28, 2013
Runner Runner starts off with a solid draw, then folds on the flop. Read full review
58
Film.comLaremy LegelOct 4, 2013
Could have been a fun film, but instead merely displays the trappings of one. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 5, 2013
Ben Affleck makes for a pretty good jerk, but he can’t pull off outright villainy. That’s probably the main problem with the crime thriller Runner Runner. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 4, 2013
Various subplots are given short shrift and the whole thing feels more like a Cliff's Notes version of a longer piece than an actual finished motion picture. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comDan CallahanOct 4, 2013
The kind of meat-and-potatoes genre picture that might be passable if the people involved in making it had given the same thought and concentration to the development of the plot and the ending as they did to the fairly involving set-up. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyAdam MarkovitzOct 4, 2013
Even the best player can only go so far with a bum hand. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundOct 4, 2013
The ultimately forgettable Runner Runner is, for a gambling film, markedly risk-averse. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 3, 2013
After an intriguing setup, “Runner Runner” devolves into a by-the-books thriller. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 3, 2013
The struggles in the movie are with the moments when life and liberty are on the line. The ones that should put you on the edge of your seat are more likely to have you glancing at your watch. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Oct 3, 2013
In different hands, Runner Runner might have worked as sleazy tropical noir, but director Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) never quite embraces the tawdriness of his material. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 3, 2013
One of the film's biggest problems is that Richie is an unsympathetic and rather dim character. The badly drawn role does the likable Timberlake no favors. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthOct 3, 2013
Runner Runner is content to stay high gloss, with no filler. Read full review
50
The DissolveScott TobiasOct 3, 2013
The best parts of Runner Runner feel like a Rounders facsimile—right down to the metaphor-heavy narration—and the worst seem like a case of mission drift, as if the filmmakers set out to make a behind-the-curtain thriller about online gambling, but got hung up in paying off the plot. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesOct 9, 2013
Thrillers don’t come much more nondescript than this: If Runner Runner were a color scheme, it would be beige, with an accent wall in taupe. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichOct 3, 2013
This is little more than an expensive-looking celebrity vacation video—more evidence in support of the notion that the Hollywood house always wins. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 3, 2013
This is the kind of movie that, in order to puff itself up, quotes Meyer Lansky, Napoleon and Native American sayings. But according to Hoyle — as poker players would say — the film really just does boilerplate Hollywood drama. Read full review
40
EmpireIan NathanSep 28, 2013
However exotic the locations and starry the stars, there’s no escaping this is The Devil’s Advocate of online gambling. Fold. Read full review
40
Total FilmStephen KellySep 26, 2013
Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck give their best poker faces but ultimately fail to convince you to gamble your cash away on this limp, unoriginal story of a man out of his depth. Read full review
40
The GuardianXan BrooksSep 26, 2013
This is a lazy, trashy film that barely goes through the motions. Read full review
40
VarietyAndrew BarkerSep 25, 2013
Runner Runner’s appeal increases dramatically whenever Affleck enters the frame. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyOct 5, 2013
Runner Runner is a bad run of cliché clichés. Read full review
38
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreOct 4, 2013
Affleck? You never believe a word he says, not a gesture. This is the sort of acting he did in the sort of movies he made before he started writing and directing his own movies — bad. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithOct 4, 2013
Remember the old Ben Affleck, the one who made 28 consecutive bad movies before he turned out to be a pretty good director? He’s back! Behold, the second coming of . . . Badfleck. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 3, 2013
The sort of generic crime thriller - stick-figure characters, pointless muddle of plot, people entering and exiting SUVs and Lear jets with a sense of urgency - that feels like it could drag on forever, and drag us down into a purgatory of stupefaction with it. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 3, 2013
When it’s time for the hot sex scene between Timberlake’s ambitious Richie Furst and Rebecca (Gemma Arterton), his boss’s luscious second-in-command, the encounter is as charmless and chemistry-free as the wooden banter that has led up to it. I’ve had dentist’s appointments that were sexier. Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 3, 2013
The film might take its name from poker subculture, but it lacks all the urgency, single-mindedness and swiftness that the title implies at its most literal. Runner Runner is a bummer. Bummer. Read full review
30
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 3, 2013
It feels like a halfhearted bluff and has the stale smell of yesterday’s after-shave. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthySep 25, 2013
What's actually up onscreen in this vaguely ambitious but tawdry melodrama falls into an in-between no-man's-land that endows it with no distinction whatsoever, a work lacking both style and insight into the netherworld it seeks to reveal. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 11, 2013
The actors hit the jackpot, but only in terms of their paychecks. The audience gets a tension-free, tight-assed, "Casino" ripoff that leaves them thoroughly fleeced. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 3, 2013
Runner Runner is less than mediocre, but it's not repellent, which means that to watch it is to root for it - and to be disappointed. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezOct 3, 2013
In its early moments, the movie evokes everything from "The Social Network" to "Casino." By the end, the film has become as exciting as a game of Old Maid. R-rated thrillers are hardly ever this dull and listless, but this movie manages to eradicate all of Timberlake’s charisma and makes you flash back to Affleck’s "Paycheck"/"Gigli" era. How does this even happen? Read full review
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