Grade: C+

‘#160;

Two for the Money stars Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey a pair of sports bookies who give advice to people on who to bet on come Sunday. McConaughey is the young upstart who Pacino takes under his wing and show him the ropes of the sports gambling world. After starting off hot with his picks, McConaughey’s character quickly goes cold and is forced to deal with the consequences, as well as Al Pacino.

Two for the Money falls into a strange category, while there are no real glaring problems with the film at the same time it is no way a classic either. One of the two problems that it has is that the acting isn’t great, that’s not to say that it’s bad, but it seems more that Pacino and McConaughey are playing themselves rather than actually acting. Especially from an actor like Pacino this is disappointing since it’s quite obvious he can do more than what he did here.

The other issue with this film is that it’s too long. Twenty minutes can easily be taken off the second half of the film, when McConaughey’s character begins to lose his ability to pick winners. Instead we are left to see him continue to pick failures, and as a result we lose interest since we are seeing the same thing happen over and over again.

While, it’s hard to recommend Two for the Money for everyone, it is a somewhat enjoyable film that doesn’t excel in any particular area but doesn’t bomb either. It’s a mediocre film in a time of the year that most films that are coming out are mediocre, so there is no real surprise here.