Tudo por Dinheiro

Matthew McConaughey is Brandon Lang, a former college football star who devastated his knee and was never able to play professionally. Six years later he's recording "sports predictions" for a 1-900 number in Las Vegas and living with his mom and younger brother, still dreaming of playing professional football one day. He never hears from the Cowboys, but he does get a call from Walter Abrams (the Godfather himself, Al Pacino), an entrepreneur who runs his own sports betting business, inviting him to move to New York and work for him.

Though Brandon Lang is the hero of the story, Walter Abrams is the beating heart of Two For The Money. He's a recovered gambling addict who runs his own empire of "sports betting advisers." No other film has ever explored the psyche of the gambling addict so precisely and intimately. Abrams describes what it feels like to win, but even more fascinatingly, he discusses the addict's subconscious desire to loose it all. Gambling addicts don't bury themselves in debt because they're sure they can win. They do it because they need to loose everything to feel alive.

Two For The Money is better than I expected. The characters are rich and complex and the story is never dull. Hell, this movie is worth seeing for the topless McConaughey shots alone.

Six years after a career-ending injury, former college football player Brandon Lang (Matthew McConaughey) is doing little more than a phone service for gamblers. After some amazing success, he is lured to NY to join Walter Abrams (Al Pacino) in his business of gambling predictions. It's a fast talking adrenaline junkie's business and Walter's wife Toni (Rene Russo) tries to keep ever present dangers in check.

The story isn't that exciting. The characters are questionable. The big takeaway is the acting. Matthew McConaughey is a master of this brash young guy. He works well with the master Al Pacino. Al has more intensity than the rest of the cast. And Rene Russo has that superior regal airs about her. The movie starts well, but it does slow down around the middle. It is just too long, and the second half gets quite tiresome. Maybe the Pacino intensity wore me out. At the end, I really didn't care about anybody in the movie.

Mathew McConaughey is Brandon Lane, a former football star recruited by Walter Abraham (Al Pacino), the head of a sports consulting firm to help them set the line for their sports betting business. Lane's ability to predict the outcome of games quickly turns him into a golden boy, but it soon becomes apparent that he's bitten off more than he can chew when his abilities start to falter.

Two for the Money is a forgettable, generic thriller that doesn't really offer anything new. The film does have some entertaining moments and the first half of the movie is actually pretty exciting to watch. But, the second half is really slow and very tedious. It just drags on and on and for no reason either. It could have been a nice 90 minute movie but the story is stretched out into a two hour film. Luckily, Al Pacino is in the movie and he keeps the film exciting. He gives a good, over the top performance and he pretty much raises the film up to mediocrity. Personally, sports betting isn't that interesting to me but Al Pacino makes it interesting. He can turn a bad script into an okay movie which is what he does with the film. Let's be honest, the script is not very good and the direction is weak. It's so obvious where things are going which is not surprising because this is the same guy that made Taking Lives.

Al Pacino is playing mentor to Matthew McConaughey and their chemistry together isn't very strong. McConaughey is a pretty weak actor and he can't keep up with Pacino. The lead role should have gone to someone else. Rene Russo is okay as Pacino's wife. She gives a decent performance but she was a little too bland to truly stand out. Another thing about the film that people may not like is that every character is unlikable. It's hard to care for these characters because they are either pretty mean or bland. It didn't really bother me because I watched the film to be entertained and I did get some entertainment value from the movie. In the end, if you like Al Pacino then you should give the film a shot, if you don't then just skip it. Rating 6/10

Al Pacino continues his run of starring alongside a younger rising star. In Two for the Money he plays Walter Abrams, domineering, highly strung sports book adviser and former gambling addict with a dodgy heart.

Matthew McConaughey plays Brandon Lang, a former American Footballer whose out of the game permanently due to a knee injury but has an instinctive ability to call the game and game-plays.

Abrams takes Lang under his wing as his protégé, grooming him, shaping him, changing his clothes, style and even his name as Lang picks winners and attracts big time gamblers who bet more on more each week.

The film itself is standard text of a sports drama film with first you see the coaching of the young star, then his swift rise to the top and then the catalyst that leads to a decline before the film heads for a finish.

In this case Abrams refuses to share the wealth with Lang who is now attracting high rollers and Lang hits self destruct and starts to pick losers affecting the company and his clients who are losing big time. Of course from very early on from Pacino's full on performance as larger than life Abrams, this is a person you can never keep up with and he is in fact warned early on by Abrams's wife played by Rene Russo.

Of course the biggest problem from the outset is that we see Pacino play these characters before and you see a trail already as where this film is going. Also we have to swallow just because a person has played the game, understands the game he can call the game. In that case, surely other footballers could do the same? Sports is based on many factors such as mistakes, slips, bad calls and incidents rather than pure skill from the other side, it what makes the game exciting and difficult to predict.

So what starts as mildly interesting is as predictable as a tame roller coaster ride. Nothing too exciting but both leads have charm enough to keep you watching.

Al Pacino carries this film all by himself.

I can't think of a way that this could have been made without Pacino. Sure, Matthew McConaughey and Rene Russo gave convincing performances, but Pacino makes you feel sorry for the miserable, empty shell of a man he is.

The plot was amazingly intricate and well carried, but (once again) without Pacino it would not have been delivered nearly as well. I think that they should have found a way to include a small explanation as to how sports betting works, so the fans who came in just to see Pacino would be able to understand how it works. Also, at times the movie just dragged on and on and on...

I still think that Al Pacino is that movie. Pacino really extends himself the way he always does to keep the movie alive and moving. His character was one of the most miserable men I have ever seen, and while i hated him, I still identified a small part of myself with him, and that is the sign of a truly great actor.

7/10