Ben Affleck’s career has spanned movie genres, with his last blockbuster Argo based on real life events in Iran, involving the daring rescue of six American diplomats during the Iranian hostage crisis. Argo swept the board at the Oscars.
Affleck tried his hand at directing first in 2007 with Gone Baby Gone and then in 2010 with the critically acclaimed The Town. Affleck has also starred in a number of Kevin Smith’s cult classic’s including Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma, where he and co-star Matt Damon play angels thrown out of heaven who come up with a diabolical plan to force their way back in.
Affleck has flirted with comic book characters in his films, playing the title role in the flop Daredevil, which received very mixed reviews, ranging from ‘the best Marvel movie to date’ in the Houston Chronicle, to ‘second rate and ordinary,’ in the New York Times. Affleck was considered to have played the role well, depicting the blind and supersensitive hearing character very well. A director’s cut is considered to be the superior version, featuring a subplot which stars Coolio as a drug addict.
Runner, Runner stars Affleck as the owner of an online casino website. Timberlake plays a student from Princeton who loses his tuition fees in an online poker game. The website is owned by Affleck, and Timberlake goes to confront him, but ends up being Affleck’s partner in the business. The FBI get wind of the arrangement and try to turn Timberlake against Affleck.
The movie is written by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, and is a dramatic thriller. Koppelman and Levine team also wrote Ocean’s 13, the last instalment of the famed Oceans trilogy, and Rounders. Rounders is considered to be one of the best casino films of all time, so we are expecting a lot from this latest film.
Runner, Runner is set for release on September 27th.