'Two for the Money': winner or crap shoot?

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Author: Grant, Natasha1

In D.J. Caruso's "Two for the Money," Brandon Lang (Matthew McConaughey) is a has-been football player who now makes a living as a sports gambling phenom. He gets an opportunity of a lifetime to work for Walter Abrams (Al Pacino), a hotshot New York betting advisor. Abrams cleans Lang up, christens him with a new name â€" John Anthony â€" and the homoerotic posturing begins. These two fellas are hugging and kissing each other in nearly every scene.

Oh yeah and there's Rene Russo who plays Abrams' wife, Toni. Although she delivers a good performance, Russo doesn't fit well as Abrams' wife. In fact, she looks like a large horse next to Pacino's small stature. But Pacino commands the screen. He knows how to make a cheesy line (When he asks McConaugheys character, "Do you love me?") sound like so much more.

Speaking of McConaughey: he looks great. And rounding out the cast is Armand Assante, who has a cameo as Novian, a Puerto Rican high stakes gambler. Asante is deliciously wicked as a bad guy.

While the film is about gambling, you never really know how gambling really works â€" with the exception of one scene in the latter part of the film where Abrams explains to his daughter Julia what needs to happen in order for one to win a bet. The film gets an A for effort, a B for follow-through. And that's all because of Pacino. He does a darn good job at keeping this film afloat.

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By Natasha Grant, Special to the AmNews