Two for the Money (2005) Review

Overall 4.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

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vivasuzi
Livonia, MI

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Two for the Money is another version of the Devil's Advocate.

a movie lover, into some dramas but not all, thrilled by thrillers

Pros

Better than Devil's advocate

Cons

Sort of boring near the second half

JUL

2008

Plot
Brandon Lang is a man obsessed with sports...especially football. He says he got really into it because he thought it would gain his dad's approval and make him stick around. However, his dad still left him when he was 9, regardless of how many trophies he's won. Fast forward to the present and Brandon is a star football player in the middle of a big game. During a great play, where everything seems to be going right, he gets tackled and ends up breaking his leg.

6 years later Brandon is in a 900 calling office making recordings for money. Out of luck, he fills in for the sports betting guy who is out. His job is to record his predictions for who should win each game, people call in for this information and choose who to bet on based on this. As you can guess, people pay for this information.

This is where Walter comes in. He hears of Brandon's 80% accuracy and offers him a job in a sports betting firm in New York. Brandon goes thinking the money will help his family. Not long after he starts his job, Walter starts to mold him and change him to fit his idea of the perfect sports better...to make more money for Walter. He even changes his name to John Anthony and his whole image. He's training John/Brandon to get the money in... no matter what.

Actors
Al Pacino .... Walter starts out very similar to his character in The Devil's Advocate. He acts very suave, and rich and as if he really cares for Brandon. Just like in Devil's Advocate, he turns out to have a hidden side that makes him really pushy, and really into the money, and possibly not really caring about Brandon at all?? At parts he is slightly nicer than in the Devil's Advocate, but overall it's pretty much the same if you ask me! Throw money, girls and cars at Brandon...anything to get him to come around.

Walter: You know networks don't talk about it, governments can't tax it. But sports betting is a 200 billion dollar a year business.

Matthew McConaughey .... Brandon/John starts off as a good natured guy but the money quickly starts to take over his personality. Unlike his counterpart in Devil's Advocate (Keanu Reeves), Brandon is pretty lighthearted about the whole thing. Yes it gets serious at parts, but Matthew has a much better attitude that makes the movie lighter and more humorous than the Devil's Advocate was.

Jeremy Piven .... Jerry is another sports better who isn't real happy with Brandon coming in brand new and getting a big office and the big spots on the TV show they have. He thinks his years of college and years of dedication to Walter should mean something but he doesn't quite have the same record that Brandon does and you can see his jealous streak jump out.

Genre
This movie starts off as a comedy/fantasy where you see Brandon suddenly getting everything he's ever dreamed of but also see him making some funny comments. Everyone is lighthearted in the beginning.

But the drama picks up near the middle and pretty much takes over near the end. This is where I get slightly bored b/c I enjoy the humor more than the drama...especially since it's a little predictable where they are going with this in the last half hour or so.

IMDB would say it's about Sports, but what they don't tell you is that you won't see a lot of sports, but more hear about sports, and hear about the odds and the numbers and the blah blah blah that goes way over my head. What the heck does +2 mean anyway in football? Don't tell me... I really don't want to know.

For Who
Guys, especially the ones that watched this with me, seem to be so into this that they actually stopped playing on the computer near the end to watch it. I however enjoyed the beginning more than the end as I picked up my laptop around half way through! I still watched, but got slightly bored of the "picks" and the betting.

If you think Matthew's just a sweety...you might not really like him in this. He starts off as the same old nice guy, but changes throughout the movie. He's still a good actor the whole time, but just a little more hardcore than usual. So don't go in this just to see him. Al Pacino is exactly what you would expect so if you like him you'll like this.

NO KIDS PLEASE!

DVD Extras
There are some deleted scenes, Making of the Movie, and Commentary but really nothing special! I wish they'd put more goofs into DVD extras!

Conclusion
It was a fun watch and brought some interesting stuff out about gambling with other people's money. I never saw sports betting quite in this way and I learned a whole lot about all of this! If you enjoyed the Devil's Advocate, this has a similar theme, however I think this one is slightly better because it is just more humorous and not so dark. I might watch it again after time passes as it did have some scenes I enjoyed enough to give it second viewing. So enjoy!!!