An average movie

Even though this movie was rather poorly received, since I have a weak spot for Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck, I thought I might as well check it out. Furthermore, I have always thought that there was something quite fascinating about gambling and to make a movie about the new gambling business on the internet sounded really promising. Unfortunately, the whole thing turned out to be rather disappointing. I mean, right from the start, the set-up was actually pretty weak. Basically, the main character looses his money online and go all the way to Costa Rica to complain with the website owner face-to-face. I mean, seriously?!? That was really far-fetched and it was even more  stupid when you think that this scheme concluded with him getting a job in this gambling world. Another problem was that even though the movie was about gambling, the main character was not actually a gambler so they really struggled to convince the viewers that being involved in this world was really illegal and actually dangerous. It's like someone organizing a poker game at home but without actually playing, the risks are actually rather low. Concerning Justin Timberlake, he tried really hard but since this movie started with this really stupid plan, it was really difficult to take his character seriously and to understand his motivations. Concerning Gemma Arterton, it was actually even worse. I mean, during the whole thing you wait for her to do or to say something really interesting or unexpected but it never happened at all. Seriously, it was one of the most underwhelming female characters I have seen for a while. Eventually, the only one who managed to do something with this really weak material was once again Ben Affleck. Indeed, Affleck managed to be charming, manipulative and threatening at the same time and his character was pretty much the only one who was convincing and interesting enough. Anyway, to conclude, I think my rating was actually generous here, it was a rather weak thriller but I guess gave it a few extra points only because I did like the concept.