Watchable

Rating: 6/10 (27 January 2006)

Walter Abraham (Pacino) hires Brandon Lane (McConaughey) who has a talent for picking winners in Pro Football.
We get to see a little bit of pro sports gambling in picking teams to win in pro football, and we get to see some of the emotions that go along with it. Walter has the most successful sports advising company in the nation, and becomes a father figure to Brandon and hangs his star on him because Brandon has the gift. Walter, Brandon and Tony (Ruso) all had terrible childhoods and now must stick together to make this work.
I know Pacino is a good actor, but it seems to me that he likes to hear himself talk a little too much. In this movie, he never quits being "up." We needed a break from this from time to time, and it rarely came. He plays the part a little too flip for my money. Oh, yes, we still get his obligatory harrang when he visits a Gamblers Anonymous meeting and harasses the participants. That is his schtick and we must be prepared for it somewhere in the movie. Still, he is a good actor, but I think he needs to tone it down a notch. You see, he not only yelled in Brandon's ears, he yelled in ours too.
There is a lot of language in here and the movie applauds it, encourages it, and displays it at every turn. That is annoying in the beginning, but after you hear it so often it seems to go away and you don't hear it so much, but it's still there, but not as annoying. Does this make sense?
The rest of the cast is fine, and the story does move along pretty good, but does have its slow moments. We get the idea that a lot of people depend on the "pics" from a company like Walter has. Walter's company has a policy of pushing the client to the limit to get him to wager more money with their bookie (Walter's company get a percentage of what is wagered). When things are good, they are very good, but when things go bad people get hurt. Maybe this is the warning of this movie: don't depend too much on other people's advice, learn to depend more on yourself.