With 'Two,' all bets are off

If you're going into the theater expecting "Two for the Money" to be this amazing study of the sports-gambling business, you might end up disappointed. There's more to life than winning football games and 7-point spreads -- there's the drama that comes from losing. \nBrandon Lang (Matthew McConaughey) had a dream of going pro in football, but during the typical moment in that big game where everyone (read: talent scouts) is watching and there's 20 seconds left on the clock to score the winning touchdown, something terrible is bound to happen. Lang makes the touchdown, but considering three guys also dog pile his knee and shatter it to pieces, the dream is dead. \nThe world Lang now lives in is that of 900-number hotlines and dark cubicles which one co-worker refers to as a "Turkish prison." Nobody wants to recruit a guy with a bum knee, but when Lang goes 80% in calling correct bets for a weekend it is one Walter Abrams (Al Pacino) who is calling him the following Monday. Abrams flies Lang out to New York, sets him up in an apartment, gives him a job in his betting agency and even gives him a new name -- John Anthony, the "Million Dollar Man." This is easily the greatest thing to ever happen to Lang since playing college ball, but when he becomes too arrogant, makes weak picks and loses millions of Abrams' and his clientele's dollars, somebody has to lose. \nNow there is this talk of how Al Pacino seems to go absurdly over the top in his performances nowadays and while this holds true in some flicks (look at the horrible "The Recruit"), Pacino's loud antics are merited in "Money." He rarely sleeps, is always dealing with money, has his own cable TV show -- this guy is a live wire. He's also easily the best part of the movie. Sure, McConaughey has his moments, but nobody steals a scene from Al Pacino. \nAside from Pacino, the remaining cast winds up being underwhelming. McConaughey seems like he will never escape his Southern roots, which play some part in every role he is handed. Rene Russo plays Walter's junkie-turned-salon owning wife and just floats around most of the movie. It would've been great to see more screen time out of Jeremy Piven and Armand Assante, since both did a great job at pushing McConaughey's buttons throughout the movie, but they disappear all too quickly. \nSpeaking of disappearances, let's talk about the screenplay. Penned by Russo's husband Dan Gilroy (who hasn't written a screenplay in more than a decade), there are opportunities for sub-plots all over the place which never come to light -- McConaughey's mother, his drunken dad, sore losers -- all these scenes seem like there was supposed to be more to them but ultimately go missing. And director D.J. Caruso, who impressed me with his debut "The Salton Sea" and distressed me with his follow-up "Taking Lives," pulls a mild third outing in "Money." \nAs I mentioned earlier, "Money" isn't really a study in sports gambling. It's a look at how people get ruined by gambling with other lives. When their lives aren't really that interesting to begin with, there's even less reason for us to be interested in them.