Hollywood Popular Artists

Jun 5th 2013, 14:26

Even though he was kind enough to grace us with an album this year, Justin Timberlake is still focusing a lot of his effort on acting. Aside from "Inside Llewyn Davis," the latest film from the Coen Brothers, Timberlake has the starring role in "Runner Runner," a gambling thriller that also stars Jean Ralphio from "Parks and Recreation" (Ben Schwartz). Oh, and Ben Affleck as an evil crime boss.

The first look at "Runner Runner" debuted last night on "Entertainment Tonight," which is only pertinent because the airhead anchors keep interrupting when I just want to watch Ben Affleck feed a guy to alligators, dammit!

But seriously, Affleck does look he's actually having some fun here as a seriously bad dude, a role he hasn't been able to play in a while, or maybe ever.

Timberlake, while fine in the preview, doesn't look like he's doing anything too different as an online gambler and Princeton student (heh!) that bets big and loses his tuition money to someone who may or may not have been cheating him. A trip out of the country and to the source of his financial woes (Affleck) reveals an ugly world to online gambling that he never — surprisingly — expected.

Besides the Evil Affleck, "Runner Runner" also boasts writers from another gambling movie starring one of the breakouts from "Good Will Hunting." Brian Koppelman and David Levien wrote "Rounders," so if you're a fan of the Matt Damon-Edward Norton poker movie, "Runner Runner" is definitely something worth checking out.

"Runner Runner" opens on September 27.

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