I had yesterday off, and Kellie and I took the opportunity to rent two movies that we’d been wanting to see for some time. Unfortunately, neither one of them was satisying in the end.
Two For The Money
stars Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughy. McConaughy plays a former college football star, injured in his final game before turning pro and, six years later, working at a 1-900 operation while collecting rejection letters from NFL teams and what seems like the entire Arena Football League. Seemingly out of the blue, he discovers a talent for picking the winners of college and pro football games, which is where Al Pacino enters the picture. Pacino plays the owner of a sports gambling “advisor service.” The rest of the movie was, to me, a confused mess. The relationship between the two men grows as McConaughy’s accuracy exceeds 80%, then plummets when his streak of good luck ends, then rebounds again, but I just couldn’t find myself caring about these people or what happened to them. Pacino, who is usually brilliant, seemed to be phoning his way through this one on several occasions. I wanted to like this one, but, in the end, just couldn’t.
In Good Company starts Dennis Quaid as a 50-something ad executive who finds himself demoted and replaced by a 20-something corporate whiz kid played by Topher Grace. The film has its funny moments, especially when Quaid finds out about the relationship between his new boss and his college-age daughter, played by Scarlett Johannsen. In the end, despite the conflict between them, the movie ends up turning into a buddy picture of some kind. These are both likeable guys, but its just hard to believe that they’d end up being friends in the long run. And, finally, the ending just doesn’t fit in with the rest of the plot. Again, not entirely satisfying.
Maybe I’ll have better luck next weekend. Kellie will be out of town, and I’m planning on renting Batman Begins and The Day After Tomorrow
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