Two For the Money

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The New York Sun

Take “Wall Street,” mix it with “American Psycho,” take out the interesting parts, and give it a happy ending: You’ve just created “Two for the Money,” an overstuffed, testosterone tearjerker starring Matthew McConaughey and Al Pacino. Mr. McConaughey plays Brandon Lang, a prodigal sports handicap per who moves to New York at the invitation of Walter Abrams (Al Pacino) the director of a blue-chip sports handicapping service. Brandon has an uncanny aptitude for picking winners, and as successful and good-looking as he is, it’s not long before Walter becomes his surrogate father and Walter’s wife, Toni Morrow (Rene Russo), becomes the hottie mommy whom he keeps trying to kiss.


Plot lines are picked up and dropped like toys at an ADD play date until the movie becomes a messy morass of abandoned characters and subplots. The only consistency in the movie is Mr. Pacino’s “quiet at first, then shouting” delivery of everything he says, and Mr. McConaughey taking his shirt off and pumping iron at every opportunity. By the end of the movie we learn that winning isn’t everything, marriage is like football, you should take time to stop and smell the roses, and the children are our future.


Although it claims to be “inspired by a true story,” the movie’s most unbelievable twist is the fact that Brandon is tempted by the fast-paced New York lifestyle until he saves his soul by embracing the small-town, all-American values of … Las Vegas.


The New York Sun

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