RUNNER, RUNNER Streaks Into Theatres

Star-studded cast including Timberlake and Affleck takes viewers on wild ride to isolated island in this exciting film about online poker.

Justin Timberlake, Ben Affleck and Gemma Arterton star in Runner, Runner, the 2013 film produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Brad Furman that focuses on the glamour and the downside of the online poker industry.

Timberlake plays Richie Furst, a Princeton student who believes he has been cheated of his tuition funds through an online poker scam. When he finds out that the site is hosted from a remote island off the coast of central America, he travels there for a confrontation with the site's owner, Ivan Block (Affleck). Instead of challenging Block, Furst becomes Block's understudy, but in another twist he begins to collaborate with an FBI agent (played by Anthony Mackie) who is trying to nail Block.

We won't reveal the end to this story as you'd certainly prefer to watch it yourself, but let's just say that the plot has a few more twists and turns before the inevitable Hollywood ending. And of course, all of it played out by a star-studded Hollywood cast, which shows just how far online poker has come in the public's imagination over the years.

Like other gambling movies, Furman's film is packed full of luxurious hotel rooms, expensive cars, boats and private jets, and beachside parties with scantily dressed women. Unlike some of the recent classics like the Oceans and Hangover series, it seeks less to glamorize online poker and more to look at the dark underside of illegally operated gambling sites.