A little over a month ago, we heard that Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake were co-starring in a gambling movie called Runner Runner directed by The Lincoln Lawyer helmer Brad Furman. It’s about a Princeton student (Timberlake) who is cheated out of his tuition by the billionaire owner of an online poker site (Affleck), and when the student flies to Costa Rica to get his money back, he gets sucked further into that world and becomes the billionaire’s protege. Variety reports that Anthony Mackie has also signed on, adding to the excellent cast and making me even more interested in how this film turns out.

Mackie will play an FBI agent who’s been hunting Affleck’s character for years and needs Timberlake’s help with the takedown. Project X star Oliver Cooper has also joined the cast, and will be playing an Ivy League computer geek who works for Affleck’s company.

I’m embarrassed to say it took me this long to realize why the film is actually called Runner Runner, and no – they’re not talking about sprinting: in poker terminology, the phrase “runner runner” is used to describe the last two cards that come down after the flop if they aid a player in miraculously receiving a good hand. I really enjoyed The Lincoln Lawyer, and since this script is written by the guys who wrote Rounders, I’m excited to see what Furman can do with the story and this A-list cast he’s putting together.

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2011′s The Lincoln Lawyer was a solid legal drama with an exceptional cast, and it looks like director Brad Furman is hoping to utilize that same formula for his next movie. The Hollywood Reporter has word that Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake will star in Runner, Runner for the director, a film that takes place in the world of online gambling. More after the jump.

There aren’t any more details on the story other than the bit about online gambling, but an encouraging piece of information (aside from the casting) is that the film’s screenplay was written by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, the guys who wrote the poker movie Rounders for Affleck’s buddy Matt Damon back in 1998. Rounders beat America’s poker craze by about five or six years, so this duo is obviously very familiar with how to make a great gambling movie.

Furman hasn’t done much behind the camera, but The Lincoln Lawyer was impressive enough to keep me interested in his next project, and something that has drawn the attention of A-listers like this has the potential to be equally impressive. What do you think about Affleck and Timberlake working together?

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Though he threatened retirement from acting back in 2008, Clint Eastwood is stepping in front of the camera again – this time for a baseball movie called Trouble with the Curve. With Amy Adams joining him as his on-screen daughter, the cast is already looking impressive – and now they’ve added a certain former boy band member in a key role. Read on for more.

According to Variety, the story follows “an aging baseball scout with vision problems who takes a road trip to Atlanta with his daughter to take a look at a hot prospect.” Justin Timberlake has signed on to play a character named Johnny Flanagan, a friend of Eastwood’s and rival scout who works for the Yankees and has eyes for Amy Adams’ character.

With Moneyball recently scoring a nomination for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, it seems like now is the right time to jump on the “prestige sports movie” bandwagon. All cynicism aside, though, this looks like a worthy role for Eastwood. I also happen to like Justin Timberlake quite a bit as an actor, so I hope this project lives up to its potential. Where do you stand? Should he go back to singing, or did his performance in The Social Network make you reassess his acting ability?

The film will be the directorial debut of Robert Lorenz, who built a career as an assistant director and served as a producer on many of Eastwood’s films. Trouble with the Curve is set for release on September 28th.

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Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has announced the In Time DVD and Blu-ray release date for January 31, 2012. The Andrew Niccol sci-fi flick was released back in October and starred Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried as two young adults on the run from a police force known as ‘time keepers’.

Despite not making its $40 million budget back in the US and earning mixed-negative reviews, In Time made $127 million worldwide which suggests Timberlake may have some box office pull internationally.

Blu-ray features include:

- “THE MINUTES” featurette
- Deleted/Extended Scenes
- Access to IN TIME THE GAME APP

DVD features include:

- Deleted/Extended Scenes

“In Time” presents a world where time has become the ultimate currency. You stop aging at 25, but there’s a catch: you’re genetically-engineered to live only one more year, unless you can buy your way out of it. The rich “earn” decades at a time (remaining at age 25), becoming essentially immortal, while the rest beg, borrow or steal enough hours to make it through the day. When a man from the wrong side of the tracks is falsely accused of murder, he is forced to go on the run with a beautiful hostage. Living minute to minute, the duo’s love becomes a powerful tool in their war against the system.

You can now pre-order In Time from Amazon on: DVD and Blu-ray

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Reports are rolling in stating that Justin Timberlake has been offered a role in the Coen brothers’ next movie, Inside Llewyn Davis. Oscar Isaac (Drive, Sucker Punch) and Carey Mulligan (Never Let Me Go, An Education) are already set to star in the film.

According to Variety:

Story focuses on the folk music scene in Greenwich Village in the 1960s and the title character is loosely based on Dave Van Ronk, a folk singer who was friends with Bob Dylan, among other famous musicians.

The Coens have offered Timberlake the role of Jim, a folk musician married to Jean, who will be played by Carey Mulligan.

Oscar Isaac (“Drive”) stars as the title character, a struggling folk musician born and bred in Queens. Despite being a talented singer and guitarist, he just can’t seem to make ends meet playing music.

Nothing’s confirmed yet; it’s still in the offer stage, but I personally hope Timberlake takes the role, as I think it will give him a chance to shut the critics up. What are your thoughts?

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I’ll admit In Time is a pretty stupid movie. There are a ton of plot holes, cliches every five minutes, and multiple time-related puns in the dialogue. But I had a good time with it, and I think it’s perfectly passable entertainment. Sometimes, we go to the movies to see people go on the run, rob banks, shoot people, and look sexy doing it, and that’s exactly what this film delivers.

In a vague future (or alternate timeline scenario), the currency of the world is no longer money, but time. People stop genetically aging when they turn 25, and a one year countdown begins until they “time out.” When a stranger gives Will Salas (Timberlake) an extra hundred years to live, he takes the opportunity to get out of his live-by-the-minute ghetto and ventures to the rich district, where people live for thousands of years in their same 25-year-old bodies. He meets Sylvia (Seyfried), the daughter of the man behind it all (Kartheiser), and the two go on the run from a resilient Timekeeper (Murphy) tasked with stopping their Robin Hood-esque crusade to bring time to the masses.

So we’ve established that this isn’t a great film. But for every eye-rolling one-liner, there is something that’s just plain cool about In Time. First off, writer/director Andrew Niccol (who also wrote The Truman Show) essentially teaches a class on world-building here. Without a ton of exposition or any unnecessary narration, he sets up the rules of the world in less than ten minutes, even if he doesn’t make it feel exactly like a viable place. Aside from the obvious looming question of “how did things transition into time-related currency from the way we know them now?”, the only aspect of the design that didn’t work for me was when the production designers decided to get cute with it, adding in signs for things like “The 99 Second Store” as characters walked by.

Secondly, the movie looks absolutely fantastic. Famed cinematographer Roger Deakins chose to shoot the film completely digitally for the first time in his career, and the results are sleek and spectacular. A nifty foot chase across rooftops and the occasional car chase keep the pace moving quickly, which is a necessity for any movie with a literal ticking clock. There may be stupid moments, but they’re all moving so quickly that I found most of them easy to ignore. The action is more commendable than the smaller dramatic scenes, but I also found the cast to be really likeable: Timberlake can easily carry a film on his shoulders, Amanda Seyfried was solid (and awesomely hot) as usual, and Cillian Murphy managed to bring a bit of humanity to his bounty hunter role.

Niccol also inserts some social commentary into his screenplay. It’s another case of the haves vs. the have nots (as if we haven’t seen that on film a billion times), but at least it’s done with some flair. Exchanges like the following are commonplace in this movie:

“How can you live with yourself watching people die right next to you?”
“You don’t…you close your eyes.”

It’s not subtle filmmaking, but it’s effective storytelling that gets the point across and provides a sliver of topicality for those on the hunt for something beneath the surface. Ultimately, In Time is a standard thriller that doesn’t take any chances or play out any differently than you’d imagine. I’ll resist the urge to end this on a time-related pun, since the movie itself was content to take most of the good ones, so instead, I’ll leave you with this: do you think Justin Timberlake agreed to star in In Time because his name is JustIN TIME-berlake? Until next time…

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Sony has announced that Bad Teacher, starring Cameron Diaz, Justin Timerlake and Jason Segel, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 18, 2011.

Bad Teacher continued the successful trend of R-rated comedies this summer by making $192 million worldwide on a budget of just $20 million. Cameron Diaz also joined the Bridesmaids gang in proving female-driven comedies can be funny, and people will turn out to watch.

The unrated version will have over 6 additional minutes of footage, but the theatrical version will also be available.

Special features include:

- Deleted scenes
- Outtakes
- Way Behind The Scenes with Jason and Justin featurette
- Raising More Than Funds featurette
- Gag reel (Blu-Ray only)
- JAMS Interactive Yearbook (Blu-Ray only)
- A Very Odd Blacksmith Story featurette (Blu-Ray only)
- Swimming With The Dolphins featurette (Blu-Ray only)
- Good Teacher featurette (Blu-Ray only)

The film follows a foul-mouthed, junior high teacher (Cameron) who, after being dumped by her sugar daddy, begins to woo a colleague.

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A few weeks back we got a Comic-Con trailer for Andrew Niccol‘s upcoming sci-fi flick In Time which stars Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. The trailer was rather long and revealed quite a lot about the film, and now 20th Century Fox have released the first official trailer which is half the length but seems to contain twice as much running.

Watch below:

“In Time” presents a world where time has become the ultimate currency. You stop aging at 25, but there’s a catch: you’re genetically-engineered to live only one more year, unless you can buy your way out of it. The rich “earn” decades at a time (remaining at age 25), becoming essentially immortal, while the rest beg, borrow or steal enough hours to make it through the day. When a man from the wrong side of the tracks is falsely accused of murder, he is forced to go on the run with a beautiful hostage. Living minute to minute, the duo’s love becomes a powerful tool in their war against the system.

Justin Timberlake plays Will, with Amanda Seyfried playing an heiress who he kidnaps while on the run. Cillian Murphy plays an officer from the Timekeepers organization and Olivia Wilde will play Will’s mother.

In Time hits screens October 28th, 2011.

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Another movie making an appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con is Andrew Niccol‘s upcoming sci-fi flick In Time which stars Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried. Footage was shown during the 20th Century Fox panel, and IGN have uploaded it online for all to see.

Watch below:

“In Time” presents a world where time has become the ultimate currency. You stop aging at 25, but there’s a catch: you’re genetically-engineered to live only one more year, unless you can buy your way out of it. The rich “earn” decades at a time (remaining at age 25), becoming essentially immortal, while the rest beg, borrow or steal enough hours to make it through the day. When a man from the wrong side of the tracks is falsely accused of murder, he is forced to go on the run with a beautiful hostage. Living minute to minute, the duo’s love becomes a powerful tool in their war against the system.

Justin Timberlake plays Will, with Amanda Seyfried playing an heiress who he kidnaps while on the run. Cillian Murphy plays an officer from the Timekeepers organization and Olivia Wilde will play Will’s mother.

In Time hits screens October 28th, 2011.

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The plot may not be as clever as a Bad Santa per se; but the blunt, crude & heartless dialogue keeps this predictable romp from going limp.  And the timely placed fun bags, erections, drug use and dry-humping sequences served a purpose in providing the audience with a series of hearty chuckles.

Bad Teacher is exactly what you’d expect to be.  It’s 92 minutes of characters saying what they’ve always wanted to, set in a middle-school atmosphere, where every teacher has their own unique persona.  Cohesive storytelling & character development are tossed aside to make room for sudden bursts of F-bombs while degrading an innocent student.  Although the balance of all these elements is about as smooth as a fat kid trying to run on an inclining treadmill, the script – which is a more-or-less series of comedic bits – is the kind of light, immature thinking we all need every now and then.

Elizabeth Halsey (Cameron Diaz) somehow became a middle-school teacher in a suburban Chicago school.  She cares nothing about the students or staff; and the only reason she went for this gig is to land a rich guy to put a ring on her finger and spoil her self-imposed trophy-wife booty (sounds like my town).  Her plan seemed to be working just fine until she is kicked to the curb by her recent loaded fiancée.  Left with absolutely nothing, she has to move into a shanty apartment with some guy from Craigslist (Eric Stonestreet) – who still wears zumba pants – and crawls back to her teaching job that she recently ditched.

Completely miserable, she avoids dealing with the faculty and simply plays movies such as Dangerous Minds, for her students, all while taking shots of bourbon from her desk drawer and smoking some “medicinal” marijuana in her POS car.  She’s not completely unmotivated though, for her goal to land another sugar daddy revolves around earning roughly 10K to buy a new pair of tits (very resourceful).  And for whatever reason, she is cool sharing this with the other teachers: the naïve Lynn (Phyllis Smith from The Office); the secure down-to-earth, gym-teacher (Jason Segel); and the over-bubbly, star faculty member in Ms. Squirrel (Lucy Punch).

She begins to perk up a bit more at her duties when a new substitute – with family money – begins teaching in Mr. Delacorte (Justin Timberlake).  Trying to lure the sophisticated, sensitive, well-dressed guy becomes her main priority.  At this point, the plot shifts to seeing if Elizabeth will be able to keep up the charade – with Ms. Squirrel watching her every move – while trying to seduce the new teach.  And enhance her chest, of course.

Cameron Diaz doesn’t necessarily rock this stage as Billy Bob Thornton did as a drunken Santa.  (She does rock some sexy attire though).   She’s more of a solid riffing rhythm guitarist who compliments all the other players quite well, and even gets to do a few lead solos that will resonate with audience.  The supporting players are the ones that steal a lot of the show here.  Jason Segel is the drummer in this band.  He doesn’t have much stage presence, but whenever his “instrument” is featured, he brings the house down with his pitch perfect delivery.  Taking the helm as the closest thing to a front man, well, in this case, woman, is Lucy Punch.  Now a few “lyrics” do not get the reaction from the crowd the writers were hoping for.  That said, her spontaneous performance ignited every scene she was a part of.  (Think I just described Motley Crue by the way).

Since there’s a true musician in this cast, Justin Timberlake had the hardest challenge of all…looking so un-cool.  It’s tough to completely buy his character, because he naturally has a stigma that surrounds from his other endeavors.  The guy makes it work despite being overshadowed by all the other relatable performances.

A lot of the sequences – and some of the characters to a certain extent – were missed opportunities.  A butch teacher (Jillian Armenante) and the scantly used Principal (John Michael Higgins) could have been placed in more creative moments.  The fail-safe of this script was to just have these, and all the above mentioned performers, to enact a tourette’s-like episode and start cursing or struggle with Diaz‘s character‘s obnoxious antics.  It is funny, because it happens in the environment of a school.  But the viewer can kind of see it coming, so these actions aren’t all that shocking as they were intended to be.

This script isn’t clichéd as it could have been and the raucous dialogue made sure it wouldn’t falter in that respect.  Having said that, the intelligence of the scenarios Cameron Diaz is positioned in (no pun) is perhaps too fundamental and could have been better.  The reason they work is because her character doesn’t lose the R-rated edge even with the foreshadowed themes the flick is obviously building toward.  She still swears like a pirate and her unapologetic persona keeps the viewer casually waiting for what she’ll do next.  The one-liners hit more than they miss (barely), but there is an awkward silence on a few of them.  As in, not funny at all.  As in why were they left in the final cut?  Solution:  Quick, pan to hard-on or somebody swear.

Overall, Bad Teacher isn’t destined to be a comedy treasure as the trailer suggested.  The jagged, under-developed script sealed the deal on that.  The flick will find a place in people’s minds though, thanks to its desire to stay “Bad” the entire way through.

RATING: 3 out of 5

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