Rental: Two for the Money 4: I like Al Pachino, and I like Mathew McConaughey. Neither disappoint in this film. (Rene Russo ain't bad either.) The movie does a good job of capturing the rush and excitement of the subject ("professional" betting) and delivers a few emotional "wow"s. The film suffers from a classic imbalance though, which can usually be attributed to the timing-sense of a poor editor. The plot goes through the familiar "climb to unbelievable success; suffer adversity; recovery/redemption" stages of stories like this. The problem is they do such a good job of illustrating the fall, that when the redemption comes around, it just isn't enough. It's not enough to provide a "feel good," and at best you're left with a "whew, you're lucky to be out of that alive." While that may have been the point of the movie (I just can't tell), it doesn't leave a very good taste in a viewer's mouth once the credits start. There's also a pervasive air of superficiality throughout the movie that I think should have discipated once you got deeper into the plot. There are families involved... children involved... and the lead characters never elevate enough above a self-absorbed mentality to make you care about them. You end up feeling bad for their families. My family would be ashamed to have people like this in it. I think that does a movie like this a deep injustice.  ¶ 5:17 PM