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'Two for the Money' is a losing bet

"He's gambling again."

Late in "Two for the Money," those words are meant to arouse our concern for Al Pacino's Walter, an addict in various stages of recovery from vices as diverse as nicotine and self-tanning lotion.

The problem is, before falling off the wagon Walter had been making a bundle by exploiting this very weakness in others.

Universal Pictures 'Two for the Money' 1 out of 5 stars The verdict: A gambling film with no payoff. Director: D.J. Caruso Starring: Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey, Rene Russo, Armand Assante, Jeremy Piven Run time: 122 minutes Release date: Oct. 7, 2005 Rating: R for pervasive language, a scene of sexuality and a violent act. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Two for the Money'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

A film less morally hollow might let him hit the skids, instead of feeding viewers the very myth — "I gotta win one more" — that causes so many ruined lives and repossessed sports cars.

Walt runs a tip service that advises gamblers how to bet each weekend, collecting a percentage of winnings if the advice is good. (We never hear how they persuade clients, who place the actual bets with their own bookies, to be honest about how much they're risking.)

Enter Brandon Lang (Matthew McConaughey), a quarterback whose knee injury forced him to leave sports but didn't diminish his genius for the game; Lang boasts a savantlike ability to predict gridiron outcomes with 80 percent accuracy or better.

Moviegoers who remember "Wall Street" can fast-forward a bit here: Sleazy father figure cleans up his protege, buying him fancy suits, a Mercedes and a slicked-back haircut with just a hint of mullet where the skull meets the neck. Women of easy virtue are involved, as well. The money pours in, and nice boy Brandon is transformed into an alter-ego with the world-conquering name of, well, John.

The movie spends almost as much energy depicting Brandon's voyage to the Dark Side as it does concocting reasons to show McConaughey without his shirt. But the yarn feels like hack work from the first scene (a flashback in which our hero narrates his youthful conviction that "sports were about purity") and doesn't get better.

Fans hoping they'll at least witness a landmark high-camp "Wild Al" performance will be disappointed: Pacino looks like he's impersonating Ron Silver. The movie couldn't be much worse off without him, and Pacino could certainly stand to have this one wiped off the books himself.