Two for the Money

Brandon Lang was a college football player whose career ended with a knee injury. His knowledge of the game, however, proves valuable in a different arena: he can predict the outcomes of matches with unusual accuracy. That skill brings him to the attention of Walter Abrams, who runs a sports betting operation in New York and takes Brandon on as a protégé. The two build a profitable partnership, with Brandon's picks attracting large sums from clients and Walter enjoying the rewards of the business. The relationship frays as Brandon's instincts falter and the pressure of the money at stake turns the mentor and his pupil against each other. Walter's wife, Toni, is drawn into the conflict. The story moves through the gambling underworld that the business touches.

D. J. Caruso directed the film, the third in the sequence of features he made after The Salton Sea and Taking Lives. Dan Gilroy wrote the screenplay, and James G. Robinson, James M. Freitag and Billy Higgins produced it for Universal Pictures and Morgan Creek. Al Pacino plays Walter, Matthew McConaughey plays Brandon, and Rene Russo plays Toni, with Armand Assante, Jeremy Piven and Jaime King among the supporting cast.

The film was released in October 2005 and runs 122 minutes. Made for a budget of 35 million dollars, it took in about 31 million worldwide, so it did not recover its cost at the box office. On IMDb it holds 6.2 out of 10 from roughly 54,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.1 out of 10 from around 741 votes. A critics' rating of 5.1 out of 10 from 109 reviews places it below the audience scores.