I've been reluctant to see this since it came out, regardless of Pacino's casting, and that is because it's about a topic I have little interest in: sports. Our national waste-of-time, er, pastime has never been of any interest to me, so why would I want to see a film based on this subject? Not only that, Matthew McConaughey is in it - he of many a rom-com dreck. But I'm a completist, and I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't see every Pacino film, so I finally hunkered down and watched it on a Sunday night, and I'll admit to being more entertained that I imagined I'd be, which isn't saying much since the expectations were so low. I'd bet it all on the fact that, though this is "based on a true story", it strays
far from the source material's actuality - this is, after all, a big fat Hollywood production. But McConaughey is tolerable enough, Armand Assante turns in a surprisingly menacing performance, and Rene Russo pops in now and then, making you wish it would happen more often. But this is really Al Pacino's baby; he simmers, he gloats, he mesmerizes, he wallows in the gutter...you'd think he was on the set of "Merchant of Venice" or "Glengarry Glen Ross". Is his talent wasted on this somewhat-pointless film? Perhaps. But it's nice to see that at the age of 65, Pacino can still keep a film afloat that would have disappeared without a trace were it not for his presence.