And it’s a good thing that the petition campaigns, the hunger strikes and the spate of protesters setting themselves on fire on the White House lawn have died down, as this week another Affleck-starring film gets its roll of the box office dice.
“Runner Runner” is Brad Furman’s follow-up to 2011’s surprise hit “The Lincoln Lawyer” which performed the unlikely conjuring trick of jump-starting Matthew McConaughey’s now thriving career rehabilitation. Perhaps Furman will be a similar talisman for Affleck? The vehemence of the hatred for whom we have to say took even us by surprise after that casting announcement.
In honesty, it seems unlikely that “Runner Runner” will do a McConaughey on Affleck’s acting career (his stellar directorial career is a whole ‘nother story, contributing to the slew of paradoxes that make up Affleck’s public image).
Not only does the gambling thriller look a little slight, with advance word ranging from "meh" to "ho-hum," but Affleck has in fact, had anything but the same string of middling-to-obnoxious rom-com roles that characterized McConaughey’s pre 2011-run that had him so primed for rediscovery.
If anything, what with meaty roles in his self-directed films, Terrence Malick’s “To The Wonder” and issues drama “The Company Men,” Affleck the actor has been on a roll of late. So why is it that the immediate fan consensus that emerged after Warners announced Batfleck, was not just that he wasn’t the right actor for the part, but that by simply showing up on that set he was gonna totally RUIN the film? The Zack Snyder-directed Henry Cavill-starring film? And how chillingly was all of that predicted by Affleck himself in this clip from “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”?
