Once again, Al Pacino does his croaky, shouting Zen-master act, mentoring the bejasus out of a younger guy.

Matthew McConaughey plays Brandon, a brash young sports-betting tipster; Pacino is Walter Abrams, a gambling mogul who hires this young prodigy and plays the usual cat-and-mouse mind games with him.

But Walter's character is not complex, but muddled: the movie is unsure whether to make him a charismatic bad guy or a sympathetic good guy.