Just saw "2 for the Money", that shit was one of the worst movies I ever seen.
Then I check out his website. He shoulda got an oscar for this performance:
http://www.brandonlang.com/hdmain/trailer.aspx
Then I find the truth:
http://www.tommymac.com/pages/articles.php?ArticleID=173
uppy:
“TWO FOR THE MONEY” GOES DOWN GAMBLING
By Tommy Mac, Crush Shot Sports
San Jose, Costa Rica, October 20, 2005—The compelling story behind “Two For The Money” was unveiled at the movie’s October 7, 2005, release by Paramount Pictures. The film stars Al Pacino as Walter Abrams, a gambling-addicted cable sage and owner of a cutthroat telemarketing boiler room who enables a sports handicapping service in New York. He lures Brandon Lane played by Matthew McConaughey from another infamous tout service in Las Vegas to become his sole creation as “the million dollar man” for Abrams’ storied and ruthless sales marketing purposes.
These are about the only two facts that purportedly happened in the real life screenplay adaptation of sports handicapper Brandon Link during all his excellent boiler room adventures. However, Paramount Pictures, a sports book in Costa Rica—and especially Brandon Link/Lane/Lang and everyone connected with this film—want us to believe that everything portrayed on the big screen was actually true.
The real Brandon Link touts his sports picks daily—for purchase—from his website and, in the same breath, encourages the public to put all gaming deposits in an offshore sports book here in Costa Rica, a sports book that has been supporting Link and the film.
The glaring conflict of interest is self-evident. Win or lose, Link gets paid in full while in every press release or interview, before and after the picture’s release, he relentlessly runs with stories to unimaginable heights and full of inconsistencies.
The reasons for these deceptions are calculated and manipulative. A far more interesting and compelling story—that of connecting the players in Vegas, Hollywood and Costa Rica who were involved in this manipulation—is better than the movie itself. How did this movie ever see the light of day, when the script was turned down and told to “take a seat” by all the major studios for the better part of a decade?
Passing on the script was easy: Studio execs understood that America wasn’t going to stand in line to see the underbelly of a sports handicapping tout service, even with all of its verbal flare and pyrotechnics.
The movie portrays Brandon Lane as a former college football player who is so clean living that when he first gets into the business, he can’t even say the “f” word? Pacino’s character lures him into a life of bombastic and fraudulent sales pitches to sell sports picks, providing Lane with $1,000 suits and prepaid hookers.
In reality, this movie is nothing more than an unrepentant, cheesy ad for the real Brandon Link/Lane/Lang to sell sports picks and entice gaming deposits to a sport book here in Costa Rica. Hollywood advertising in this form today costs somewhere between $60 and $70 million.
Check out this press release on the sports book’s website, published on the very weekend the movie was released: “Summer may be over, but things are just heating up at Bodog, starting with a unique partnership Bodog has formed with Brandon Lang, one of America's top sports handicappers. In an exclusive deal just signed (and I'm telling you the ink is still wet on this one), Lang and Bodog will work together to build a dynamic Bodog presence on his website. We couldn't be more excited to be working with one of the most successful handicappers in the world. If you don't know who Brandon Lang is, you soon will."
Yes, I hope you will, after reading this article.
First of all, let me say at the outset that I don’t claim to know everything about Brandon Link/Lane/Lang or every piece of the puzzle regarding how this movie came together—but neither do several people I talked to who were involved in the film. However, being in the music and entertainment business all my life and in the gaming industry for the last 11 years, the real life story of Brandon Link is an easy one to sus out from my contacts in Los Angeles, Vegas and here in San Jose, Costa Rica. Everyone I talked to has known Brandon for a minimum of eight years.
He did come from a small town in Michigan and, right out of high school, he moved to Las Vegas, where he attempted to become a walkon player for UNLV’s basketball team. Instead, he played only in recreational league pick-up games at the sports club, where he blew out his knee.
To anyone’s knowledge, he never played football or any other sport on a college level. It was at this point that he went to work for Jim Fiest in Las Vegas. Fiest employs between 40 and 60 full-time salespeople during the football season to sell sports picks of his many handicappers. Brandon became a tout for Fiest's 900 Score phone line.
Brandon Lane was on a hot streak, selling sports picks on Fiest's 900 Score phone number when Stu Finer (Pacino’s character Walter in the movie ) recruits him to New York to be marketed as John Anthony, the “Million Dollar Man.” Finer wanted Brandon to develop his 900 number service the way he had for Jim Fiest—and Brandon did. Sometime after that, he became discontent with the amount of money Finer was paying him and left—not, as he claims in his interviews, to reclaim the small town boy in him.
Link moved to Los Angeles and became a caddie at the Rivera Country Club to pitch his movie idea, he claims; however, in talking to the personnel department at the Rivera Country Club, while they were familiar with his name, they have no applications or official employment records for caddies. Caddies, they said, are temporary employees, so they have no idea of how long Link was actually there. I called several times to try to reach someone working at the course familiar with him, and I was told someone would get in touch with me who knew, but no one called back.
This is where Link claims that he met up with Dan Gilroy, a struggling screenwriter who’s heavily baggaged career had been carried around for years by the star power of his wife, Rene Russo, who also just happens to play Al Pacino’s wife in the movie. What an amazing coincidence.
When the script was passed on by all the studios, Link returned to New York to work for Finer. Apparently, he wasn’t impressed with that small town boy he had just rediscovered, and Link continued to work for Finer.
Enter into the mix, years later, Calvin Ayre, CEO and founder of Bodog.com, one of the most prominent sports books here in Costa Rica. Whether Ayre was approached directly or was just schmoozing at one of his celebrity events in Los Angeles, no one that I talked to knows for sure, but he not only loved the idea of having the main character in the movie tout his sports book after the movie’s release, but would help back the film.
If Bodog were not all over this film, then why did they pay for the premier party in Vegas? The entire production was shot on location in Vancouver, British Columbia (home of their marketing and customer service offices), and a featured scene in the movie was filmed at the Quay Lounge, owned by the Bodog Entertainment Group.
The domain name of Brandonlane.com wasn’t purchased until March of 2004 when the movie deal was finalized, and Brandonlang.com wasn’t created until September of 2004 when the movie went into production. Then the very week the film was released, Bodog announced to the world that they are so proud to have just signed an exclusive deal with Brandon Link/Lane/Lang.
Bodog goes down gambling on a movie that, the second week of release, did only half the box office that it did in the first. The DVD is coming to a cutout bin near you.
Finally, Your Honor, the real crime here is not just the out and out lies, fabrications, inconsistencies and exaggerations of a handicapper telling you to bet everything you have—including your children’s children—on his opinion of a game, but rather a sports book and his many willing accomplices in the movie industry that enable him to do so.
Then I check out his website. He shoulda got an oscar for this performance:
http://www.brandonlang.com/hdmain/trailer.aspx
Then I find the truth:
http://www.tommymac.com/pages/articles.php?ArticleID=173
uppy:“TWO FOR THE MONEY” GOES DOWN GAMBLING
By Tommy Mac, Crush Shot Sports
San Jose, Costa Rica, October 20, 2005—The compelling story behind “Two For The Money” was unveiled at the movie’s October 7, 2005, release by Paramount Pictures. The film stars Al Pacino as Walter Abrams, a gambling-addicted cable sage and owner of a cutthroat telemarketing boiler room who enables a sports handicapping service in New York. He lures Brandon Lane played by Matthew McConaughey from another infamous tout service in Las Vegas to become his sole creation as “the million dollar man” for Abrams’ storied and ruthless sales marketing purposes.
These are about the only two facts that purportedly happened in the real life screenplay adaptation of sports handicapper Brandon Link during all his excellent boiler room adventures. However, Paramount Pictures, a sports book in Costa Rica—and especially Brandon Link/Lane/Lang and everyone connected with this film—want us to believe that everything portrayed on the big screen was actually true.
The real Brandon Link touts his sports picks daily—for purchase—from his website and, in the same breath, encourages the public to put all gaming deposits in an offshore sports book here in Costa Rica, a sports book that has been supporting Link and the film.
The glaring conflict of interest is self-evident. Win or lose, Link gets paid in full while in every press release or interview, before and after the picture’s release, he relentlessly runs with stories to unimaginable heights and full of inconsistencies.
The reasons for these deceptions are calculated and manipulative. A far more interesting and compelling story—that of connecting the players in Vegas, Hollywood and Costa Rica who were involved in this manipulation—is better than the movie itself. How did this movie ever see the light of day, when the script was turned down and told to “take a seat” by all the major studios for the better part of a decade?
Passing on the script was easy: Studio execs understood that America wasn’t going to stand in line to see the underbelly of a sports handicapping tout service, even with all of its verbal flare and pyrotechnics.
The movie portrays Brandon Lane as a former college football player who is so clean living that when he first gets into the business, he can’t even say the “f” word? Pacino’s character lures him into a life of bombastic and fraudulent sales pitches to sell sports picks, providing Lane with $1,000 suits and prepaid hookers.
In reality, this movie is nothing more than an unrepentant, cheesy ad for the real Brandon Link/Lane/Lang to sell sports picks and entice gaming deposits to a sport book here in Costa Rica. Hollywood advertising in this form today costs somewhere between $60 and $70 million.
Check out this press release on the sports book’s website, published on the very weekend the movie was released: “Summer may be over, but things are just heating up at Bodog, starting with a unique partnership Bodog has formed with Brandon Lang, one of America's top sports handicappers. In an exclusive deal just signed (and I'm telling you the ink is still wet on this one), Lang and Bodog will work together to build a dynamic Bodog presence on his website. We couldn't be more excited to be working with one of the most successful handicappers in the world. If you don't know who Brandon Lang is, you soon will."
Yes, I hope you will, after reading this article.
First of all, let me say at the outset that I don’t claim to know everything about Brandon Link/Lane/Lang or every piece of the puzzle regarding how this movie came together—but neither do several people I talked to who were involved in the film. However, being in the music and entertainment business all my life and in the gaming industry for the last 11 years, the real life story of Brandon Link is an easy one to sus out from my contacts in Los Angeles, Vegas and here in San Jose, Costa Rica. Everyone I talked to has known Brandon for a minimum of eight years.
He did come from a small town in Michigan and, right out of high school, he moved to Las Vegas, where he attempted to become a walkon player for UNLV’s basketball team. Instead, he played only in recreational league pick-up games at the sports club, where he blew out his knee.
To anyone’s knowledge, he never played football or any other sport on a college level. It was at this point that he went to work for Jim Fiest in Las Vegas. Fiest employs between 40 and 60 full-time salespeople during the football season to sell sports picks of his many handicappers. Brandon became a tout for Fiest's 900 Score phone line.
Brandon Lane was on a hot streak, selling sports picks on Fiest's 900 Score phone number when Stu Finer (Pacino’s character Walter in the movie ) recruits him to New York to be marketed as John Anthony, the “Million Dollar Man.” Finer wanted Brandon to develop his 900 number service the way he had for Jim Fiest—and Brandon did. Sometime after that, he became discontent with the amount of money Finer was paying him and left—not, as he claims in his interviews, to reclaim the small town boy in him.
Link moved to Los Angeles and became a caddie at the Rivera Country Club to pitch his movie idea, he claims; however, in talking to the personnel department at the Rivera Country Club, while they were familiar with his name, they have no applications or official employment records for caddies. Caddies, they said, are temporary employees, so they have no idea of how long Link was actually there. I called several times to try to reach someone working at the course familiar with him, and I was told someone would get in touch with me who knew, but no one called back.
This is where Link claims that he met up with Dan Gilroy, a struggling screenwriter who’s heavily baggaged career had been carried around for years by the star power of his wife, Rene Russo, who also just happens to play Al Pacino’s wife in the movie. What an amazing coincidence.
When the script was passed on by all the studios, Link returned to New York to work for Finer. Apparently, he wasn’t impressed with that small town boy he had just rediscovered, and Link continued to work for Finer.
Enter into the mix, years later, Calvin Ayre, CEO and founder of Bodog.com, one of the most prominent sports books here in Costa Rica. Whether Ayre was approached directly or was just schmoozing at one of his celebrity events in Los Angeles, no one that I talked to knows for sure, but he not only loved the idea of having the main character in the movie tout his sports book after the movie’s release, but would help back the film.
If Bodog were not all over this film, then why did they pay for the premier party in Vegas? The entire production was shot on location in Vancouver, British Columbia (home of their marketing and customer service offices), and a featured scene in the movie was filmed at the Quay Lounge, owned by the Bodog Entertainment Group.
The domain name of Brandonlane.com wasn’t purchased until March of 2004 when the movie deal was finalized, and Brandonlang.com wasn’t created until September of 2004 when the movie went into production. Then the very week the film was released, Bodog announced to the world that they are so proud to have just signed an exclusive deal with Brandon Link/Lane/Lang.
Bodog goes down gambling on a movie that, the second week of release, did only half the box office that it did in the first. The DVD is coming to a cutout bin near you.
Finally, Your Honor, the real crime here is not just the out and out lies, fabrications, inconsistencies and exaggerations of a handicapper telling you to bet everything you have—including your children’s children—on his opinion of a game, but rather a sports book and his many willing accomplices in the movie industry that enable him to do so.
