The Movie: I don't remember ever putting this movie in my netflix queue, but I'm guessing it got there one night when I just went through and added all the movies I could find that were set in Las Vegas. The synopsis didn't look very good, and I didn't have high hopes for this movie, but just before I watched it, I discovered that the story was by the guy who created CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, a fact which piqued my interest for a bit, but unfortunately, this movie still sucks.

It's basically about a guy with a gambling problem, who gets a job running big bets to sports books for a mysterious, but dangerous, high rolling big boss man. Of course, his gambling problem gets the best of him and he ends up in some deep trouble after dipping his hands into money that isn't his. Although the cast was filled with some talented people (Joe Mantegna, John Goodman, Courtney Cox), the characters were all very one-dimensional caricatures with no depth or substance.

The film doesn't really draw you in, and though it tries to make a point of showing a man in a downward spiral into despair, it is not nearly as effective at portraying the down-and-out as Hard Eight or Leaving Las Vegas, or even The Gambler (the one with James Caan... not Kenny Rogers) do.

So while the location shots in and around Vegas are always a treat to me, they just weren't enough to save this predictable pile of Vegas "underworld" clichés called The Runner.

The DVD: Despite quite a bit of research, I was unable to determine what the original aspect ratio of this film was, so I'm just listing it as Pan and Scan for now, since I'm going to make the assumption that it was shot in widescreen, and that because of the way some of the shots were composed, I'm fairly certain this wasn't a case of an open-matted 1.85:1 transfer.

The video was bright and sharp enough, showing the bold and brash splashes of color that make up Las Vegas, but it was plagued with dirt and dust to varying degrees in different shots, ranging from very clean, to "is this even the same movie?". Audio was perfectly functional, but otherwise totally unremarkable.

And features? All you get is a trailer... which actually is just added on as an extra chapter on the feature title at the end of the movie after the credits. The discs menu system is really nothing more than a typical DVD's chapter selection menu.

You've probably never heard of this movie before, and it's with good reason. And if you happen to never see it, you won't be missing much.