Christophe Beck provides the score for this movie that follows Princeton grad student Richie, believing he’s been swindled, as he travels to Costa Rica to confront online gambling tycoon Ivan Block. Richie is seduced by Block’s promise of immense wealth, until he learns the disturbing truth about his benefactor. When the FBI tries to coerce Richie to help bring down Block, Richie faces his biggest gamble ever: attempting to outmaneuver the two forces closing in on him...

Christophe Beck's score for Runner Runner stood out to me for one reason only: it reminded me of Harry Gregson-Williams score for the game Call of Duty 4 (2007). In fact I had to double check on two occasions that I wasn't listening to that score. Segments of 'Runner Runner' and 'Escape from Costa Rica' are so familiar it was uncanny.

This is one of those scores that works best when accompanying the movie it was designed for. It's not the sort of score that you'd necessarily listen to on its own. It's interesting, but not the sort of album you'd dig out time and time again to listen to.

It contains 19 tracks and has a running time of around 42 mins. If I had to chose one track to stick on my iPod, I think it would have to be the score's final track 'Ace in the Hole'. This pretty much sums up, in 3 min, 39 sec, what the score is all about and easily has the album's most memorable themes included.

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Darren Rea