Mad Money
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Movie Reviews of Mad Money
Movie Review: MAD FUN!
Summary: 4 Stars
Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes, and Callie Khouri (the screenwriter of Thelma and Louise) come together so perfectly in this entertaining crime adventure.
Bridget (played by Diane Keaton) is the wife a laid-off a corporate manager Don (played by Ted Danson) and when he tells her they will be downsizing (selling their beautiful house, living simpler, etc.), she looks for a job to desperately keep them in their respective status. Having not worked in years, the only job opening she is able to find is the janitor at a Federal Reserve Bank. As she watches the shredding of worn out bills day in and day out, she concocts a plan.
However for her plan to work she needs two people to help her, and before long she solicits their help. They are Nina (played by Queen Latifah) the shredder, and Jackie (played by Katie Holmes) the carrier. As everything goes according to plan they start smuggling out hoards of cash and before long they have everything they could want...except for more. As they keep taking more, their actions catch the eye of the IRS, and their perfect plan starts spiraling out of control.
No, it doesn't have the intensely, complicated wit of other heist movies like the Oceans 11-13 or The Italian Job, but it is fiendishly entertaining. How nice to just sit back and enjoy this as entertainment, rather than try and figure out or follow all the intricate plot twists of other crime films.
It is refreshing to see a more "feminist" film from Hollywood, with all three leads as well as the director being women. I always wonder if women ever get annoyed at the lack of female lead roles in Hollywood films (especially since Jodie Foster only makes one film per year!).
All three actresses have great chemistry, and do well on their own. Diane Keaton is the queen of comic (yet not over-the-top) acting, Queen Latifah is sensible and sophisticated, and Katie Holmes morphs back into a teenage-twenty-something with flair.
This is an simple, enjoyable crime romp, with a great script that is just MAD FUN!
Movie Review: A financial farce
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
If you're looking for a sort of farcical satire on the dreadful state of the economy these days, this flick might be a good one for a little escapisim. The premise of the story is quite familiar, but sad. An elderly couple (Diane Keaton & Ted Danson) is caught up in a financial mess. They have both worked all their lives, but they've never been able to "get ahead." Their children are grown up & gone and ostensibly don't even keep in touch anymore.
Pressed to desperation, Bridget (Keaton) goes to work as a janitor at a federal depository. This is not exactly a dignified profession for someone w/a college degree, but no other businesses will hire her due to her age. While there she meets up with Nina (Queen Latifah) and Jackie (Katie Holmes). Together, they finally decide that enough is enough. They want to finally get a "piece of the pie" that has so long been denied them.
So, they endeavor to come up with an ingenious plan to steal $$ from the depository. They almost cover all their tracks, but.....eventually greed gets the better part of their ability to reason. Listening to Bridget rationalize about how she is justified in her actions almost makes you believe she's telling the truth! Along the way we get plenty of laughs at these amateur con-artists who are able to steal sums that would make cat burglars jealous.
While the ending is a little too good to be true, movies like this would not be very fitting if they had tragic finales. Keaton is good as the ambitious thief, and Danson is a pleasure to see as her dumbfounded husband. If you're looking for a zany heist movie and / or a female buddy flick, this one just might be for you.
Movie Review: Stealing Home
Summary: 4 Stars
*Some Spoilers*
"Mad Money" is what "Fun With Dick and Jane" might have been had it actually been FUN. This tale of three virtuous women who turn to a life of crime emerges as one of the better screwball comedies of recent vintage, thanks to a clever, snappy script by Glenn Kers, lively direction by Callie Khouri, and mega-delightful performances by Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes, Ted Danson, Adam Rothenberg and Stephen Root.
Keaton, who has rarely been better, plays Bridget Cardigan, an upper-middle class housewife whose husband (Danson) is suddenly laid off as a result of corporate downsizing. When she lands a job as janitor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, she devises a scheme to steal some of the cash that has already been earmarked for destruction. To accomplish her goal, she enlists the aid of two of the women who work there (Latifah and Holmes) who are also having trouble making ends meet.
Out of this rather dubious premise, the filmmakers have spun pure comic gold, providing us with one hilarious scene after another as the women go from law-abiding citizens to master thieves to incarcerated suspects in the course of the story. There are subtle little jabs at consumerism and the lure of the American dream along the way, but this is primarily a sharp, witty and sublimely silly spoof on all those innumerable heist pictures that have come our way over the years (I suggest we simply think of this as "Ocean`s 14" and have done with it). Khouri never lets up on the pace, and the sheer joy the actors take in playing these roles spills off the screen and onto the audience.
The denouement could probably stand a little tweaking, but for once, a "feel-good movie" actually lives up to that title.
Movie Review: A good piece of mindless fun. :-)
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
"Mad Money" is not trying to be new or original, it is just trying to be a fun and mindless comedy. The movie, starring Diane Keaton, Katie Holmes, Queen Latifah, and Ted Danson respectively, is very enjoyable if you keep its light-hearted nature in mind.
This movie did remind me a lot of Fun with Dick and Jane although I felt that that movie was far more silly. This one was produced by an independent film company, which explains the slightly somber tone that it has, even though it isn't a very serious movie. Both movie revolve around people who are about to lose their comfortable lifestyles and go to desperate measures to obtain financial security.
The main highlight about the film was the sense of comraderee that you get from the three lead characters. Diana Keaton is fantastic as Bridgette, a women desperate to not become financially destitute. Queen Latifah is fun, but a little underused as Nina, a single mother struggling to give her children a good life and education. Even Katie surprized me in her role as Jackie, she plays an almost hippie free spirit type.
If I reccomended this film for any reason, it would be on the stregnth of the performances and not on the stregnth of the story telling which is realtively weak. However, if you are just looking for a diversion and do not want to think a lot, "Mad Money" is a great diversion.
God Bless ~Amy
Movie Review: I Liked The Characters and The Witty Remarks
Summary: 4 Stars
When Bridget (Diane Keaton) finds out from her husband that their financial situation is not good she wants to do her part to make things better. But when she sets out to apply for jobs this college educated woman gets no respect because of her age and because she's been out of the work force for some time. Eventually, she does find work. As a janitor at the Kansas City Federal Reserve, Bridgett comes up with a way to help herself to a lot of money; worn out cash that was going to be destroyed anyway. Never mind that she works in a "totally secure environment" where everyone is watched, everywhere, every minute. She's sure her plan will work if she can find help. She convinces two other employees to partner with her: Nina (a level-headed single mother with two sons, played by Queen Latifah) and Jackie (a woman who's a bit spacey but has good sense when it counts, played by Katie Holmes). And then the men in their lives join in.
Even though Bridget, Nina and Jackie were doing something they had no business doing (stealing is wrong no matter what reasons they had for taking the money), when they were happy about all of the money they managed to sneak out of the Federal Reserve the first time I was happy for them. That's how much I liked the characters.
This is an entertaining movie that makes one thing very clear: Money Talks! I enjoyed it. And it was nice to see these three women become close friends.
Parents: There's very little profanity and no shooting or killing. There is talk of sex but no vivid sex scenes. And there is a character that moons police surveillance.