Mad Money (C- or 1.5/4 stars)
Remember those lame brained, half-cooked comedies of the mid-80s? They were somewhat passable then. But infuse the same type of plot with an actual degradation of cinematography, and you've got a completely dated, mediocre film such as 'Mad Money'. It's directed by Callie Khouri who has been successful before in writing the Oscar winning Thelma & Louise. This time, the result isn't half as good. The plot: 3 female employees of the Federal Reserve Bank plot to steal millions of old dollars that would ordinarily be destroyed. The cast (itself) sounds intriguing. But they're letdown by a stale, suspense-less storyline.
Bridget & Don (a ridiculous pairing of Diane Keaton, Ted Danson) were living the perfect upper-middle class life. That is, until Don loses his job, they become $286,000 in debt, and Bridget is forced to take a job as a janitor in Kansas City's Federal Reserve Bank. Unable to even pay her cleaning lady, Bridget decides that her 'want' for $$ is stronger than her 'need'. And since the bank $$ no longer exists, so to speak, Bridget comes up with a plan to rob the bank. This plan involves purchasing a Home Depot lock similar to those used in the bank vaults ... improbable plan so far, but I digress. Now Bridget needs her accomplices. Bridget is a janitor, but she also needs a money shredder and a cart girl. They come in the forms of Nina & Jackie (Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes).
Though they're initially against the crazy idea, Bridget seduces them into her 'foolproof' plan. We're then shown scene after scene of their plan working as easily as a summer breeze. Nina, a single mother with mouths to feed, is cautious about the 'amount' of times they do this. And Jackie, a bug-eyed free spirit, is anything but dependable (thanks to her mild drug problem). Still, they don't know when to quit. There are some close calls. And the various men in their lives find out what's going on. Just how long can they keep up their charade before the feds find out. And we 'know' they do. The film's beginning shows us that they're caught!
It's weird for the movie to show this right off the bat; because we're forced to watch back story without any real tension. The filmmakers would say they did this because they're confident enough that the intangibles of the film/plot would win out; that the heist itself isn't the 'point' of the film. Maybe to them the 'point' is to show the strengths of these 3 women as they rail against their thankless jobs. Ugh.
Queen Latifah is fine as Nina. She's got some grit & some rationale. But she isn't stretching here. Katie Holmes' performance as the free spirit is way, way too forced. And while Diane Keaton offers some zesty dialogue, I've seen a replica of this exact performance now (from her) in several movies going. By the end, I'd say the threesome show good chemistry. But that isn't enough. Very little that they do or say is funny. Very little of the heist is believable, or overly interesting. Or is it just that the heist was filmed so blandly (poor color schemes, little style, no free movement, poor shot selections)? 'Mad Money' holds your interest for a while. There is a sprinkling of entertaining moments. But there's little incentive to sit all the way through this dispensable, witless romp.
Bridget & Don (a ridiculous pairing of Diane Keaton, Ted Danson) were living the perfect upper-middle class life. That is, until Don loses his job, they become $286,000 in debt, and Bridget is forced to take a job as a janitor in Kansas City's Federal Reserve Bank. Unable to even pay her cleaning lady, Bridget decides that her 'want' for $$ is stronger than her 'need'. And since the bank $$ no longer exists, so to speak, Bridget comes up with a plan to rob the bank. This plan involves purchasing a Home Depot lock similar to those used in the bank vaults ... improbable plan so far, but I digress. Now Bridget needs her accomplices. Bridget is a janitor, but she also needs a money shredder and a cart girl. They come in the forms of Nina & Jackie (Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes).
Though they're initially against the crazy idea, Bridget seduces them into her 'foolproof' plan. We're then shown scene after scene of their plan working as easily as a summer breeze. Nina, a single mother with mouths to feed, is cautious about the 'amount' of times they do this. And Jackie, a bug-eyed free spirit, is anything but dependable (thanks to her mild drug problem). Still, they don't know when to quit. There are some close calls. And the various men in their lives find out what's going on. Just how long can they keep up their charade before the feds find out. And we 'know' they do. The film's beginning shows us that they're caught!
It's weird for the movie to show this right off the bat; because we're forced to watch back story without any real tension. The filmmakers would say they did this because they're confident enough that the intangibles of the film/plot would win out; that the heist itself isn't the 'point' of the film. Maybe to them the 'point' is to show the strengths of these 3 women as they rail against their thankless jobs. Ugh.
Queen Latifah is fine as Nina. She's got some grit & some rationale. But she isn't stretching here. Katie Holmes' performance as the free spirit is way, way too forced. And while Diane Keaton offers some zesty dialogue, I've seen a replica of this exact performance now (from her) in several movies going. By the end, I'd say the threesome show good chemistry. But that isn't enough. Very little that they do or say is funny. Very little of the heist is believable, or overly interesting. Or is it just that the heist was filmed so blandly (poor color schemes, little style, no free movement, poor shot selections)? 'Mad Money' holds your interest for a while. There is a sprinkling of entertaining moments. But there's little incentive to sit all the way through this dispensable, witless romp.