"Money for Nothing" is not uninteresting as a combination of drama and comedy, in this story based upon a real life incident. John Cusack is good as Joey Coyle, a Philadelphia longshoreman unable to get work. With no real prospects in life, he's ecstatic when fate seems to drop a miracle into his lap. $1.2 million in cash drops out of an unsecured armored car, and when Joey comes across the money, his instinct is to keep it. "Finders keepers", as they say. But Joey is not the type to just let the dough sit around. No, he starts throwing it around, even taking some of it to mob money launderers. Meanwhile, an efficient detective named Laurenzi (Michael Madsen) goes about tracking down the thief.
The set-up here should be compelling for a great many people. It'd be awfully tempting for a person to want to keep any money they found. Even if they returned it, the thought of keeping it just might cross their mind for a moment or two. So we can relate to Joey...for a while. At some point, he stops being all that sympathetic, or at least he starts getting overly stupid, which isn't all that surprising. Joey still feels that the universe is out to screw him when the deal with the mob is not to his liking. His friends and associates seem to want to be loyal, especially when he's at the bar and is buying everybody drinks, but his family (including a young James Gandolfini, playing Joey's brother) would prefer that he do the right thing.
Directed by Ramon Menendez ("Stand and Deliver"), this isn't a particularly great film, but it is reasonably entertaining. It is played partly for laughs (and was marketed as a comedy), but the overall effect is rather sad (especially when you learn of the real Joey Coyle's outcome). What really makes this one worth watching is wonderful Philly location work, and the efforts of a truly fantastic supporting cast: Madsen, Debi Mazar (who looks great), Benicio Del Toro, Michael Rapaport, Maury Chaykin, Fionnula Flanagan, Lenny Venito, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Frankie Faison. Cusack is consistently amusing in the lead.
Somewhat uneven (mostly because it wasn't all that funny to this viewer), but it's enjoyable to watch.
Seven out of 10.
The set-up here should be compelling for a great many people. It'd be awfully tempting for a person to want to keep any money they found. Even if they returned it, the thought of keeping it just might cross their mind for a moment or two. So we can relate to Joey...for a while. At some point, he stops being all that sympathetic, or at least he starts getting overly stupid, which isn't all that surprising. Joey still feels that the universe is out to screw him when the deal with the mob is not to his liking. His friends and associates seem to want to be loyal, especially when he's at the bar and is buying everybody drinks, but his family (including a young James Gandolfini, playing Joey's brother) would prefer that he do the right thing.
Directed by Ramon Menendez ("Stand and Deliver"), this isn't a particularly great film, but it is reasonably entertaining. It is played partly for laughs (and was marketed as a comedy), but the overall effect is rather sad (especially when you learn of the real Joey Coyle's outcome). What really makes this one worth watching is wonderful Philly location work, and the efforts of a truly fantastic supporting cast: Madsen, Debi Mazar (who looks great), Benicio Del Toro, Michael Rapaport, Maury Chaykin, Fionnula Flanagan, Lenny Venito, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Frankie Faison. Cusack is consistently amusing in the lead.
Somewhat uneven (mostly because it wasn't all that funny to this viewer), but it's enjoyable to watch.
Seven out of 10.