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Mad
Money
Genre: Comedy
Rated: PG-13
Directed
by: Callie Khouri
Starring: Diane
Keaton, Queen Latifah, Katie
Holmes, Ted Danson, Roger
R. Cross, Adam Rothenberg, Finesse
Mitchell
Released by: Overture Films
In
Short: You'll
be mad you paid money to see this comedy that
fails to deliver any laughs. Despite its cast
of big names and a potentially fun plot, this
caper flick is not one to take to the bank. |
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January
Blues
Forcing a Smile
by Jenny Peters
It's
common knowledge in Hollywood that January is the
dead zone. Unless a movie opened in December for
Oscar consideration and is then released in January,
most films that come out during the first month of
the year are abysmal. It's a dumping ground month,
which couldn't be better proven by "Mad
Money," the wretched comedy starring a trio of
usually talented females.
Diane Keaton stars as Bridget Cardigan, a rich WASPy
housewife who is forced to take a job as a janitor
when her husband (Ted Danson) loses his job. She ends
up at the Federal Reserve, where old money is destroyed
every day. There she hatches a plot to steal the money
just before it is shredded, enlisting two other women
(Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes) to join her in the
robbery.
Sounds
like a funny premise, perhaps, but the execution is excruciating,
with Keaton falling back on her same-old, same-old screen
persona, a slightly ditzy dame who somehow triumphs over
the adversity put before her, while Holmes spends the
whole movie dancing around with headphones on and doing
stupid things that endanger the caper they are trying
to pull off. Only Queen Latifah as Nina Brewster offers
anything remarkable in the way of acting, bringing a
smidgen of interest to her role as a single mother trying
to keep her boys on the straight and narrow.
But what "Mad
Money" really suffers from is a lack of laughs. Supposedly a comedy, this
by-the-numbers, completely predictable (Will they get away with the money? Will
Nina find love and a good father for her kids? Will everyone live happily ever
after? You bet.) movie is virtually bereft of even one funny moment. Squirmingly
bad, the only good thing about this typical January flick is that it is mercifully
over in about 100 minutes—which feel like days, however, as you are sitting
through it.
Take our
advice, and spend your mad money on something, anything, but this. 
PNJ010308 |
(Updated
01/18/08 NJ) |
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