The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest

As *Ron Smolin* points out in his comment (July 17th, 2003), this isn't a movie that's going to change your views on the universe. It's pretty Disney formatted: good wins versus evil; the handsome & smart hero gets the handsome & smart girl; even fat people and small people and foreigners and geeks can get a beautiful, SLIM girl (of course, not the other way around); and making money's OK, if it lands in the pockets of the heroes). All those imperatives are there like on a menu for the movie that won't hurt anybody's principles...

That said, there are moments to be enjoyed, some nice ideas in the production design, even a little self irony (rather shy, but you can spot it if you pay attention...). The actors, especially the "geek-team" and most other supporting roles, really do a very good job (they actually helped me get over the too perfect, too tasteless "Andy" character, played by the otherwise very capable Adam Garcia).

It's really like a movie for early teens that can entertain grown-ups as well - and doesn't pretend to be anything else.

Perfectly OK for harmless entertainment. And for that little dreamy delight we can experience when we manage to forget that, most of the time, the world is a much more cruel and complex place than it is in this movie...

Ignore the low rating, flames by computer geeks and bad reviews. The First 20 million is always the hardest is an excellent tale of backstab business, living the dream and starting over.

The actors work wonderfully together to produce a high quality of wit and light humor not seen in many of the movies of 2002, and the producers did an excellent budgeting job, seeing as the movie was made on a small budget. The cast are a diverse bunch, and it can only be a matter of time before they all hit it big.

I recommend you at least see it before judging it, remember, it's been badmouthed around the web by geeks who believe the technology in this movie is impossible, remember, the movie is not about computers... but about living the dream!

"The First $20 Million..." is an easy-going comedy with a romantic bent which sticks Garcia out in front as a computer geek who aspires to be another Steve Jobs by working with some other geeks who are trying to build a $99 computer....er, something like that. A happy-go-nowhere little flick which is too uncool for the young demographic and too young for adults, I'm guessing it's a movie in search of a market. Hard to swallow and hard to follow with laughs which are too few and too far between, "The First $20 Million..." is an uninspired albeit earnest novel knock-off which is best saved for broadcast. (C)

I enjoy the writing of Po Bronson, with Bombardiers being right up there with Catch-22 as one of the funniest books I have ever read. I remember enjoying The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest as well, although I think I keep confusing it with Microserfs by Douglas Coupland. When I saw this movie was playing on Showtime, I had no idea that it was made into a movie. I guess it was only released in L.A. and New York in 2002. Well, it's certainly a cheeseball interpretation of the book, with sub-par writing by Jon Favreau, who adapted the screenplay. But, being a movie about the dot-com generation, I can't resist. It's not horrible, and having Rosario Dawson cast as the female lead certainly doesn't suck.

Remember reading those nice adventure stories when you were about 10, where a bunch of kids invent something from their garage and it costs less than their weekly allowance combined? Replace the kids with four old guys, the garage with a lab and you get this movie. You'll love this movie if you don't have a clue about "computers", otherwise, you'd have to try very hard to keep yourself from banging your head on the wall until the movie ends!