Good People

"Whenever you find a pot of gold there's always a monster guarding it." Tom (Franco) and Anna (Hudson) are married and struggling. They are weeks away from losing their house and the job market is dry. They are cleaning up an apartment of one of their tenants who died they find a huge bag of cash. After going back and forth on what to do with the bag they decide to just take what they need to keep the house for another month. Little by little they begin to take more but then someone comes looking for the money. Keep in mind when you read this that I watch every movie we order for the store. There are at least 2 movies a month that come out with the exact idea. The only difference this one has is that big name actors are in this. People find a bag of money with like $1 million in it and think what should we do...we will only spend a little of it to help us out. Soon most of the money is gone then they act shocked when someone comes looking for it. I have always wondered if a bad movie can be made good by adding great actors. According to this movie the answer is no. This is still a b-rate overdone movie with better acting. Overall, a movie that has been done so many times that nothing can help the repetition of the plot. I give this a C+.

If you have watched your share of thrillers, more likely than not the premise of "Good People" - ordinary people stumbling across a large amount of cash belonging to criminals - will be somewhat familiar to you. It certainly seemed familiar to me. But it's not just the premise that's familiar, but also how the movie plays out, with its various characters and supposed plot twists and turns. The climax comes as no surprise, since it's telegraphed very early in the movie as to what will happen and where it will happen.

Still, I must give credit where credit is due. The acting by all the participants is professional and effective; the bad guys do come across as acceptably nasty pieces of work. The movie also has reasonable production values for a movie that didn't have a megabudget. And the story, though very familiar and predictable, does go from scene to scene at a fairly brisk pace and leaves no lulls. So if you don't mind seeing the same story and characters all over again, you'll probably find this movie a fairly well crafted retread.

And what is good anyway? Who defines what actions are good? Or if good people are not capable of doing bad things? And would that make them bad people? Don't get it twisted though: This is not a philosophical look at those things. If you even remotely asks those questions, it's not because the movie intended to make you think that much. It's your own perception that goes that extra mile (or two).

The movie moves along nicely, you can see almost everything coming your way and it's decent, if you're not annoyed by the standard formula this uses. It's nice to see another french actor making the move into "mainstream" Hollywood, even if he's not in it that much. Decent or a time waster, depending on your threshold

I don't understand people these days. This is well directed, well acted thriller worth seeing. Intense, dramatic and with great cast, both good and villians.

A couple of Americans (Kate Hudson, James Franco) experiencing hard financial times head over to jolly old England to make a go of it. I'm pretty sure that makes no sense but we'll pretend in this fictional world that it does. So the couple are renting a room to a drug addict criminal who dies. They find a stash of money in the ceiling and, like everybody in every movie that has used this plot before, they throw common sense out the window and decide to start spending the money. Of course, some bad dudes come looking for the loot. Now the couple is in trouble and the only person who can help them is the dogged detective (Tom Wilkinson) who won't let the case go. Which is pretty much every movie detective ever. As you can see this thing is riddled with clichés and a formulaic plot. To compensate for the lack of originality we have ample doses of violence and a nice ass shot from Kate Hudson.

It's all put together adequately but it's as stale as month-old bread. Stupid people doing stupid things is the backbone of this movie. The best part is the last thirty minutes. Kate Hudson says "Guns are for pussies" because they have rigged their house Home Alone-style to fight the baddies, which is too ridiculous to miss. I love when the one criminal sees the other one impaled and asks "Are you alright?" Priceless. It's worth watching once, I suppose, if you're bored. But most people will have seen this done before and better many times over the years. There are some unintentionally funny moments, which bumps it up a notch.