Greedy People

It's probably a movie that well sail under the Grid of a lot of viewers, but it shouldn't be. It a fun and bold crime comedy that gets a little bit dark towards the end of it. It hangs on high branches as a vision and as an inspiration, but it manages to hold any expectations and pulls through a great, interesting, funny and compelling movie with same plot.

Its half mystery and half known. It has a classic format and movie template that is built on the foundation of one domino that is falling and causes the other to get their dance started. One event ignites a chin of hidden events that will reveal what ever needs to get up to the surface and grab you by the balls, to stay and watch the movie with a lot of interest.

It has a fine cast, that includes three main actors that has already built their name through the years and worth buying a ticket for the movie theatre. The one that is pulling the strings (Potsy Ponciroli) is less familiar but has his hands in some good Hollywood projects ("Old Henry", which was his first corporation with Tim Blake Nelson, before the current one).

Ponciroli is doing great work with the setting the paste of the movie and moves elegantly between the genres of comedy and drama until all is set to take the proper direction of thriller and seal the deal with it.

This movie is not perfect or even close to it. It imitates a lot of other the excelled in this genre, but is manages to surprise with its final result. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is stealing the show, as expected and the others are riding along properly, but no one is stealing the show from Ponciroli and his way of paying great tribute to other movies giants.

There is enough going on here to keep you involved. A bunch of people chasing a bag of money and mayhem ensues. The only problem is they never dive deeply into any one character including the mains. Its hard to feel something for people you don't know.

At one point, I was cheering on the hit-men because they were way more interesting than the normies. None of the actors really had a chance to shine because the scenes were a bit chaotic and there was little substantive dialogue. The actress playing the secretary was good. I remember her from Billions and other films.

5 stars - you won't be bored but barely worth the time to type this up.

This movie sneaked up on me and surprised me how much I enjoyed it. This is a tale about deception, greed and true human emotions and is very cleverly wrapped up in a Tarantino esq story which jumps back and forth in time to show the lead up to an event which is the back bone of the story. Its not so much a 'who dunnit' as its clear who has done what but the events which unravel around it keep you guessing with who and why. Not so much a comedy as it is a drama with some darkly humorous moments.

The cast is excellent. Im never a fan of casting English actors into roles which require thick American accents but Himesh Patel and Lily James do an admirable job. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the stand out performer portraying a slightly unhinged and chaotic character. Certainly a role I haven't seen him perform before.

5 stars is typically the minimum IMDB rating for a movie I will consider watching. I was going to give this 5 stars when it was 95% over, but the ending was good so I bumped it up to a 6. I'm surprised Gordon-Levitt agreed to be in this film. It had a low budget, 'B' movie type of feel, something that would go straight to streaming only, or a TV movie. Not bad, but not the quality I typically associate with him. It just felt cheap. I'm not sure if it was the acting, flimsy dialog, the screenplay or the somewhat predictable series of events. But movie just seemed a bit goofy. It was decent, held my attention, but seemed like it was missing something. I do appreciate that it was light hearted and had a pretty good ending. The ending was probably the most realistic part of the whole film. It's rare in Hollywood to have an ending where everyone got what they deserved, albeit an extreme version of justice.

It is probably true that any black comedy is rarely laugh out loud funny, but I suppose that depends on your sense of humour? This starts off light hearted enough before turning to the theme of its title, and exploring the darker side of peoples natures when a bag of money comes into play. So the early, light hearted smiles and chuckles, give way to a more uncomfortable feeling as the bodies begin to fall, whilst avoiding becoming too morose.

The look and sound is at the higher end of B movie standard, the script is respectably tight and coherent, the characters are believably eccentric, likeable, and interesting. There are some great comedy performances delivering tight, well structured and funny/amusing dialogue.

Maybe not a Saturday night must see, but definitely a Friday night weekend opener.