Twenty Bucks

This is a series of short stories, detailing what happens to people holding a particularly twenty-dollar-bill as it switches from owner to owner. Several of the segments are quite good, my favorites being with the holdup men: Christopher Lloyd and Steve Buscemi. (Now there's two interesting characters actors, for you!)

It's not "familar fare"with strippers, profanity and the usual immoral messages that filmmakers love to give us. I was sorry to see that little old lady Linda Hunt use the Lord's name in vain.

Overall, a decent "rental" but not a purchase. The cast is more interesting and deep than the story.

Twenty Bucks is, quite simply, a movie about a $20 bill. You follow one bill in particular from one owner to the next since it first makes it into the general population from a regular ATM machine. This bill makes it's way through good people and bad, from homeless people to rich tycoons to drug dealers and back again. In this bill's life, it gets lost more than I would believe a normal $20 bill would. They are usually protected pretty well to be blowing around in the street constantly. Also, the bill stayed pretty much in the same area and even back and forth through the same hands a few times. All this may be unusual but when thinking on the subject, each bill's lifetime is as unique as our own and while unusual, not impossible.

Just like with our money, some people hold on to some bills longer than others and these people in the movie are the ones with the longer stories. Easily the most entertaining story was the one with Frank (Steve Buscemi) and Jimmy (Christopher Lloyd). Frank is a scam artist until persuaded by Jimmy he can make quite a bit more his way, robbing convenience stores. I felt like I wanted more from these two, which is probably why it was the best. It did not overdo it and make me sick of the characters.

This is is the type of movie you can recommend to those who have seen it all. It will keep you entertained for 90 minutes if nothing else. 7/10

This movie was everything I thought it would be and wasn't-- all at the same time. Like the plot says it's a movie about the life of a twenty dollar bill and how it is woven amongst the lives of everyday people, but the movie presented this in a very interesting way. The bill does go around but we see it come back around and almost make it back to a few who once had possession of it. This makes the journey of the bill much more intriguing. Strong acting does this movie well too. My favorite scene was easily with Christopher Lloyd and Steve Buscemi as two crooks. Elizabeth Shue and Brendan Fraser's stories are sad, but we can relate to them as normal people. It is interesting how the director shows so much of each character's personality and background with so little screen time. Throughout the entire film, there are recognizable faces and none of them disappoint. Watch out for a enjoyable cameo by Jeremy Piven too. Two thumbs up for the director for reviving an old script.

The variety of stories that surround the 20 bucks makes the movie non-Hollywood. I like the independent, non-Hollywood style of this particular movie with a plot that actually tells something and people who proof that you do not need a gigantic budget to create a refreshing film.

If you love irony, this is a movie for you! This is an incredible movie with a great storyline. The plot seems obvious if you read the summary but it's far more developed. The characters are each gems, and the actors playing them are of course, all top-notch names. I'd have to put this in the same category as 12:01, Groundhog Day and Short Cuts as far as the time/space ironies as lives and events intermix. If you like any of these, you'll love Twenty Bucks! Worth a hundred!