Funny Money

First of all I must say, I don't agree with the current rating (6.4) which is in my opinion a result of small number of voters. This movie, except few first minutes, is a giant mess. It looks like Monthy Python on speed. I can't believe Chevy Chase is acting in this one. Obviously, we have different perception of humor as well as the taste, but this movie could not be labeled as good comedy no matter what angle you're looking at it from. Long story short and without spoilers, the whole plot is stationed to a house, and all 'humourous' situations are caused by visit of two detectives, that came to visit without warrant and could be sent away in a heartbeat by any conscious adult. I am a huge fan of comedy and also of the movies with Chevy Chase, but I was very disappointed. This movie had just a few comic situations and dialogs, not enough for calling it funny movie. I certainly wouldn't recommend this to anyone who looks for an entertaining movie.

What a delight to see Chevy Chase back on-screen again, with a great ensemble of hilarious actors. Director Leslie Grief does an excellent job of keeping the audience in stitches from the opening credits to the final Smile.

We saw this movie as the opening film of the 2006 Sarasota Film Festival, in a theater with 1700 other people. There is no question that the audience loved it. At times, the laughs were so loud and long that if you weren't paying close attention, you might have missed the next joke.

If you are looking for good, old-fashioned belly laughs, you won't be disappointed in this film. Kudos to Leslie Grief, Chevy Chase, Penelope Anne Miller, Armand Assante and Chris McDonald.

Henry Perkins (Chevy Chase) is been working at a fruit wax company for many years and he doesn't seem to be appreciate by his boss (Robert Loggia). In this day, Henry is also celebrating his birthday. Which his wife (Penelope Ann Miller) wants to planning a surprise birthday party for her husband. But when Henry accidentally switched his briefcase with a stranger from the subway. Herny finds $5 million on the briefcase that looks like his. Since Henry realizes quickly the situation of this problem. Since the mysterious guy, he accidentally switch his briefcase has his identity in it. Henry wants to leave the country with his struggling artist wife to Europe but the Perkins' only friends (Christopher McDonald and Alex Meneses) shows up his birthday party. But there's more to come... when Henry has problems with a sleazy corrupted police detective (Armand Assante), a taxi driver (Guy Torry) who doesn't like to be waiting, a clumsy police detective (Kevin Sussman), a very rich kinky woman named MM. Virginia (Rebecca Wisocky) who feels Henry's wife has some talent and the European mob boss known as Mr. Big (Zoltan Butuc) & his crew is searching for his briefcase.

Directed by Leslie Grief made an watchable but hardly funny farce. There's a few good laughs here but not much of it. The movie seems to have energy from his cast but the script also written by the director and Harry Basil is quite poor. The movie feels rushed, gags are not well executed and it is also badly filmed. Grief's wasted a capable good cast. I do believe Chase could be really funny actor but i think, it works best when he is in the hands of a good comedic filmmaker like Harold Ramis or John Landis. Ann Miller's performance is really irritating here. Since it's based on a stage play of the same title by Ray Cooney. I am sure, the stage play works much better than this misfired picture. It's certainly a nice try and it's more of a Curio film than entertainment. Too bad. (* ½/*****).

This is a decent movie. It definitely needed more locations in terms of, the airport, per say, but the film is decent in itself. Chevy Chase does a fine job, but Penelope Miller played her role a bit too hysterical for my taste. That's my take on it, but since it is a film adaptation of a farce comedy play, then I suggest you watch it yourself and make your own interpretations, as opinions vary, especially in this genre.

As a big fan of Chevy Chase I was interested to watch this film and as with most of the previous comments of this film I agree that it is certainly no "Fletch" or early "Vacation" film. But the point the most people seem to be missing is that this film is an adaptation of a farcical play written by (British Playwright) Ray Cooney and as such any attempt to dissect the plot is akin to dissecting the plot of an absurdist play (see "Rhinoceros" - starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel) - there is no point.

I think it is a reasonably good comedy although in general I find farce frustrating - namely for the reasons that annoyed most of the people who have criticised this film i.e. plot makes no sense, situations that could easily be dissolved are allowed to carry on out of control etc. Essentially this film has been created to resemble a stage production i.e small ensemble of core characters and a minimal number of sets.

I think the main characters are fairly strong and the dialogue and interaction between the characters is fast paced and funny although I do think it takes 20/30 minutes to get going.

As for the cast in general it was good and I actually thought that Penelope Ann Miller's character was excellent and she played it very well. Chevy Chase's character was also good and his interaction with both Armand Assante's and Christopher McDonald's characters brought the most laughs.

The bottom line is if you do not like farce you will probably not like this film. I also do think that in general any film that is an adaption of a stage play or remake is always destined to fail especially if the original was not American (a good example would be the remake of "The Ladykillers" - the big question being why did it need to be remade?)