Mad Money

Ignore the IMDb Bad Reviews! I am really starting to doubt the endorsements from the IMDb Users not to mention the blatant lack of taste and inability to discriminate. The casting is 100% on point. The Queen, Keaton, and Holmes form a perfect modern day, realistic Stooges routine, portraying regular people in a struggle we all go thru: MONEY! Danson was as equally hysterical as Keaton's husband. I don't think they could have cast different actors and achieved the same magic.

It's smart, funny, and the plot is something that every viewer can completely related to and dream about. Don't miss out on this little gem!

An Oscar winning actress (Keaton), an Oscar nominated actress (Latifah), and the current spouse of an Oscar nominated actor (Holmes) shine in this delightful comedy/crime film as three employees of a federal reserve who plot to steal a large sum of disposable cash. This is a simple movie, nothing more nothing less. It offers inconsistent and infrequent laughs, while providing a thrill to the audience. Though I am not familiar with director Callie Khouri who apparently won an Oscar, the cast of this movie was compelling, from Diane Keaton to Ted Danson, from Katie Holmes to Queen Latifah. A renowned cast saved this film from being a total disaster with a witty and fitting performance. As far as the content of the movie It is nothing more than what a regular movie goer might expect it to be. A heist gone bad, but with no blood and violence....Just plain comedy. However, this is an unusual idea for a movie, because I am sure it would not be attempted in real life, and even if it is, I am positive that the schemers will not get that far.. A nice and enjoyable film worth seeing.

Gabrielle Burton's Manna from Heaven (2002) is a cloying bit of larceny about old folks who pull a heist, so to speak. As bad as that allegedly funny comic caper is, Callie Khouri directs a caper headed by old folk Bridget Cardigan (Diane Keaton) that makes Manna look smart. Mad Money, about three chicks who rip off the Federal Reserve, is a bankrupt comedy for which there was not a laugh for over an hour, and that's with an audience at a sneak preview, one of the easier groups to please.

Diane Keaton shows no comedic skills beyond the lines Woody Allen has given her in previous movies long ago; Queen Latifa as single mama Nina Brewster has no range beyond the broad beam of her smile and her bod; Katie Holmes as daffy Jackie Truman is a much more successful wife of Tom Cruise. The only one with half-way funny lines is Ted Danson as Don Cardigan, but his perfect white-haired, brush-cut hairpiece distracts from his delivery.

Mad Money appears in early January, an infamous graveyard for films studios know flat-out won't be successful but distribute to satisfy investors and actors that the film actually played theaters. I hope this film makes them money across the seas because stateside it would take a serious heist to make any money for this felonious assault on even the notoriously easy American audience.

"Mad Money" has reasonable entertainment value, great characters, and even a nice little unexpected twist at the end to satisfy the escapist movie-goer. The essential plot of Mad Money is not that original as heist movies go. The formula usually goes something like this: the characters are in a bad financial or similar situation, they find out about some booty supposedly completely unobtainable, devise a scheme to lift the booty which has some intriguing element(s) to it, and then go about getting the booty. Along the way there are some twists and turns to keep it interesting. If it's too easy, it won't work. Part of the fun is whether or not they will get away with it, and how they will do it. Heist movies are almost a dime a dozen these days, with fair such as "Oceans 11" (both the old and the new versions), its subsequent sequels, "Heist", "The Score", etc.

What gives "Mad Money" a unique flavor is the characters who enact the heist, essentially the Neapolitan kind: vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. Most Hollywood heist movies star middle-aged men devising elaborate schemes requiring PhD's to perpetrate the heist. In "Mad Money", the team of schemers are three women working at below-sea-level jobs at the Federal Reserve building: a white grandmother of the upper middle-class variety (Diane Keaton), a middle-aged African-American single mother trying to stay above water (Queen Latifah, who actually stuffs packs of bills into a large shredding machine), and Katie Holmes as a 20-something scatter-brain who will probably lose the better part of her hearing by movie's end. How Holmes ever landed a position at the Federal Reserve is one of the many intriguing mysteries of the movie. A rather unlikely swashbuckling gang of hoodlums who sport wash cloths and garbage bags instead of swords.

Keaton and Latifah have the most at stake in their interesting idea for a financial stimulus package: to lift ragged and torn bills from the Federal Reserve before they are about to be shredded. In other words, stealing money that really isn't money. However, I wouldn't try this at home. Year-round, the Federal Reserve acquires tons and tons of ragged and worn bills from banks and other large financial institutions and swaps them for new crisp clean bills. The ragged bills go by way of the shredding and pulping machines.

How they pull off the heist sort of works, although it does fray into a little bit of the fantastic as stealing from a Federal Governmental agency like the Federal Reserve is sort of akin to trying to raise the Titanic. It probably ain't gonna happen. However, a unique chemistry between the actors somehow makes the movie work, and the writers took the story seriously enough to give a lot of unexpected laughs, the way comedies of this type should be written. In other words, luckily the writers didn't try to make the movie "funny".

On a final note, the outstanding talent of the cast has to be Queen Latifah who does an excellent job of portraying a single mom who wants the booty but has ambivalence about the entire scheme. In fact the entire cast is excellent, with Diane Keaton believable as the guiding force behind the heist, and Ted Danson as her bewildered husband. My only criticism is that I would have liked a little more of a hint regarding the twist at the end which did come out of left field. Enjoyable and worth the price of admission, although I doubt I will shell out another 20 bucks for the DVD.

Bridget (Diane Keaton) is a gracious matron with a lovely home. Yet, her world turns upside-down when her husband (Ted Danson) loses his job. Suddenly, bills are piling up and there is no solution in sight. Needing to maintain her lifestyle, Bridget takes a job as a custodial worker for the local branch of the federal mint. Now, she has the health care coverage she needs and the means to pay her creditors. But, she wants more, especially considering the menial tasks she is asked to perform and the smug attitude of the mint's bossman. Being a tough and smart cookie, Bridget hatches an elaborate plot to help herself to some of the worn-out bills that are headed for the shredder. But, in order for the scheme to work, she needs the aid of Nina (Queen Latifah), who operates one of the shredders, and Jackie (Katie Holmes), whose task it is to transport the cart of paper money to and fro. They agree, after some initial reluctance, to become Bridget's partners in crime, for Nina wants to send her two little boys to a fine school and Jackie has a need for some excitement. But, will they really be able to pull one over on the Feds? This is really a fairly funny movie, with a great plot and a nice cast. Keaton, especially, is fabulous as the conniving, high maintenance housewife and the Queen is equally wonderful as a single mother with big dreams. Danson, Christopher McDonald and the lesser players are fine, too. Only Holmes strikes a flat note, as her Jackie is rather forgettable. Since Katie has shown she is a fine actress (see Pieces of April or Abandon), one can only conclude that the director failed her miserably. Then, too, she sports an awful hair style and terrible costumes throughout the film as well. This is most odd, for Keaton and Latifah look great. Although the sets are not noteworthy, they are certainly adequate, as is the look of the film. If you have heard that this film is a bomb, don't believe it. While it may not be a masterpiece, it definitely has its funny moments and zany charm, more than enough, in fact, to make it a worthwhile watch.