Cash-cash

I managed to catch this on TV several years ago and haven't seen hide nor hair of it since. This is a shame because it is quite funny and full of Richard Lester's trademark humor. As with most films about con men (and women), a simple description of the plot would be anything but, but suffice to say Lester and his cast do an admirable job of keeping all the balls in the air for most of the film's running time. Watch for Jim Carrey in an early role as the dim-witted draft dodger.

"Finders Keepers" won't solve world peace, but it's good escapist fun and an excellent antidote for Lester's sub-par "Superman III."

As I sat down to watch the 1984 comedy "Finders Keepers" here in 2022, I did so without ever having heard about the movie prior to sitting down for watching it. I had no idea what I was in for here, but I figured that a mid-1980s comedy with this cast ensemble should prove interesting.

However, I was off target, because I didn't enjoy the storyline told in "Finders Keepers". The narrative was pretty slow paced and I didn't really care about the story, nor overly much about the characters either. So I found "Finders Keepers" from writers Ronny Graham, Terence Marsh and Charles Dennis to be somewhat of a swing and a miss. Sure, there are worse mid-1980s comedies out there, but "Finders Keepers" wasn't something special.

I was initially impressed with the cast ensemble, which had the likes of Michael O'Keefe, Beverly D'Angelo, Louis Gossett Jr., Ed Lauter and Brian Dennehy on the cast list. So there was a good handful of familiar faces on the screen.

I didn't find the storyline amusing here, so this movie didn't make me laugh. And while I did manage to endure the movie to the end, this is not a movie that i will ever be returning to watch a second time.

My rating of "Finders Keepers" lands on a four out of ten stars.

Richard Lester is one of the great comedy directors, but amidst the brilliance there was always this sloppy, cheap-feeling shlockiness peeking out from underneath, balanced out because it was still often funny.

Finders Keepers magnifies Lester's worst tendencies without the counterbalancing humor. Not only isn't the movie funny, but often I couldn't figure out why the movie expected us to find it funny. The movie seems to think Beverly D'Angelo calling everyone she meets by a slur for gay people funny, but even if you don't apply modern social norms to an ancient movie, it's just not funny.

I watched the first half hour, and then, since some people claim it gets better towards the end, I watched the last 20 minutes. It's basically a bad 80s comedy with forced silliness (an angry mob of roller derby women) and unconvincing sex (woman pulls a gun on the protagonist then takes a bath with him).

Richard Lester made a lot of terrific movies. This wasn't one of them.

I saw this movie on HBO in 1985, taped it and watched it again and again over the years. It's a wonderful screwball comedy, and Michael O'Keefe is great as the con man character who's trying to pass himself off as a soldier taking his dead buddy's casket home for burial.

I would have thought it would have found its way to DVD long before this, even if only because it was Jim Carrey's first real movie role. His part is small -- only a couple of scenes -- but it was easy to see he was going to be a big comic star.

Other great actors in it were Beverly D'Angelo, Louis Gossett Jr, Ed Lauter and Brian Dennehy. And who could ever forget Dennehy's great line when he says the mother of the dead soldier is "prostate with grief?" It's also the only movie I can remember that used Don McLean's "American Pie" over the closing credits.

Please, let's get this out on DVD.

This is the kind of 80s comedy in the same vein as many 80s farcical comedies. OKeefe plays his part like he did in Caddyshack, Beverly D'Angelos plays a very spunky, mouthy blonde, opposite of the mother character in all the Vacation movies, but she still cute and adorable. Louis Gossett Jr shows up halfway through the movie and is there to the end.

The story, set around 1972, isnt bad, it moves along and is never boring. There are some funny scenes and some funny dialogue. However the utterly farcical and slapstick type ending kinda ruins the movie, somehow we are supposed to believe Louis Gosset Jrs character doesnt know where the brake peddle is, but hey, its a comedy its needs a light hearted end to this "crime" story.

Ive been a mission to watch as many "bad" movies as I can, and found a site dedicated to forgotten movies, good or bad. This was one of them, but I didnt think it was bad at all. However, looking through all the reviews, people are fiercely divided, they seem to love it or hate it, and in the end, maybe their were more haters in the critics circle and by whomever distributed it. CBS owned (owns) it, so Im surprised I never caught this on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon when TVs were still built with tubes.