La Couleur de l'argent

Near excellent sequel to "The Hustler" which returns Paul Newman (finally in an Oscar-winning role) as the old wise former hustler who decides to take young jerk Tom Cruise and his hot, but shady girlfriend (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in her Oscar-nominated role) on the road to take advantage of all pool table challengers. Newman's reprise of his greatest role is truly something to experience. He is at the top of his career in this one, playing a quiet and complicated role of a man who has been tortured by time, loss and missed dreams of total success. Martin Scorsese's subtle and focused direction stays on task throughout and he lets his three outstanding leads do the bulk of the work. Not quite as good as "The Hustler" due to a weaker screenplay and less suspense, but still a very memorable cinematic experience. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

"The Color Of Money" continues the story of pool player/hustler 'Fast Eddie' Felson (Paul Newman). He's 25 years old, and 25 years wiser as he's spent that time watching pool hustles and schemes and selling wine after his 'early' retirement from pool playing in the original.

But now he's got a new excitement and energy to the game, as he meets Vincent (Tom Cruise), a young, cocky but talented fresh player who's not well known around the low-level pool rooms Eddie has been frequenting. Eddie and Vincent's girlfriend, Carmen (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) see Vincent as a cash cow. Indeed, everybody uses everyone, and we're never quite sure the relationship between the three. That's the beauty of it.

Scorsese's never been more refined yet quietly flashy, dealing with a traditional 'old' Hollywood tale of a mentor and protege as small time hustlers playing each other and getting played. The film is an underrated gem, truly downplayed in Scorsese's overall filmography.

Definitely recommended.

"Twenty five years ago, my career ended before it had even really started," Eddie Felson tells Vince, a young pool shark. No longer the cocky man he was in "The Hustler," Eddie (Paul Newman) in 1986 is retired from pool and a successful investor. When he spots hot-shot Vince (Tom Cruise), he decides to invest in him and take him on the road, with the goal of Vince winning a big pool tournament in Atlantic City. Along the way, Eddie confronts what he was and is no more and looks at the dreams he let die. When Vince is too foolish and strong-willed to take his advice, Eddie makes an important decision.

Though not as strong a film as "The Hustler," "The Color of Money" is still an excellent film with a great cast led by Newman, at the peak of his "older man" good looks and the brilliant acting he's always had. And, as usual, he tells you everything you need to know about a character. It's clear that he was content with his life and his attractive girlfriend (Helen Shaver) until he saw Vince. Then the old restlessness and competitiveness came creeping back into his blood.

Seeing Tom Cruise in 1986 is startling since today, the lower half of his face has changed drastically due to plastic surgery. Here he conveys the raw, youthful energy that helped make him a star. Like many successful movie actors, he has a wonderful physical agility. His pompadoured Vince is a short-tempered, jealous, talented ingrate who can't help showing off. Cruise is very effective, as is Mary Elizabeth Mastroantonio as his sultry, beautiful girlfriend in another role she made memorable in the '80s.

Beautifully directed by Scorcese, "The Color of Money" shows that it's never too late to follow your dreams and, with the right actors and the right script, you can do a good sequel even 25 years after the original.

25 years after Paul Newman starred as "Fast" Eddie Felson in L'Arnaqueur (1961), he reprised his role and teamed up with another legend in Martin Scorsese to bring us La Couleur de l'argent (1986). Undoubtedly stylish and entertaining, it seems to lack the depth and atmospheric feel of "The Hustler". Cruise gives an honest but not terribly likeable performance as Vincent Lauria and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio does well with what she's given. I think the problem was some of the performances came off slightly cartoonish, though I suppose it's difficult to fully recapture the realism and magic that we had with "The Hustler", far and away one of the greatest films of the '60s. Scorsese takes a different approach here and allows his art of a filmmaker to shine through during the pool scenes, which are handled fairly artistically through innovative angles and shots (no pun intended). It's most certainly got style but the substance just wasn't what it could have been given where it's come from.

The Color of Money (1986)

The reputation of this films rides partly on its director, a mainstream Martin Scorsese, and on the previous film it bounces off of (and makes vague reference to), The Hustler. Key to both films is the astonishing Paul Newman, who holds his end of the stick and then some. The rest of the cast is purely in canned and competent support roles, or in semi-star roles by two young actors with some screen presence but no great subtle skill to match Newman's.

I'm speaking not only of Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio, who is forced to play the slightly tough, slightly sexy, generally submissive girlfriend, but also of Tom Cruise, who is brilliant at being "flakey" partly because he is in real life, from all accounts. You give Scorsese credit here for using the young actor in a role that matches his natural persona, in contrast to others, including Spielberg, who seem to make more of the actor than there is, and a certain falseness gets in the way. But this film uses the awkwardness and naive, boyish qualities of Cruise as a sudden pool shark really well.

What holds it all back? I think basically plot. I mean, it's fun to see the big hustle at play, and to get stung once or twice when things aren't what they seem. But we sort of know going in that that's the general plan, and then it happens. And it takes a long time happening...there are no (no) complications here, beyond pool and hustling. The romances, for what they are worth, a completely thin, and didn't have to be. The settings, all these great (great) poolhalls and small town joints are terrific, populated a little too perfectly by locals of all different stripes. The camera-work makes some fairly cinema verite footage make sense in the scenes, but not with either edge or lyricism.

This all sounds a little like I'm working hard to point out the flaws, and I must go back to where I started about Newman, and the basic strength of the aging pool player facing a change in his personal scenery. It's a canned affair overall. Well done, sure, but without the richness of the best of Scorsese's work, or the best of Hollywood, for that matter, including the preceding The Hustler, which you might see in a pairing with this one.