Mo' Money, plus de blé

(Flash Review)

Wayans's In Living Color hobo character is stretched extremely thin. An upper class gal meets a low stakes street hustler doing his thing and comically and obsessively follows her to her place of work, applies for a job and ends up working at the same company and warmly tries to win her over and out of her stuffy and rude boyfriend's clutches. Then the movie shifts gears and is thrust into the Wayans brothers helping capture some criminals and it turns into a cops and robbers cheesy action movie. It had some amusing moments but overall was confused on what it wanted to be.

Brothers Johnny Stewart (Damon Wayans) and Seymour Stewart (Marlon Wayans) are petty criminal scammers in Chicago which usually requires Johnny to do a weird voice. Johnny falls for Amber Evans (Stacey Dash) and gets a mailroom job at her office for a credit card firm. He starts using stolen credit card numbers. He is forced to join a fraud conspiracy led by the manager Keith Heading. Police Lt. Walsh is investigating a murder perpetrated by the murderous conspirators.

While Damon is cringey, it is Stacey Dash who is more annoying. She oozes high maintenance girl and is off-putting. She's not worth the effort. They're not fun as a couple. The Wayans are marginally funny. At least, they're family and it feels like it. Some of the other comedy really doesn't work. The plot itself is fine but I simply don't like the central romance.

My review was written in July 1992 after a screening in Manhattan's Murray Hill neighborhood.

Damon Wayans and his younger brother Marlon Wayans make a terrific comedy team in "Mo' Money". Loosely structured film has trouble meshing its very funny gag scenes with rough action footage, but it should earn mucho change from escapist fans.

Following p his solid turn co-starring opposite Bruce Willis in "The Last Boy Scout", Damon Wayans exhibits plenty of irreverent comic invention as star, writer and exec producer here. He needs a stronger hand than action helmer Peter Macdonald ("Rambo III") to fully realize a satisfying feature film beyond a mere collection of funny sketches.

He casts himself as a ne'er-do-well street punk who sets a poor role model for younger brother (played by Marlon Wayans). Their father was a cop who died in the line of duty, with his partner Joe Santos trying in vain to set the Wayans brothers on the right track.

To pursue a lovely romantic interest (Stacey Dash), Damon gets a job in the mailroom for her credit card company. Soon the Wayanses have cooked up a scam using uncancelled credit cards to finance a shopping spree.

Coincidentally (and this is where Wayans' script starts to fall apart), cop Sano is investigating a murder that's linked to a much larger credit card scam at the same company. Evil exec John Diehl is the ruthless mastermind who soon blackmails Damon into becoming his reluctant henchman.

Finale of Damon using his street smarts to act like his late father and collar the criminal is telegraphed many reels ahead but well staged in a showy, violent finale.

Between the killings and heavy -duty action set pieces, "Mo' Money" comes to life as expertly conceived and executed burlesque bits. Damon and rubber-faced Marlon work very comfortably together and even pull off such difficult routines as posing as gay lovers to humiliate (and scam) a white jewelry store clerk.

Damon has written many colorful characters, both black and white, including a tall, aggressive co-worker (delightfully played by Almayvonne) who sets her sights romantically on each of the brothers. He's persuasive as an action hero, too, but the action here is not convincingly dovetailed with the comedy.

Marlon shows athletic grace and is perfect as a sidekick adding fuel to his rumored casting as Robin in an upcoming film of the "Batman" saga. Green-eyed Stacey Dash is a dreamy love interest, and Diehl is perfect as a smiling villain.

Film is well-made, though fancy wipe and transitions don't mask the absence of a sorng narrative line. Song score by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, featuring such top performers as Janet Jackson, Luther Vandross and Public Enemy, is an important element in the concoction.

Although thin on plot, great performances by the leads do manage to save what would otherwise be another mediocre comedy. Damon Wayans shows considerable charisma as the lead, and has terrific chemistry with beautiful co-star Stacey Dash. To be sure, much of the humour here is silly, but when the pace is slower (and the dialogue is realistic), the film really does work .

I watched it, and kind of liked it. But after 4 years, I ran into it in some channel, to discover that I forgot it wholly. And I'm not that someone who forgets movies that he watched. So why that happened?

It's surely related to everything this movie made, and me. Actually "me" just hated the mean personality of this movie sometimes with all the free sarcasm of the fat women, the neurologically-sick people; namely the old employee of the company with the trembling nick, and the mentally-handicapped people as well which is the ugliest bottom this movie hit.

The rest of the 2 lead's stuff wasn't funny either. There was a complete nut job evil guy, too exaggerated action scenes where Damon Wayans transforms into Batman!, let alone some things that bothered my stomach to the max; such as (Marlon Wayans) and (Almayvonne).

So, what's here to be loved? It's easy: Somehow the plot. And (Damon Wayans)'s performance. Generally, (Mo' Money) isn't a bad movie. It's just offensive at some places, unfunny at many, and have-not when it comes to any excellent factor. Still the good parts make it something to watch. But not to laugh with!