The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest

I enjoy the writing of Po Bronson, with Bombardiers being right up there with Catch-22 as one of the funniest books I have ever read. I remember enjoying The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest as well, although I think I keep confusing it with Microserfs by Douglas Coupland. When I saw this movie was playing on Showtime, I had no idea that it was made into a movie. I guess it was only released in L.A. and New York in 2002. Well, it's certainly a cheeseball interpretation of the book, with sub-par writing by Jon Favreau, who adapted the screenplay. But, being a movie about the dot-com generation, I can't resist. It's not horrible, and having Rosario Dawson cast as the female lead certainly doesn't suck.

Are you kidding me? Jon Favreau wrote the screenplay for this movie? ::shaking head:: Jon, what were you thinking?! This movie is predictable and sophomoric, and the characters are shamefully stereotyped. I get the feeling they were aiming for Revenge of the Nerds, but ended up with Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love. It's a shame that I'll never get that 105 minutes of my life back.

As *Ron Smolin* points out in his comment (July 17th, 2003), this isn't a movie that's going to change your views on the universe. It's pretty Disney formatted: good wins versus evil; the handsome & smart hero gets the handsome & smart girl; even fat people and small people and foreigners and geeks can get a beautiful, SLIM girl (of course, not the other way around); and making money's OK, if it lands in the pockets of the heroes). All those imperatives are there like on a menu for the movie that won't hurt anybody's principles...

That said, there are moments to be enjoyed, some nice ideas in the production design, even a little self irony (rather shy, but you can spot it if you pay attention...). The actors, especially the "geek-team" and most other supporting roles, really do a very good job (they actually helped me get over the too perfect, too tasteless "Andy" character, played by the otherwise very capable Adam Garcia).

It's really like a movie for early teens that can entertain grown-ups as well - and doesn't pretend to be anything else.

Perfectly OK for harmless entertainment. And for that little dreamy delight we can experience when we manage to forget that, most of the time, the world is a much more cruel and complex place than it is in this movie...

Remember reading those nice adventure stories when you were about 10, where a bunch of kids invent something from their garage and it costs less than their weekly allowance combined? Replace the kids with four old guys, the garage with a lab and you get this movie. You'll love this movie if you don't have a clue about "computers", otherwise, you'd have to try very hard to keep yourself from banging your head on the wall until the movie ends!

It is sad that the reviews on this movie are so poor. Personally my wife and I thought it was very good. I enjoyed the movie and the concept of a 99 dollar laptop is nice. We are quite some time from a price like that, but one can dream. Anyway, I have learned to never let someone else's opinion spoil what could be a great movie. I really enjoyed the film and hope the reviews get better!!