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Money Monster starring George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Jack O’Connell

Posted on May 16, 2017 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Money Monster starring George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Jack O'Connell. — Money Monster starring George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Jack O’Connell. Image via Amazon.

Money Monster Plot Summary – No Spoilers

Lee Gates (George Clooney) is the cocky and popular host of the finance show Money Monster where he puts on extravagant stage performances and sheds out investment out like the ultimate authority. And while he knows what he is talking about, an unexpected “glitch” at the investment company IBUS has him

cause a lot of people to lose money: a total of 800 million, to be exact. The company CCO Diane Lester (Highlander’s Caitriona Balfe) is apologetic and sticks to the talking points while the CEO Walt Camby (The Affair’s Dominic West) is nowhere to be found.

This doesn’t really affect the rich Lee or his director Patty (Julia Roberts) – until a blue collar victim named Kyle (Jack O’Connell) takes them hostage on live television. He puts a gun to Lee’s head and makes him wear an explosive vest. Kyle holds a deadman’s trigger and demands answers. He wants to know how a “glitch” could happen, how Lee could give such shitty advice so confidently, and most importantly, he wants a word with Walt.

The police get quickly involved, but they don’t count on Lee’s humanity taking over and deciding to help Lee. And the more Lee and Patty listen to Kyle, the less they buy Walt’s glitch story. Can they find out what went wrong before it is too late?

Money Monster Movie Review

Money Monster is a modern movie in the vein of Mad City. While the plots differ, there are several similarities that got me nostalgic:

Mad City starring John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman. Image via moviepostershop.

An otherwise sane and decent man going mad when he loses his money. In Mad City, John Travolta gets fired from his job at a museum and takes the manager hostage, with the unexpected surprise of kids being there at the same time.
A not-so-empathetic reporter tries to control things (In Mad City, the reporter is played by Dustin Hoffman), but then he gets on the gunman’s side as he learns more about his situation.
We end up rooting for the wronged family man, but of course, ****spoilers**** they will tragically pay the price of taking justice into their own hands, even if we badly wanted them to win.
The police will make things worse.

The good things about Money Monster, apart from the stellar cast and director Jodie Foster, is that it feels like the emotional, humane drama/thrillers of the 90s. The not-so-great thing is it feels like we have seen this movie before.

And for some reason, while I was sad at the ending and enjoyed the time I spent on the movie, I didn’t feel as touched as I was when I watched Mad City.

And while Money Monster made more money at the box office and is a bit more highly rated at IMDB, I still prefer Mad City.

That said, as a 90s kid, I still feel Julia Roberts and George Clooney are more my generation than say Scarlett Johannson or Chris Hemsworth. I love seeing them on screen in lead roles. So for nostalgia and the love of cast and director, I still recommend giving Money Monster a shot. As familiar and predictable the story might feel, it still has more heart than a lot of stuff out there.

Money Monster is a 2016 movie written by Jamie Linden, Alan DiFiore, and Jim Kouf. The movie made over 93 million dollars worldwide. It’s budget is reported to be around 27 mil.

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Looking Forward to: Straw Dogs starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth & Alexander Skarsgard

Posted on May 28, 2011 Written by ripitup

Straw Dogs 2011 - starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth & Alexander Skarsgard. The remake of the 70s's Straw Dogs is coming to the theaters in September, 2011 - hence the lack of a proper poster. Image via fragman.web.tr

Hollywood loves the idea of a city couple/family to move to the country, only to have something terrible happen to them because of their house. It has been the theme of many movies (and this will be a whole other post), and this time we have (the remake of) Straw Dogs.

What makes Straw Dogs attractive to me is (apart from the cast), is that this time the house isn’t haunted. There are no *Supernatural (see below the movie still for the related Supernatural episode) elements here. The villains are very much human. From what it seems, these villains are not even scary convicts or threatening strangers. They were born and bred in that town – a town Amy Summer (Kate Bosworth) boasts of being so safe that “they don’t even lock the doors”. It is with that great, safe town in mind that they move there, and hire the locals (led by True Blood’s Alex Skarsgard) to repair their roof. But the locals turn out to be bullies, and they decide that they want to play by their own rules, and not their employers’. Of course David Summer (James Marsden) tries to fire them, but guess what? They really don’t take no for an answer, and turn the Summers’ lives into a living hell. So who do you think will win?

I always find that human villains make for creepier, more thrilling movies. And if the story isn’t that far-fetched – if you feel like this could be you- then you are in for a treat.

I don’t know if Straw Dogs will deliver, but the trailer looks really promising. And it is better when James Marsden doesn’t just play the cute romantic lead, because he has a knack for playing darker, or at least, grayer characters. Check out 24th Day to see what I mean.

Adapted and directed by Rod Lurie. The problem? Straw Dogs has got to live up to the original Straw Dogs, a 1971 movie starring Dustin Hoffman. Straw Dogs is based on the novel The Siege of Trencher’s Farm, and the 1971 movie script written by Sam Peckinpah & David Zelag Goodman.

Coming to the theaters in mid-September. Link to the youtube trailer:

Still from the 2011 movie Straw Dogs- James Marsden & Kate Bosworth. Image via usmoviereviews.com

* Supernatural: Ofcourse the TV show Supernatural has a “haunted” episode where a family relocates to the country to solve their problems, and it is not long before the kids get to meet the “ghost”. But is she acutally a ghost, or can the non-supernatural be much more terrifying than any supernatural element?

Also on Kate Bosworth:

21 starring Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth and Kevin Spacey: It’s Vegas, baby!!!

Also on James Marsden:

Enchanted starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey & James Marsden

24th Hour starring James Marsden & Scott Speedman

James Marsden Trivia

Gossip starring James Marsden, Lena Headey, Norman Reedus, Kate Hudson & Joshua Jackson

Stardust, The Air I Breathe, Playing by Heart, The Good Shepherd, Hairspray & He’s Just Not That Into You: 6 Good Movies with Brilliant Casts– feat. Hairspray with James Marsden

Mad City starring Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta

Posted on September 15, 2010 Written by ripitup

Max Brackett’s (Dustin Hoffman) live “brush” with fellow reporter Kevin Hollander (Alan Alda) has resulted in Max’s being relocated to a local television, still dependent on his old network. Max is bored, as his boss Lou (Robert Prosky) won’t let him “move the line”( that is to interrupt the news objects’ lives for the sake of news)…

As luck would have it, however, Max accidentally runs into the story of a lifetime. As he is doing an interview at the museum run by Mrs. Banks (Blythe Danner), Sam Baily (John Travolta) decides to pay her a visit: she has just fired Sam, who was one of the two guards working for her. Sam, a husband and a father of 2, just wants his job back. But when Mrs. Banks can’t be bothered to give Sam two minutes, Sam brings out the big guns-literally. What he hasn’t planned on is the news reporter in the bathroom, and the group of young school kids on a school trip at the museum.

Soon, this turns into a career-defining opportunity for Max and a nightmare for Sam, it doesn’t take long for Sam to find Max out. But Max has no intention of letting the story go, even as he becomes a hostage. For one thing, Sam is not a psycho criminal but a desperate man who just wanted to be heard. Second, he is much more experienced than Sam when it comes to hostage situations. So from then on, Max helps Sam, and steers him in the direction that will help Sam and Max’s career.

But the news is just too big for Kevin Hollander to ignore and for the FBI to stay away. While Max mostly works to show Sam in a positive light, the rest seems intent on showing him as the ultimate villain. With the parents of the kids hating him, and his own wife trying to figure out how as to handle things, can good intentions be taken into account when a weapon and kids are involved? Or are the ratings just more important than humanity?

Mad City is one of my favorite films. It is from 1997, so today, you may not be moved by it as I was when I first saw it over a decade ago. After all, 1997 was before Youtube and Twitter and Facebook. The story could no way flow the way it was written. Probably one of the kids would have a high-tech phone with an internet connection or their teacher or Mrs. Banks…There would be no need to create a public poll as the public would create the buzz after they heard it. People would follow the news worldwide and it is likely that some of the pro-Sam audience would offer Sam a job and things would never quite get out of control. But it was shot in 1997, and it was all about the big networks and their ratings.

Yes, by now, probably you have seen at least tens of hostage situation movies where sometimes you were probably rooting for the villain. But this film is one of the better ones, and it does have a great cast. Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta make a great team.

I’d love to share my favorite line, but that would be a spoiler. Let me just say it is the final line of Dustin Hoffman. A really good take on the lust for ratings vs. the fight for survival.

Fun notes: Blythe Danner is Gwyneth Paltrow’s mother.

Mel Gibson is referenced a couple of times.

Other John Travolta Movies and Posts

Face/Off starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage

6 Movies with Brilliant Casts feat. Hairspray starring John Travolta

From Paris with Love starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and John Travolta

Basic starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson

Phenomenon starring John Travolta, Robert Duvall and Kyra Sedgwick

Favorite Actors to Play Villains feat. Nicolas Cage, John Travolta and more

Actor Musicians and Musician Actors: Feat. John Travolta and Bruce Willis

Billy Bathgate with Dustin Hoffman and Nicole Kidman

Posted on February 24, 2010 Written by ripitup

Billy Bathgate with Dustin Hoffman and Nicole Kidman — Image via:sondheimguide.com

I should be ashamed. I am a Hoffman and a Kidman fan, but I hadn’t even heard of this one. My bad. But then again, I have so many actors to follow. I missed the first 20 minutes or so, but it is a movie where the plot is pretty straight-forward so catching up was easy.

Dutch Schultz’ (Hoffman) is a gang leader. He is smart, quick and pretty ruthless. He is having his fun with the pretty, young and free-spirited Drew (Kidman). He also has a young rookie under his wing: Billy (Dean). Billy wants the glamor and the power. But there are two things wrong with him. 1) He is too nice to be a successful crook. 2) His admiration for Dutch gets overshadowed by his admiration for Drew.

As if these aren’t enough, anyone working for Dutch could be in danger because of a more powerful guy as well. ..

The movie is fun. It is not complicated or really orginal. I am not going to suggest you go running to the closest DVD store but you shouldn’t flip the channel if you run across this one either. I never saw a movie where Hoffman was any less than good. Kidman is so young here. I especially loved Loren Dean- casting him was the perfect choice because he portrays innocence, indecision and conflicts so well. The movie has another couple of niice surprises: It has Stanley Tucci and Steve Buscemi. Even Bruce Willis makes an appearance.

Entertaining experience with actors you like.

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