Pretty Good

One of my all time favorites.

hyped garbage

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

This true story revolves around unemployed dock worker Joey Coyle (played by John Cusack) who implausibly yet miraculously happens to find 1.2 million dollars in unmarked bills on a roadside which has fallen off the back of a security truck. He is then faced with the choice of returning the money or keeping it for himself. The plot recounts his foiled attempts to hide, spend and launder the money through the local mob... and to win back his ambitious and beautiful ex-girlfriend.Even John Cusack's excellent acting ability can't save this movie. If I'm understanding correctly, this story is "based on" a true event. Man finds 2 bags of one-hundred dollar bills that have fallen from an armored truck, (total of 1.2 million dollars) and decides to keep the money. Whereupon he sets about throwing money around, even after a TV newscaster reports that police are looking for anyone who is spending a lot of hundred-dollar-bills. In one scene, he passes out money to strangers on the street. This mental midget tells practically everyone he knows about his good luck, deals with criminals in an effort to "launder" the money, and naturally, criminals being what they are, they cheat him by taking $600,000 in greenbacks and trying to give bags of nickels in return. Given this character's goal of keeping all the money and living a sumptuous life, there seemed to be nothing too ignorant for him to do in the process of defeating his own purpose. Overall rating: 6 out of 10.

"Money for Nothing" is not uninteresting as a combination of drama and comedy, in this story based upon a real life incident. John Cusack is good as Joey Coyle, a Philadelphia longshoreman unable to get work. With no real prospects in life, he's ecstatic when fate seems to drop a miracle into his lap. $1.2 million in cash drops out of an unsecured armored car, and when Joey comes across the money, his instinct is to keep it. "Finders keepers", as they say. But Joey is not the type to just let the dough sit around. No, he starts throwing it around, even taking some of it to mob money launderers. Meanwhile, an efficient detective named Laurenzi (Michael Madsen) goes about tracking down the thief.The set-up here should be compelling for a great many people. It'd be awfully tempting for a person to want to keep any money they found. Even if they returned it, the thought of keeping it just might cross their mind for a moment or two. So we can relate to Joey...for a while. At some point, he stops being all that sympathetic, or at least he starts getting overly stupid, which isn't all that surprising. Joey still feels that the universe is out to screw him when the deal with the mob is not to his liking. His friends and associates seem to want to be loyal, especially when he's at the bar and is buying everybody drinks, but his family (including a young James Gandolfini, playing Joey's brother) would prefer that he do the right thing.Directed by Ramon Menendez ("Stand and Deliver"), this isn't a particularly great film, but it is reasonably entertaining. It is played partly for laughs (and was marketed as a comedy), but the overall effect is rather sad (especially when you learn of the real Joey Coyle's outcome). What really makes this one worth watching is wonderful Philly location work, and the efforts of a truly fantastic supporting cast: Madsen, Debi Mazar (who looks great), Benicio Del Toro, Michael Rapaport, Maury Chaykin, Fionnula Flanagan, Lenny Venito, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Frankie Faison. Cusack is consistently amusing in the lead.Somewhat uneven (mostly because it wasn't all that funny to this viewer), but it's enjoyable to watch.Seven out of 10.

This movie is based on the true story of Joey Coyle who found some money lost by a bank and tried to keep it. It is very realistic and the cast includes lots of familiar names like John Cussak, Philip Seymore Hoffman, Benicio Del Toro and Michael Madson, all giving convincing performance. For me it should be rated about 7.2.

"Money for Nothing" is a pretty good film based upon a true story (although I guess everyone already knows that the person the film is based upon, Joey Coyle, committed suicide before this film's release). The talents of John Cusack and Philip Seymour Hoffman in one and the same film is really, really interesting. Both of them are among the best actors today and even though Hoffman has a very small part he is still memorable. But the film doesn't seem to know if it's a comedy or a drama and this is not so good. Sometimes it work, but it doesn't work in this film. It's not a bad film, but it could definitely have been better. (5/10)