MOVIE REVIEW

MAD MONEY

Starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes, and Ted Danson.

In between Lovely Wife doing laundry, and me traversing the porch and walking Caesar the Dog, we watched "MAD MONEY". No, not that irritable investment show with the guy yelling at the screen, the film with three women working at a Federal Reserve, "recycling" (stealing) money that was destined to be taken out of circulation in the furnaces (or however they destroy it, I missed that part).

If you haven't seen it then you've heard of it, one way or another, and the news probably wasn't good. Well, here's what's good: Diane Keaton is the cool mom or aunt you wish you had but never did, but she's like that in all her films. There's just something neat and quirky about the lady.

Props to Queen Latifah, who'd a thunk it? But yes, she's believable in every role that she takes on and she's even reinvented herself a few times.

Katie Holmes...oh, I was supposed to be highlighting the good things about the show. Okay, She plays a believable kid, I mean, how old is she, 15? And, she's good at throwing money straight up in the air, lots of it.

Hats off to Ted Danson, who plays Keaton's husband, not a hard role and I'm sure he bought himself something nice after the job because it's one of those "gotta pay the utility bill" kinda gigs.

From the screenplay side, the concept evolved from a British novel, "Hot Money", supposedly based on a semi-true story. So, it had the adaptation factor going for it. Then, early on, Keaton and Latifah were tagged as elements. And you thought it was an obvious concoction of Tom Cruise getting his wife an acting gig, not.

The big problem: how to get the audience to back ANYONE who steals, let alone from our Federal Reserve? But then again, we forgave AIG, GM, Bank of America, and all the other bailout thieves, why shouldn't we give these three girls a break? Just in case, they start with a flashback, revealing the fact that they will be busted in the end. That doesn't help, there's something inherently wrong about stealing, and acting like Katie Holmes making scrunchy funny faces, and dancing while pushing a cart, and throwing money in the air is funny; it's not.

The props are cool though: locks, glass carts where you see stacks of money, hidden keys. Funny thing: Diane Keaton, who is notorious for wearing gloves with any outfit, even on a blazing summer day, well, she doesn't wear gloves, and she actually has some nice-looking hands. Oh, she does wear rubber gloves in her duties as one of the janitors, so that busts my observation. Oh, that's how she keeps her fingerprints off the metal locks and bills? Love figuring this out.

The show gets a 22% rating on "ROTTEN TOMATOES". Screenwriters, or wannabe types like me, love referencing that site. Well, I'm not a fan. For starters, you have to figure out its rating system. On the site it shows a tomato, of course, with a link to "how does our tomatometer work?". Now, if I have to read that to figure it out, then it's fundamentally flawed. You would guess that it rates how rotten the movie is, the higher the rating, the more spoiled. Nope. SO, for those that need a translation, 78% of reviewers said the movie sucked.

All in all, if you have nothing better to do and can catch it on cable, then go for it, it's mindless "fun", throwing money in the air; it's even on the poster for the show, of course. I don't think the producers would agree that throwing money is so much fun: this was a break even deal at the box office. That's their money that Katie Holmes is shoveling out of the bucket and throwing haplessly around the room...while making scrunchy, "funny" faces.