Review of Money Monster (2016) by Jeff B — 16 May 2016

Riding a topical wave of Wall Street resentment to a somewhat satisfying end, the sum of Money Monster's potentially gangbuster parts don't wow as much as one would hope, but the charismatic players definitely rig the game in your favor. The whip smart concept reaches some of its potential in mashing up Network and Dog Day Afternoon into a potboiler about another financial crisis hot on the heels of the 2007-08 Wall Street meltdown. Granted, the script never comes close to achieving the A-Grade levels of social commentary and razor sharp exchanges evident in those '70s classics. Rather, Money Monster goes for pop economics, its characters sometimes sounding like college students who just read a few investment books and suddenly felt a lightbulb turn on (see Lions for Lambs for a similar treatise on politics...or, rather, don't). Thankfully, the film concerns itself more with being a populist thriller, playing out in the illusion of real time (there's honestly too much suspension of disbelief between planes landing, police assembling, and various characters commuting across several boroughs several times over to think that this all happens in an hour and a half). At times, however, it does raise a few hairs and quicken one's pulse.

In this R-rated drama, financial TV host Lee Gates (Clooney) and his producer Patty (Roberts) are put in an extreme situation when an irate investor (Jack O'Connell) takes over their studio.

Seeing as none of the cogs collectively turn the wheel of entertainment completely, it falls on the actors to make your investment worthwhile. Like a well-oiled machine, Clooney and Roberts command the screen even when they're nowhere in sight. Oceans Eleven only gives us fleeting moments of them together (sadly, audiences aren't given much more here) but the two have a Hepburn-Tracy chemistry that keeps you vested in this Monster made of parts that don't always go together well. Under the always-stellar direction of Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster (Little Man Tate, Home for the Holidays, and The Beaver make for an awesome CV), the action keeps moving. Obviously, she took notes during production of her last hit starring role in Inside Man, which also set a white-knuckle thriller in the belly of Manhattan. If only Money Monster's script could match her drive to thrill and be telling.

Bottom line: Madder than Hell Money.