Review of The Color of Money (1986) by Caesar B — 12 Mar 2017

Tom Cruise and Paul Newman costar in Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money. Paul Newman is Fast Eddie Nelson, and he old time pool hustler. He does not play anymore but scours the pool halls looking for the next talent. When his current prospect Julian (John Turturro) loses three times straight to a new hot shot Vincent (Tom Cruise) he starts to think he has the next best thing.

He asks Vincent and his girlfriend Carmen (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) to go on the road with him and hustle people all across while training for a nine-ball tournament that is coming up in 6 months. Fast Eddie tries to teach Vincent all the tricks to hustling including of taking a dive, or adding drama to raise the stakes. The two are constantly at odds at first and are constantly fighting. Vincent does not get the concept at first and simply keeps winning and beating the best which scares the rest of the competition. Eventually they get in sync and start making some serious money. Soon Fast Eddie gets inspired starts thinking he can do this on the road himself, and hustle again. The movie of course writes itself in a predictable fashion as its clear the two will play each other in the tournament.

Color of Money is a solid movie that has a relative ceiling to it. The hustler is considered probably to be the best pool movie made, and this film is like a follow up to it. The movie features good talent and of course a great director in Scorsese. Cruise is a young hot shot, and Newman as the seasoned pro, and the two combine for good chemistry. The sexy Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio steals every scene that she is in. The Color of Money follows a pretty predictable script and does not throw too many curves. The Color of Money is by no means a must see unless you are fans of the stars, director, or of course pool.

-3.12.2017.