The COARD: Money Monster

Once again, we will keep the first half of this review spoiler free. The second half, we’ll really hone in and target George Clooney for the [REDACTED] that he [REDACTED]. If you haven’t seen the movie, please enjoy this spoiler free breakdown.

Cody: With Clooney and Roberts on board, this movie had obvious promise, but I was nervous about the premise. I was thus surprised to find that the story arc of the film completely sucked me in. What made this movie was the balance between intensity and lightheartedness, and sometimes hitting both at once. The filmmakers did not take themselves or their movie too seriously. They knew exactly what type of movie they were making, and rather than try to go beyond that, they owned it. Whether it was the dialogue, or situational ironies that were well timed, the movie just kept humming along. At roughly 100 minutes, it was an entertaining watch that didn’t drag, unlike, you know, the Avengers movies Roy loved so much. No, I’m not done bringing that up, because I like poking the bear. I’m going to rate this movie the rare Money Monster Triple Buy!

Look at these two. Don't tell me they're not besties!

Roy: I’m not sure what I’m more impressed with; how well this movie was made, or the fact that we have been so in sync on our opinions for our first two reviews. You’re exactly right, this film was extremely well paced. Jodie Foster kept this story moving, but I don’t think she should get all of the credit. George Clooney drove this movie. He was masterful with this character. You quickly want to punch him right in the dollar signs for being the man in his 50s who perpetually insists on acting like a child. Yet, as the movie hits its halfway point, you find yourself rooting for him because he is forced to be real. The chemistry on and off screen between George and Julia is no secret, as they have demonstrated before. However it is the pairing of the relative newcomer Jack O’Connell with Clooney where the movie really comes into its own. The “down on his luck, lost everything he has” character is nothing new in Hollywood, and can easily irritate the audience. That’s why O’Connell was brilliant in this role. He was easy to relate to, regardless of the fact that he was holding a group of people hostage.

Cody: Everyone just felt like they fit in this movie. It’s the type of movie that -and this is absolute fact and in no way random conjecture by me- is made better because the actors had fun making it. It’s obvious. Don’t question me on this, people. I agree with you, everybody deserves equal credit for this. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that in my preparation for this movie (yes, I do actually prepare for these blog entries. Jeez. Tough crowd today.) I came across a random directorial credit for Jodie Foster. She directed a single episode of House of Cards! What a completely unexpected IMDb entry. Speaking of random connections, always great to see the fantastic Gus Fring making an appearance. Back to O’Connell’s Kyle Budwell. I don’t know what it is about English dudes playing New Yorkers and this blog. First we’ve got Tom Holland, now O’Connell. He was great, and until I did some prep (YES, PREPARATION), I legitimately thought he was from New York. Excellent work!

Roy: I also had no clue he was British. He sounded every bit like a delivery guy from Queens. If there was one person who outdid O’Connell in the New York accent department it was Emily Meade who plays the girlfriend. And let me tell you, if her accent was the tip of the iceberg, her performance ripped through the hull of the Titanic and killed Leonardo DiCaprio... Well let’s be honest with each other. Rose killed Jack. There was room on the raft. But she knew that her family and social circle would never accept a dirty peasant. So it was easier to let him slip into the depths of the freezing Atlantic, than to face the ridicule and social banishment she was sure to receive. See what I did there? I compared the struggle of class warfare in James Cameron’s Titanic to Money Monster, a movie where class warfare is the entire subtext of the film. Bam. Brought it home! So where was I before I chased this rabbit down it’s rather large hole? Ah yes! Emily Meade! Her screen time can be counted in seconds, yes…. Seconds. But she hands in a performance that is both gut wrenching and hilarious. Remember in the opening paragraph where Cody said at times the intensity and lightheartedness hits all at once? This was one of those times.

Cody: If you’ll allow me to embrace my inner white girl here, I can’t even with Meade’s performance. She was absolutely stupendous in her cameo role. So since we both clearly enjoyed this movie, let’s just move on to discussing the actual plot points!

You've been warned. What follows is a spoiler rich dialogue about the movie. Proceed on your own volition. We take literally zero responsibility for your actions. (And not in a rude way, but in a don't make us be rude way, ya know? Just...could you please only read if you're cool with spoilers?)

Roy: Am I supposed to just sit here and be ok with Cody copying and pasting last week’s spoiler warning to this week? It’s like he thinks he’s Clooney in the movie and letting Julia Roberts do all the work. Because let’s be honest. That was their dynamic. She did all the hard work behind the scenes, and he acted like a complete horny tool on cable television. I was perfectly ok with O’Connell pistol whipping him during his entrance because Clooney deserved every bit of it. Which is why I was so shocked how much I wanted people in the movie to pick up their phones and buy IBIS stock to help save his life. Good God man. George friggin’ Clooney. He can turn it on in a second and make you feel polar opposite emotions.

Cody: The dancing intros to his Money Monster show! They made him into such a raging tool. Was it over the top? Sure, but it was all part of the charm of the movie. You’re absolutely right, Clooney can be convincing on one end of the spectrum or the other. What he can’t be is a convincing dancer. I mean seriously. I can’t stress enough how bad it was. I’m just glad they gave us multiple instances of the pure comedy gold. I really believed we were going to see the “good” in people with the IBIS stock stunt. The music is building, Clooney has you sucked completely in, and then bam, the number ticks down. It was fantastic. And that scene was a microcosm of the entire film. The overall story arch was predictable, but man did those in between moments kill it. Such as, oh I don’t know, Budwell’s girlfriend verbally eviscerating him on live television during a hostage situation. Based on the above pieces, I know Roy has some thoughts on that scene!

Roy: After she finished her F-bomb laced tirade live in front of millions of people, all I could do was sit there with my mouth agape in stunned silence. Once my brain processed what it had just seen laughter inevitably followed. It was completely unexpected, and a pivotal point in the movie. Kyle knew the chances were good that he was not walking out of that studio after taking a large group of people hostage on live tv. But once his girlfriend was done with him, I believe he made the decision to make sure he died that day. Even though anyone with a brain could see that Kyle was not going to make it to the end credits, he didn’t have to go out like that. It was that verbal curb-stomping that made him want to die for his cause.

Cody:  Correct, he was always going to wind up dead. Just like Dominic West’s Walt Camby was always going to be the corrupt bad guy here. Clooney was always going to soften up and root for Budwell along with us. It was all very neat and tidy. At times, too neat and tidy. The Walt Camby character killed me. Both in a good and bad way. He was so over the top obviously evil that it scored quite well on my personal unintentional comedy scale. When he's already been outed as evil, the writers somehow worked in a line where he admits he's cheating on his wife, who we didn't even know existed. I would like to personally shake the hand of the writer who tried to organically force that one in there. Good show, I say!

Roy: Albeit ridiculous, that wasn’t the most ridiculous thing about this movie. What bothered me most, by far, was the point where we were shown that Walt Camby’s reaction to thinking he was about to die was turned into a viral internet joke. I’m officially calling for a moratorium on any and all movies taking something that happened in the movie and telling us the internet made it into a famous meme, gif, or youtube parody. Listen, we fully understand how terrible we are as a human race. And we know that these things happen, but we don’t take Hollywood’s biggest shortcomings and wave it in their face! How would they like it if we took Barbershop 12: Back in Business and rubbed their nose in it like they were a misbehaving puppy?!

Cody: Yea! I too am indignant! I definitely didn't laugh out loud at all the parodies of Camby...sigh...I'm such a millennial. I thought it was just another enjoyable piece of an overall enjoyable movie. But seriously Hollywood, enough with the horrid sequels. Money monster was an original, and see how happy we are? Here's to hoping we aren't two years out from Money Monster 2: Cash Cow.

Roy: I can see the script now:

Fade in. The camera is focused on a sign that reads “Mount Sinai Children’s Orphanage” being bathed in an orange glow. The camera pans to a raging inferno as the orphanage is burning down to the ground. Camera pans back further and we see Walt Camby watching with a gas can in one hand and a duffel bag full of money in the other.

DUDE. I think we just started a script here. Know any Hollywood big-shots we can get to green light this sequel based solely off of those three sentences? I know you said this doesn’t need a sequel but…… Money dude. We could make a bajillion dollars here.

Cody: An over the top evil act committed by Camby to make money, you say? I can think of a writer who will eat this up. Readers, if we're not here next week, you know where we went.