Movie reviews Funny Money
This is a very enjoyable comedy starring the legendary Chevy Chase (Caddyshack II) as Henry Perkins, an accountant who is a little tired of his current financial state.
He happens to come across a briefcase containing five million dollars (after mistaking the briefcase for his own in a train) he realises that the briefcase is not his, and contains this large amount of money while at a pub, and rushes to the toilet to verify the amount. Thinking he deserves some good fortune he takes the case home to his wife Carol, played by the lovely Penelope Ann Miller (Kindergarten Cop), he suspects the case belongs to a criminal organisation who he surmises would have his briefcase with all his details, and suggests to his wife that they go on vacation, permanently. Seeing that it is Friday, Henry reckons the criminal organisation will not be on to him until Monday at least, giving him and his wife enough time to run away to Barcelona.
Unfortunately the case belongs to a member of an European mafia gang, and the unlucky fellow who mistakenly took Henry’s case, on bringing it to his leader is shot and dumped in the local river (along with Henry’s case but not before the leader of the gang takes his business card with his phone number). As expected the gang are very keen on getting the case back.
Matters get complicated when a plain clothes policeman Genero played by Armand Assante (Gotti) notices Henry at the pub rush into the toilet, and he assumes he goes in there to solicit men, so he follows Henry home to extract some money from him. Henry seeing the policeman assumes this is about the case and pretends he is Henry’s brother from Australia, with his neighbours (who have come for lunch) Vic played by Christopher McDonald (Requiem for A Dream) and his wife Virginia played by the lovely Rebecca Wisocky having to play along as Henry’s relatives.
Matters get complicated further when another policeman Denis Slater played by the always funny Kevin Sussman (Hitch) comes to the house to ask Carol to come along with him to identify the body of someone who is assumed is her husband, (since he had his briefcase when he was fished from the river), however everyone simply dismisses his request even asking him to make tea, much to his frustration. Henry is forced again to adapt and somehow convince his wife, Genero and the taxi driver, Angel played by Guy Torry (America History X) he has hired to drive him and his wife to the airport; to play along in order not to land him in trouble with the law, all the while the malevolent Mr Big is closing in on Henry’s home.
There is a hilarious segment when the leader of the gang, Mr Big played by Zoltan Butuc (Sex Traffic) eventually gets hold of someone when he phones Henry’s number (since he took his briefcase with all his details in it, and rightly guessed the other person had theirs), and tries to blurt out “briefcase” when he calls him, much to the amusement of Carol as his accent, believable as it is, adds a very amusing twist to the pronunciation.
It is a genuinely great comedy with superb comedy timing all through, many people will enjoy.
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Posted By Blogger to Movie reviews on 12/05/2009 01:25:00 PM
Filed under: movie reviews