Fish and Cherries Productions

Synopsis: Aspiring capitalists everywhere tune in to the show Money Monster, where Lee Gates (George Clooney) gives financial advice in a theatrical and abrasive way. But when a company he’s been talking up loses their investors $800 million seemingly through an algorithm glitch, one of them, a lower-class citizen named Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell), airs his grievance by sneaking onto the set and holding Gates hostage on live TV. While Gates has to keep him calm, the director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts) tries to manage the situation behind the scenes and track down the offending company’s elusive CEO (Dominic West). Things become increasingly complicated as it becomes apparent that there’s more going on than just a glitch and everyone’s perceptions are skewed and realigned as the mystery deepens.

Review: Money Monster was a fairly enjoyable movie, but ultimately a forgettable one. After reading the synopsis, you can probably figure out where the movie is going and it’s pretty apparent as you’re watching the film too. There are a few minor twists, but it mostly plays out exactly how you think it would. Not helping is the very blunt way this movie skews the 1%, corporate greed, and class politics in general, making it feel like you’re attending a lecture or sermon.

That said, both Clooney and Roberts have an absolutely magnetic charisma that pulls this film off despite it’s shortcomings. It’s also interesting to see how deep the mystery goes, so that kept me glued to the screen. Even if it isn’t the most original setup, there were still a lot of different ways it could have gone. I think if the message was a little less hamfisted, that might have saved the movie. But as it stands, it’s a fairly average screed against greed and corruption. If this sounds interesting to you, I say catch a matinee or wait to rent it.

Fun Tidbit: The script for this movie has obviously been around for a while because it was on the 2014 Blacklist. No, not the hit show on NBC starring James Spader and Megan Boone. The Blacklist is a Hollywood list for the most liked scripts of unmade movies. So this movie had to wait a long time before a studio was ready to make it.