Movie Review: For the Love of Money

 

Michael's Movie Grade: F

A bottom of the barrel triller with absolutely no redeeming qualities. 

This film is unfortunately one of the movies that simply consists of horrible people doing horrible things. The problem with these movies is that it is hard to care about anything going on. These movies can only work if they have clever social commentary or a really dark sense of humor. Unfortunately, this film lacks the dark sense of humor and the social commentary is anything but clever (it consists of briefly mentioning social problems and then dropping them quickly after). Because of this we are left with nothing but unpleasantness for the length of the film and it simply becomes a chore to simply watch. The characters themselves are beyond horrible. They never once feel like real people. In fact, they feel like stereotypes of characters we have seen in many other movies. Most of the characters can simply be described by one character trait. For instance, one character who plays a major role is simply stupid and nothing else. However, our main character is the worst offender. Not only is she so much like so many other characters we have seen in other movies with nothing new added, but she is also completely unlikable. Perhaps if the film had us believe that she was illegally selling drugs only to help her daughter that might have made her a bit likable. However, we quickly see that she is doing this for her own selfishness and her one likable trait goes out the window. This leaves us with not a single character who is likable or interesting enough to carry the movie. Because of this, it is hard to find one reason to care when anything happens. There are some twists and turns in this movie, but rather than shocked by them I found myself feeling completely indifferent when they happened because by that time, I had long stopped caring. This movie also features a lot of dialogue that simply feels forced. I would say this dialogue takes you out of the movie, but chances are that you will not be involved enough to be taken out of it. The delivery of some of these lines felt a little awkward, but after thinking about it, I don't think there is an actor in the world who could possibly make this script not feel awkward. 

Avoid at all costs.