Nothing to Lose (1997)

Boring, long, and too preachy.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Let me say this first as it should be the first thing critiqued for a comedy: the humor here is good. This isn't all typical American family mainstream movie humor, there are some really good moments mostly in situational comedy. Just Oedekeker putting himself in the film alone is a hilarious thought but the useless character and attributed scene are just hilariously pointless, and therefor very meaningful to such a comedy. But that's a detail. It's actually got suspense, is strong structurally, and as most Oedekerk motion pictures (ahem...that don't have THUMB in the title...) this has meaning and is very humane. Globally, it's a great coming together of two radically antagonistic leads and, naturally, the characters they play, while the two villain characters that follow their symmetry is a funny concept - it's well written, funny, with a point and whether as a comedy or as a film with its own tension and developments, it's just a good, strong movie.

Nothing to Lose (1997): Dir: Steve Oedekerk / Cast: Tim Robbins, Martin Lawrence, Kelly Preston, John C. McGinley, Michael McKeen: Comedy that paints a picture of those who have no form of income. It also suggests major risk taking when we don't know the facts at hand. Tim Robbins visits his fiancée only to discover a couple in bed upstairs. He is so upset that when Martin Lawrence attempts to rob him he responds, "You picked the wrong guy at the wrong time." Eventually they put their differences aside and rob gas stations but Robbins really wants to rob his boss. There is also a meaningless subplot involving two other burglars. Very stupid once one realizes that the whole thing was a misunderstanding. Director Steve Oedekerk handles a few comic moments but this is about as stupid as his previous film Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. Robbins and Lawrence are props with wasted supporting work by Kelly Preston and John C. McGinley. The Robbins characters in particular is a total idiot once one really examines his jump to conclusions decisions. This is also a routine comedy for Lawrence who certainly isn't branching out. Michael McKeen is also greatly reduced playing the boss who is suspected of the finger-pointing for which Robbins does. There is no reason to see this film since it employs little if any originality. Viewers have nothing to lose by avoiding it. Score: 2 / 10

I love how Tim Robbins' character loses his mind in Nothing to Lose! Nothing to Lose is a really funny, very good movie, mostly for its interesting interactions between Robbins and Lawrence's characters in their hilarious adventure they share together! Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence is a somewhat unusual pairing. Writer and director, Steve Oedekerk, came up with a great premise, a man down and out in his love life feeling like he's got nothing left to lose, Robbins, crosses paths with a car jacking thief looking for himself a little something to gain, Lawrence, and let's just say the two then proceed to hit it off in a very funny manner! Oedekerk really did fairly nice to bring the film's premise together as a very good film, fairly nice, but the end of the movie is a bit of an easy exit, and the beginning lead up to the movie's main portion of Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence is sort of scrambled and uncertain of how to get into the story, almost feeling like a different type of movie, thank God though that the sensational Kelly Preston plays a strong presence in the beginning, but once Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence meet, Nothing to Lose gets very good and amusing. The previous sentence I just wrote is rather pointless and I suggest that you do not even read it, except only for the part about the incredibly gorgeous Kelly Preston, oh wow! Tim Robbins and Martin Lawrence make this movie as good as it became. These two stars share great chemistry with great comedic timing, even Robbins! Tim Robbins has never been this good in a comedy! He is funny! And Nothing to Lose is one of Martin Lawrence's better movies; it's up there with Life and Blue Streak for Lawrence's best comedy. Lawrence's best comedy is Life, but I can honestly say that I like all of his comedies, and honestly, what am I talking about, I love Martin Lawrence, of course I like all his comedies. Martin is like my favorite show! Martin is the greatest, Lawrence, not the show, well the show is but, so is Martin! When I first watched Nothing to Lose I loved it, and nothing has changed. Nothing to Lose is so funny, and the two lead actors, Robbins and Lawrence, really make the movie great. This movie is one of the moreso unknown about good comedies so you should give it a good chance if you haven't already seen it and it should be definitely worth it.

Nick Beam's life couldn't get any worse. He discovers he has been living a lie and is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. So when T. Paul, a carjacker, attempts to rob him, it is the last straw for Nick. With everything to gain and nothing to lose, he kidnaps T. Paul and attempts to put his life back together.....Martin Lawrence churns these sorts of films out every five minutes, but when this movie was released, he was still riding reasonably high from Bad Boys two years prior.But casting Robbins in this was a really strange move. He'd just directed Dead Man Walking, and was still fresh from that prison movie (to be fair, the audience this was aimed at, probably had only just seen Shawshank on video when this was released).And its a really curious movie, not really funny, and it has a really depressing edge to it. Robbins is wonderful in his role, and just looks like he's having a lot of fun, doing this for some release from all the seriousness.Lawrence though, is really trying too hard, and this was probably one of the last films where his schtick was just about bearable. He's still funny, but every one and again, you really want to slap him.Its a fun movie, predictable right up until the compulsory Coolio song, but if your a fan of this type of film, it'll suffice.