Hard Cash (2002)

Strictly average movie

From my favorite movies..

Excellent, a Must See

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Let me start this review with 3 funny facts about this flick: First one, "Hard Cash" could be played as a 'Six Degrees of Christian Slater' trivia game: Slater & Val Kilmer were also together in "True Romance" & "Mindhunters"; Slater & Bokeem Woodbine in "3000 Miles to Graceland"; Slater & Balthazar Getty in "Young Guns 2" and so on... Second, if in the late 80's to the early 90's this pack of promising leading stars had a time machine to look up what they will end up doing: Val Kilmer that came from "Top Gun", "The Doors" & "Tombstone"; Christian Slater from "The Name of the Rose"; "Pump Up the Volume" or "Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves" and Darryl Hannah from "Splash", "Roxanne" & "Wall Street", it would be a riot. Third, "Hard Cash" it's just a plot rehash of several other movies that this group of actors were previous in, such as Slater's "Hard Rain" or "3000 Miles to Graceland"; Kilmer's "Kill Me Again" in a "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" character mode; William Forsythe doing what he does best, playing an effective douchebag & Peter Jason in a short cameo almost reprising his way similar character from "Johnny Handsome". The team behind "The Expendables" franchise produced it in a direct-to- DVD low budget style: the sets are cheap looking; the action sequences poorly staged; the plot is a mess; the direction is pedestrian and the performances all around are over-the-top caricatures, so why in the hell is this movie so entertaining ? Maybe because it's so twisted & off-beat, sometimes looks like a straight action / thriller / heist flick and others just a parody of the genre, that lifts up its own watchable factor ? Or the cast full of well-known (more like has-been's...) faces that signed to act in it just desperate for the dime that enhanced what it could have been a thrash can movie to a level of capture the morbid curiosity of the movie-goer ? (Well, even the Mini-Me guy from "Austin Powers" is in it...) Sincerely, I do not know, but in the meanwhile this movie works as a pure escapist B-grade flick for an uncritical viewer which accepts hitchhike this ride into the almost realms of absurdism. Footnote: For movie buffs, "Hard Cash" reminds me a lot of the B-movie director Gene Quintano's works such as "Honeymoon Academy"; "Why Me ?" or "Loaded Weapon 1": cheap made; frantic pacing and an unpretentious sense of surrealism in comedy.

...and for "Run for the Money" the definitely did not spend a lot on the car scenes, the plot, the script, the actors, the special effects and the jokes.Well-known (to call them great would be an overstatement) actors and actresses such as Christian Slater, Darryl Hannah and Val Kilmer simply put in rubbish performances.I had a couple of laughs, but only because the whole thing is hilariously poor - and just gets worse and worse as you go along.I can't believe anyone ever wanted to finance this. A more appropriate title would have been "Run from the Money".I give it a 2 - simply because I did laugh twice, albeit for all the wrong reasons.

of course this is the most horrible movie ever seen in my life. watching it was so painful........... so don't watch it even if you get it for free.

Liked to laugh at Evil Dead II? This is also a very "suitable" twisted movie for those late video nights with the buddies, some beer and snacks when girlfriends are elsewhere...