Funny Money (2006)

Excellent, a Must See

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I wasted 97 minutes of my life watching this crap. I only watched it because I am auditioning for the play at my local amateur theater. I am now truly re-considering going to the audition! This film was simply unfunny, not 1 laugh was had by me. I reckon Chevy Chase and all other cast members would want to remove this film from their resume. I think this carries the tradition of stage plays not transferring to film. Shame, it had a good cast on paper. Now I worry that if the movie is this unfunny that the play may also be unfunny. I se that the original author, Ray Cooney, was also a producer for the movie. He must have so many regrets now!

Henry Perkins (Chevy Chase) is been working at a fruit wax company for many years and he doesn't seem to be appreciate by his boss (Robert Loggia). In this day, Henry is also celebrating his birthday. Which his wife (Penelope Ann Miller) wants to planning a surprise birthday party for her husband. But when Henry accidentally switched his briefcase with a stranger from the subway. Herny finds $5 million on the briefcase that looks like his. Since Henry realizes quickly the situation of this problem. Since the mysterious guy, he accidentally switch his briefcase has his identity in it. Henry wants to leave the country with his struggling artist wife to Europe but the Perkins' only friends (Christopher McDonald and Alex Meneses) shows up his birthday party. But there's more to come... when Henry has problems with a sleazy corrupted police detective (Armand Assante), a taxi driver (Guy Torry) who doesn't like to be waiting, a clumsy police detective (Kevin Sussman), a very rich kinky woman named MM. Virginia (Rebecca Wisocky) who feels Henry's wife has some talent and the European mob boss known as Mr. Big (Zoltan Butuc) & his crew is searching for his briefcase.Directed by Leslie Grief made an watchable but hardly funny farce. There's a few good laughs here but not much of it. The movie seems to have energy from his cast but the script also written by the director and Harry Basil is quite poor. The movie feels rushed, gags are not well executed and it is also badly filmed. Grief's wasted a capable good cast. I do believe Chase could be really funny actor but i think, it works best when he is in the hands of a good comedic filmmaker like Harold Ramis or John Landis. Ann Miller's performance is really irritating here. Since it's based on a stage play of the same title by Ray Cooney. I am sure, the stage play works much better than this misfired picture. It's certainly a nice try and it's more of a Curio film than entertainment. Too bad. (* ½/*****).

Do not watch this movie! I really think people who give this movie good ratings must be part of the production or something related because this movie is really really crappy. If I can give it minus rating I would.First the good:The concept of the movie is not bad. Funny money, a story where a man pick the wrong briefcase and have some troubles because of it. Not very creative but what the hey, sounds like a classic good old fun movie.Now the bad: 1. VERY crappy acting. You can SEE that they are acting.2. VERY crappy dialogues. Some might argue "can you write a better one?" YES I CAN. And so can YOU! 3. VERY crappy editing. I cannot say I can do a better job because I have no editing skill whatsoever but where and when they cut the movie to go to another scene is terrible. Any movie-making undergraduate can make this.4. Actors that are not in sync with each other. It seems the actors are not casted and they just pick some somewhat popular names. 5. Penelope Miller - She is over-acting and it is very very annoying. This is just personal opinion that I'm sure a lot who watched it will agree.6. Actually, most of the actors are annoying because you can't really follow the logic of their decision.This isn't even worth watching if it was free!!! Not even if you love with Chevy Chase!

Finally Chevy Chase is up to his old self in Funny Money!! If you liked Caddy Shack or Christmas Vacation, I'm sure you will love this one. It is an absolute riot don't miss it! This movie has an excellent cast and a very funny plot so GO SEE IT!! I think that Armand Assante and Chris Mcdonald were very funny in this as well, they really make it fun and enjoyable. Also Robert Loggia played Chevys boss and he is just hilarious. It has been a long time since we have Chevy in the leading role and its good to see in back in front. He has always been a favorite of mine and he still is very very funny!I hope they put this movie in more theaters to make it easier for everyone to go see, I want to take my whole family to see it so hopefully it will open in more places soon.