The Color of Money is a terrible shade of brown. (The Color Of Money (DVD))

Member Name: joecooper

Product:	The Color Of Money (DVD)
Date:	16/02/03 (102 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cruise goes reasonably well.

Disadvantages: Cliches, Plot flaws, Depressing

In 1986, The Color of Money hit the big screens as the sequel to a movie that many viewers weren't familiar with - the 1961 film The Hustler. As well as providing another stepping stone for a young and fresh Tom Cruise as he climbed the Hollywood ladder, The Color of Money gave Paul Newman a respite from making pasta sauce.

This movie is quite often held in reverence by those people that consider themselves handy around a pool table. Whilst part of that demographic (I'm a shark, I tell ya!), I can't say that this movie lives up to its hype.

*It's in the way that you use it - The story*

We meet pool parlor whiz-kid Vincent Lauria (Tom Cruise) as the film opens going about what he does best; playing pool. Vincent doesn't just play pool though. He struts around the table like a prize-winning bantam rooster, using the pool cue either as a microphone or a samurai sword in between potting every ball on the table. Vincent's very good at pool, and he revels in it.

Then enters Paul Newman's old character from The Hustler, Fast Eddie Felson, and things begin to change for the naïve young Vincent. In the young hotshot, Fast Eddie sees a reflection of his own misspent youth.

Not being able to resist the temptation to relive better days, Fast Eddie sets about convincing Vincent that there's a grand life to be had playing pool. Not through straight-forward winning, but through hustling. That is, making people think you're not as good as you actually are, before whipping them when the financial stakes are high enough to make it worth your while.

With encouragement from his ambitious and manipulating girlfriend, Vincent gets shoved under Fast Eddie's wing. Off the three of them go on a bit of road trip designed to teach a somewhat reluctant Vincent the art of ripping people off at the pool table - the planned culmination being a big score at a mega-tournament in Atlantic City.



*What I liked about The Color of Money*

*Tom Cruise*

The script demands that Cruise be ultra-naive, if intense and intelligent. Where as the degree of naivety demanded may be a little hard to swallow, Cruise does carry off the part of Vincent very well. He's all puppy-like energy and supreme cockiness throughout the movie. Regardless of the number of times that Paul Newman's character rubs his nose in it, Cruise makes sure that Vincent bounces back to dazzle us on the screen. The Color of Money is all the richer for Cruise's presence. I certainly can't say that for all of the films he's appeared in.

*The film's feel*

The film's atmosphere is disgusting. It's one filthy, smoke-filled pool parlor after another, if it's not the gray, litter-strewn street of the backside-end of some no-name city. However, this is where the game of pool and the majority of its exponents live. So, I'm happy to say, "well done" to director Martin Scorcese and his crew. They've resisted the temptation to over-glorify their topic. There's no glitzy 'Days of Thunder' feel to The Color of Money. It remains honest.

*What I disliked about The Color of Money*

Bottom-line: this film isn't what it's cracked up to be. For me it was a little repulsive and way, way too shallow.

*Cliches*

If an hour and a half of clichés via Fast Eddie rambling out his dead philosophy of pool being about money is for you, then by all means jump all over The Color of Money. You'll be dealt out enough corny lines to last you until you get to your own personal Atlantic City. Here's one to get you started. "Money won is twice as sweet as money earned." Go get 'em, Tiger!

*A failed bizarre love triangle*

The whole relationship pretense that's meant to hold the three main characters together seems flimsy to me. Vincent
is me
ant to be dropping his morals and learning how to shaft people for money because he's madly in love with the girl that's been sold on the idea by creepy old Fast Eddie. It falls flat before it even gets started for me.

I imagine that Vincent is meant to be about 20 years old. He's that kid that thinks he's too clever to go to college. His girlfriend is maybe a few years older and wiser, but she's still young. My problem with their supposed triangle with Fast Eddie is this - What two young people would just pick up everything to go on a guided tour of the world's filthiest motel rooms with a seedy old man like Eddie? Hmm? I could go on from here, but I wont. The flaws fly thick and fast in The Color of Money.

*Screen induced depression*

The 'feel' that I described above as being honest, is also depressing. Compounded by the clichés and flaws, I find The Color of Money to be unbearably disheartening. The film is designed to get the viewer in on the excitement of hustling and scamming and sheistering. We're meant to share the highs when Fast Eddie and his kids take some sucker down. For me, I found it mildly repulsive. I was thinking about just how awful it is to be reduced to the stage of humanity where hoodwinking people is considered winning.

*Joe's final words*

The more I think about The Color of Money, the more I dislike it. I'm actually pleased that this review is coming to an end.

How many movies have been made since the dawn of moving pictures? You can afford to miss this one.

I'm giving it two out of five stars.

Cheers for reading!


~Joe

Summary: