For the Love of Money

Flashback to 1973, and how one brother was good, but the other was always getting into trouble. So much family backstory. About the first hour of the film. It takes a long time for izek and levi to move to los angeles, but they finally get there, and get mixed up with drug dealers. Izek stays on the straight and narrow (mostly), but again, levi gets in deep with rough crowd from miami. Shootouts. Revenge. This seems to want to be a lesser version of the "godfather", but it just goes all over the place. It kind of lost its focus. Does the wife really have to scream so long about her husband going on a trip to straighten something out? Some familiar faces....james caan, ed furlong, jeff tambor. It does have some fun music from the 70s and 80s that we haven't heard in a long time. Lots of violence, blood. Swearing. A goofy ending. Was that just bad editing? This script needed more work. Photos of what appear to be the actual family members on which this was based. Wikipedia states this film was based on the life of one of the producers. Directed by ellie kanner. Written by jenna mattison.

Slow pace that builds to very little. Music feels forced, kinda like it's there to remind you of the era. James Caan isn't in for long and Edward Furlong barely at all. All a bit bland really, like the naration throughout.

The description of this movie makes it sound lively and action-filled. In fact, it is slow, uneven, and devoid of character development. I kept wondering if the people in the film were actors. James Caan does a good job, but it isn't enough to save this. The ending is sappy. If you want entertainment, go someplace else. Don't even bother popping popcorn.

Those words that can put you off a movie entirely. Or if you didn't know at least realize during the movie, that they keep this from going places. While the fall of Edward Furlong is something happened a long time ago (climbing up, won't be easy and not achieved by movies like this) there are other great character actors in this, which make you wonder if the script or the overall idea sounded a lot better? Or maybe it was just the money/job opportunity they got from this.

So James Caan and the others try to make this as respectable as possible, but the way things resolve is very anti-climactic. Maybe there are people out there that will like the approach and maybe this is as close to the true events as possible. It doesn't make for an enticing view though

The production design was good. Excessive use of old songs though. Old music is welcomed even in a dentist's chair but they should feel natural. The actual people who's story this film tells may have struggled but it doesn't come out here. A few brothers and cousins go to another country, and a few good and a few bad things happen...Could be anybody's story. James Caan saved it. However, it tried to be The Godfather and that is something no film should attempt to do. Some parts cater to the nostalgia very well but for some reason the film feels like Styrofoam, you watch it and you don't know what to take home from it. Or may be it's just me. This is my first review I hope I haven't written anything that qualifies as spoiling.