Deanna
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
mira196
This movie is about a man who is a host of an economic TV show. One day, stock price falls sharply, and a man who lose his all fortune takes him as a hostage. I feel little funny when the host compares the host's misery with the man's misery to calm down the man. The host says that you have only a child, but I have married three times, so I have to pay compensation money. I just think he says a joke. I also cannot imagine the host cooperates the man's revenge to the company that make the stock price low. I cannot believe it because I cannot cooperate with the person who point a gun at me. The man also puts a gun on the table, so the host can snatches it, if he tries it. I do not like this movie because I cannot feel tense in spit of the suspense movie. I would like the host to persuade the man more intelligently. I also cannot imagine the ending and I think it will be a happy end.
SerJaimeLannister
*MINOR SPOILERS* While the hostage situation that takes place on the set is certainly tense enough the film as a whole just doesn't work for me. The movie clearly wanted me to sympathize with someone who is barely a step below a terrorist with the excuse that this Wall Street guy is worse. I'm sorry, I know that the banks screwed us all over but if the director (Jodie Foster) wants my heart to bleed even a little for this punk she failed very hard. I spent most of the film hoping the SWAT guys would kill him quick. Film wanted to be another John Q clearly but I actually did feel for Denzel Washington in that situation unlike here. Likewise Money Monster wanted to wag its finger against the monied elite but failed to land any punches and settled for more of a shrug toward the situation as a whole and instead focuses on one CEO who may or may not have done anything illegal anyway. Having a hostage taker rage about how he lost all his money on a bad investment in this case really didn't capitalize on the controversy that Wall Street is facing right now.There also seemed to be an attempt to look at the public at large and how it reacts to seems to attach itself like a parasite to "breaking news" stories such as occurs in this film. I suppose like the morality of going outside the law to address a "wrong" like in John Q, here Money Monster wants to take a point from Untraceable and pass judgment on the age of social media. Again only doing so halfheartedly and only scratching the surface. Honestly it rather bored me as it took time away from George Clooney and Jack O'Connell the characters who really mattered here I wasn't expecting much and a good thing that as I wasn't too disappointed at this barely mediocre and preachy soap operatic film.
TonyMontana96
(Originally reviewed: 23/02/2017) Jodie Foster's most recent picture is not necessarily a bad one, just a borderline average and uninspired one, that like Elysium, can't sustain a decent story from beginning to end. Now I loved 2011's The Beaver and considered it one of the best films of that year, there she was dealing with the subject of clinical depression, and the film was both sad and very funny, with its dark blend of comedy, but with 'Money Monster she has gone backwards, the story isn't particularly interesting and the second half is a typical string of clichés where's the bad guy and the hostage take a trip outdoors, and I'm sick of this type of film; the picture does not end with a bang but with a shrug of the shoulders, and I expect much better from a talented director like Foster.The story is very ordinary and routine; Clooney play's Lee Gates, a Television host who advertised a trust that could not be trusted, this lost people a lot of money, and one man in particular played by Jack Connell (Kyle Budwell) decides he has to do something about it, so he walks through security and interrupts the show, creating a hostage situation, but in truth only one man is in real danger of being shot, and that's Lee, his Boss played by Julia Robert's talks to him through an ear piece letting him know what's happening outside of the situation and so forth, but Kyle is aware there just staling so the police can get there and defuse the situation, during this Kyle rants about what he wants, or doesn't and not much is actually revealed till the half way point, until his pregnant wife gets brought there to speak to him through a live television feed and pretty much humiliates him on live TV, he gets angry sits down with his back turned and one by one hostages leave the building via the police and that's when it gets absolutely routine. They find out that the man in charge of the company played by Dominic West (Walt Canby) is actually behind his money loss and from then on it's a literally slow pursuit to confronting him about it, and if you have seen a film about hostage negotiations before, you'll know someone gets shot, and the film ends with two people eating takeaway while watching the TV reveal the politician's corruption and that's basically the entire film, and at the end of it all, I wasn't impressed, I felt the whole thing felt largely uninspired, and lacked originality all the way through.There are positives though; the performances are good, George Clooney and Jack O'Connell are especially good, Julia Roberts is decent, Dominic West is pretty good and Lenny Venito is adequate as well, as Lenny the Cameraman, but in truth the performances were all watchable to an extent, with the exception of a bland Caitriona Balfe who play's CEO Diane Lester, a pretty face but not much else. I also thought Foster's direction was solid, the picture wasn't overlong and there is a couple of good individual scenes in the first half or so, which includes a decent sense of humour. However there was too much wrong for it to be a good film, including the uninspired writing, clichés and oh so predictable moments, and some real howlers like the dumbest security I've ever seen in a film, when a guy walks past with two boxes, they sit on their fat arses and simply let him in without asking for ID or for him to sign, which is completely unrealistic, and Clooney's character doing this stupid dance that was rather embarrassing. Overall the picture is merely forgettable, uninspired and can't outrun its predictable clichés and routine feel.
