Money Kings (1999) ** out of *****
Cast: Peter Falk, Lauren Holly, Timothy Hutton, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Tyne Daly, Colm Meaney Directed by: Graham Theakston Running Time: 96 minutes
A depressing and all too familiar tale of gamblers and other assorted low lifes. One of Boston's head mobsters decides one day to "trim the fat" from the organization. As a result, an aging bookie (Peter Falk) is slowly forced out of the business by a young punk in the organization (Freddie Prinze, Jr.). Meanwhile, there's a running subplot about a drunken loser (Timothy Hutton) who refuses to work to support his wife (Lauren Holly) and their children. Predictably, he ends up placing a huge bet and losing, further destroying his family.
Money Kings seems like it would be fairly entertaining, but the situations just keep getting more and more depressing, leading to an obvious conclusion that really won't affect you one way or another. The performances are decent (although Prinze is badly miscast), and there's a fairly good Irish-type score.
Money Kings is available on DVD from Sterling Home Entertainment. It contains the film in it's standard format, and includes the usual cast and crew bios, production notes, and the film's original trailer. [R]
The Jacksonville Film Journal -- Film Reviews by Chuck Dowling URL:http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ Email:chuckd21@leading.net
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