GREEDY
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1994 Michael John Legeros
Directed by Jonathan Lynn Written by Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel Starring Kirk Douglas, Michael J. Fox, Nancy Travis, Olivia D'Abo, Phil Hartman, and Ed Begley, Jr. MPAA Rating "PG" Running Time Approx. 110 minutes
---
"I didn't like the Beatles and I don't like *you*."
- Phil Hartman to Olivia d'Abo
on popular music and popular
opinion.
GREEDY is a horribly excuted "ensemble" comedy about a band of money-hungry cousins who will do *anything* to get their hands on their rich Uncle's dough.
The story introduces Uncle Joe (Douglas), an eccentric millionare who's taken up with a sexy pizza-girl (d'Abo). His cousins have been circling their bait for years and are, understandably, outraged. So they call in Joe's favorite nephew, Danny (Fox), to even the balance. But Danny has his *own* ideas about how to take care of Uncle Joe.
(Is that vague enough? :-) )
GREEDY tries hard to walk a straight line between slapstick and serious. But the tone is never correctly set. Even *with* footage of Jimmy Durante over the opening credits. I don't care who you blame--the bottom line is a film full of people trying either to be too funny or too serious.
The deck's already stacked with a cast of lightweights. I mean, come-on, Nancy Travis? Ed Begley Jr.? Or Jack Benny-lookalike Phil Hartman!?! Fox is fun, but he still looks seventeen. Only Kirk Douglas gets away with anything above acting. He has a large time growling and groaning and leering and lying. Just listen to him deliver the line "I'm richer than sh*t."
CAMEO NOTE: The director does a droll turn as Joe's butler. And watch
for still-alive Kevin McCarthy, who inexplicably appears
as one of Joe's lawyers.
Just as the cast is uninteresting, so are the characters. The cousins are all one-note cartoons and the central protagonist, Danny, is a professional bowler!! Who though *that* one up??
If nothing else, GREEDY certainly *looks* good-- but who cares about production values in a film with uninteresting characters? For that matter, who cares about uninteresting characters? Which is the problem: when the jokes all-too-often go flat, there's very little to fall back on.
NOTE: As trying as the whole experience is, GREEDY has one genuine gut-buster that comes toward the end. And it makes this mostly mediocre movie just a little bit above okay.
Bottom line: GREEDY is horribly executed ensemble-comedy that tries
to walk a straight line between serious and slapstick,
but the cast can't carry the material. Kirk Douglas, as
an eccentric millionare, is fun. But the rest of gang is
a waste.
Grade: C+
.
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