Director: Jodie Foster
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 99 minutes
Money Monster (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Money Monster is a film about stock markets and trading, but unlike what you might initially think, the story is actually very current and close to home. It’s not just about stock markets, it’s about how bad investments can affect your life, and how big sharks only want more, at the expense of many others. What starts out as an average flick about a TV presenter turns into a thriller pretty fast.
Lee Gates (George Clooney) is the host of the TV show Money Monster. Together with his team and his producer Patty (Julia Roberts) he tries to bring the otherwise boring subject of stock markets and assets to the common people in an understandable and fun way, giving them advice and tips as to what best to invest in. They are getting ready for a new live show, but the day before however, IBIS Clear Capital’s stock suddenly collapsed without any apparent reason, a stock that had been doing so well before due to the trading algorithm that was used, and that Gates has been raving about nonstop. IBIS’ CEO Walt Camby (Dominic West) was scheduled to appear on the show, to explain how exactly it was possible to lose eight hundred million dollars in one day, but he had to go on a business trip unexpectedly. Nonetheless, backup is taken care of, and the show starts as usual.
Suddenly Patty, who’s sitting in the control room, notices a guy backstage whom she doesn’t know. She decides not to intervene just yet, as they are making live television and there might be a good story in this. The man pulls a gun however, and points it at Lee. After forcing him to put on a vest of explosives and demanding they stay live on air, he makes his wishes clear. He was one of the investors of IBIS, and now that he lost all of his life savings, he demands answers. Lee and Patty do the best they can to get into contact with Walt Camby as soon as possible, as Kyle (Jack O’Connell), as the man is called, threatens to blow up Lee if he doesn’t get what he wants.
The theme of this movie is very current, as things like this happen often enough in real life. People are left to live on the streets after a bad investment, one of which everyone thought it could never go wrong. Jodie Foster manages quite well to make you see how normal people such as you and I can lose everything in an instant, if we are not careful with our investments. On the other hand, she also sketches an interesting image of the high chiefs, in this case Walt Camby, who don’t seem to think about the common man any more, but only about their own wealth. Quite eye-opening for sure.
Acting wise, we can’t really complain about this picture. Of course, from big sharks such as Julia Roberts and George Clooney we already expected convincing performances, and they lived up to our expectations. Especially Clooney, who had a very challenging part to play, was very pleasant to watch. Jack O’Connell fitted in perfectly, knowing exactly how to create the right atmosphere during his scenes with Clooney.
When it comes to extras, Money Monster treats you pretty well. There are some deleted scenes, but also a video on ‘George Clooney: The Money Man’ and an analysis of the last scene, which adds a nice additional touch. The videoclip of ‘What Makes The World Go Round (MONEY!)’ by Dan The Automator ft. Del Tha Funky Homosapien makes for the final completely otiose, yet fun extra feature.
Conclusion
Money Monster shows a very current, striking story that will probably get you thinking about the whole world of assets and stock markets. The acting performances of the main actors, especially George Clooney, elevate the story, and it’s fun to see how Clooney’s character is somehow stuck in the middle between the common man and the big sharks, coming to new insights along the way. The extras are quite plentiful and add a nice touch, some being more interesting than others though. Overall, we were very pleased with how this film turned out to be. It’s definitely worth the watch.
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