From the Jan. 18 Oregonian....
There are exactly two clever ideas in the very dull heist comedy "Mad Money":
- The heist premise itself isn't bad. Three women with low-level jobs at the Kansas City Federal Reserve (Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes) hatch a scheme to steal worn-out cash after it's taken out of circulation and boxed up for shredding. (Limousine-liberal Keaton justifies the crime by declaring it a form of recycling.) And they do it right under the nose of their arrogant, surveillance-happy boss (Stephen Root).
- In a funny reversal of the usual drill, the women play the master criminals and the men (Ted Danson, Roger R. Cross and Adam Rothenberg) play their molls.
Unfortunately, beyond that, the movie is not so much horrible as it is drab -- from its lazy plotting to its uninspired yuks to its cop-out ending to its relentlessly yellow-brown sets. "Mad Money" does little more than take up space, and you will be two hours closer to the grave when you leave the theater.
The film is directed by Callie Khouri, who wrote 1991's "Thelma & Louise." It must be said that the intervening 17 years have dulled Ms. Khouri's knack for creating sympathetic female outlaws. Keaton's character in particular is the most unlikable sort of shallow, manipulative, upper-middle-class Yuppie: An economic downturn leaves her and Danson at risk of losing their McMansion and Range Rover and Latino housekeeper -- oh no! -- and she turns to crime after a single day scrubbing toilets at the Fed, which she compares to "Third World slave labor."
I get that this is meant to be satirical. The never-more-than-adequate execution just keeps it from being satirical and funny.
It might be funny if Keaton was giving a performance that inspired me to root for her anyway, or if "Mad Money" had a "Fun with Dick and Jane"-style bite. But this movie can't manage more than a feeble gumming; it's the sort of comedy where grown women bounce on a bed and squee while tossing money in the air. The sort of comedy where Queen Latifah says "I'll bet Victoria never had this particular secret" as she stuffs stolen cash in her bra. The sort of movie where the veteran comic talent confidently phones it in like they're in their sixth year on a mid-list sitcom.
(Actually, one cast member doesn't phone it in: The once-charming Katie Holmes is kind of stunningly horrible as a granola-head diabetic who lives in a trailer. She does embarrassing little dances while wearing a Discman, and delivers every line with the sort of google-eyed face-scrunch people use when they're trying to make a baby smile.)
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C-minus; 104 minutes; rated PG-13 for sexual material and language, and brief drug references.
'Mad Money' (The Oregonian, Jan. 18, 2008)
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