Review: Clooney gets a conscience in ‘Money Monster’

George Clooney plays a Jim Cramer-like television personality who’s forced to grow a conscience when a disgruntled viewer holds him hostage on live TV in “Money Monster,” a serviceable, if slight, real time thriller from director Jodie Foster.

Clooney’s character Lee Gates is one of those cable news stars who probably hasn’t spoken to a non-celebrity in decades. His flashy show opens with him in dancing in costume with two gyrating ladies at his side like he’s in his own rap video, and the vulgarity just escalates from there with ridiculous graphics and sound effects that even a shock jock radio host would likely find tasteless.

We see him being dismissive of the pleas from his put-upon producer Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts) to stick to the script, or at least give her a heads up as to where he’s planning to go, but Lee Gates is one of those roguish improvisational types who is somehow charismatic enough to get away with it. This is not really a likable guy, and it’s not even clear how smart a financial mind he is, but Clooney has that perfect combination of non-threatening smarm and swagger to make Lee not completely reprehensible.

It does, however, make it a little hard to care when Jack O’Connell’s character Kyle comes skulking in through the back of the set with a gun and a vest full of explosives made especially for Lee. Kyle, we find out, trusted Lee’s advice on an investment that went awry when a stable company’s stock plummeted and he lost everything. The company’s explanation and the narrative in the press is that it was just a computer glitch, but Kyle’s not buying it and wants some answers.

It’s an odd pairing, this somewhat daffy television dope against an unhinged blue collar fool with a hunch that $800 million didn’t just disappear because of a glitch. Although it doesn’t make for the most scintillating conversation, as Kyle wails about the system being rigged tension builds and it seems like perhaps “Money Monster” is heading somewhere significant — an all-out indictment of Wall Street corruption, maybe, that movies as different as “Margin Call” and “The Big Short” have done so well.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t.

Instead, “Money Monster” stays rather small and fictional in its aim. It’s partially interested in the idea of systemic corruption in the finance world, sure, but it seems to be even more critical of the cable news media types who have grown soft, complacent and careless.

Foster, in the director’s chair for the fourth time, proves once again to be an assured and malleable in this role, ready to proficiently fulfill the needs of any genre with a steady, straightforward style. “Money Monster” feels like a solid ’90s studio thriller in some ways — a movie for adults and made by adults with a crop of charismatic A-listers at the center.

Clooney and Roberts, by the way, are very good together but hardly get any time to just be charming in this tightly-woven pic. It also seems like a cruel trick to have those two in a movie and to keep them in separate rooms for a large portion of it, communicating only through a speaker system as Patty attempts to “direct” the hostage situation from the control room. O’Connell, while committed, is playing too much of a working class stereotype to truly make an impact, and a third act turn really doesn’t help.

“Money Monster” might not be a great movie, but it is a comforting movie-movie that’s still fun to watch even if it whiffed on being something more.

“Money Monster,” a Sony Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for “language throughout, some sexuality and brief violence.” Running time: 90 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

With humor and humility, George Clooney accepts lifetime Golden Globe

LOS ANGELES - When actor-director George Clooney accepted his lifetime award at Sunday's Golden Globes awards, he used his acceptance speech to both put the value of awards in perspective and voice his support for the victims of the deadly attack on French newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

"Today is an extraordinary day," Clooney said as he accepted his Cecil B. DeMille award recognizing his work as actor, filmmaker and activist.

"Millions marched not only in Paris but all around the world, and there were Christians and Jews and Muslims, leaders of countries all over the world, they didn't march in protest, they marched in support of the idea that we will not walk in fear. Je suis Charlie."

Clooney, 53, who wore a "Je Suis Charlie" lapel pin, demonstrated self-deprecation in his acceptance speech, poking fun at himself for having lost more Globes than won.

"If you're in this room, you've caught the brass ring, you get to do what you've always dreamed to do and be celebrated, and that ain't losing," he said.

Clooney, who has starred in films including "Oceans Eleven," "Syriana" and "The Descendants," paid tribute to late stars Lauren Bacall and Robin Williams, saying "I have no idea what hardware Robin Williams took home but I sure remember 'Carpe diem.'"

He also quipped about the backbiting emails that leaked when Sony Pictures was hacked, encouraging everyone to make amends, and the unfavorable reviews for his 2014 film, "Monuments Men," joking: "I'll get you back."

All eyes were on the actor and his new wife Amal as they made their red carpet debut as a married couple on Sunday.

"It's a humbling thing when you find someone to love, and even better when you've been waiting your whole life," a choked-up Clooney said on stage to his wife.

"Amal, whatever alchemy it is that brought us together, I couldn't be more proud to be your husband."

Earlier in the night, stars such as Jared Leto, Helen Mirren, Joshua Jackson and Diane Kruger also voiced support for the Charlie Hebdo victims, while Theo Kingma, president of Golden Globes organizers the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, made a poignant speech on stage.

"As international journalists we also understand the importance of freedom of artistic expression. Together we will stand united against anyone who would repress free speech anywhere, from North Korea to Paris," he said. — Reuters

George Clooney criticizes Hollywood in Sony cyber attack

Oscar winner George Clooney slammed Hollywood power players for not supporting Sony Pictures following the cyber attack on the company over the satirical comedy "The Interview" about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Sony on Wednesday pulled the Christmas Day release of the film depicting a fictional assassination of Kim after major theater chains said they would not show it due to unspecified threats made by the hackers.

Clooney, in an interview Friday with online trade publication Deadline.com, said no one would sign a petition he and his agent circulated to top Hollywood figures supporting the film's release.

The actor-director, whose past two directorial efforts were Sony releases, also criticized the media for failing to link the cyber attack to North Korea. The United States on Friday blamed the country for the devastating cyber attack, calling it an unacceptable act of intimidation and vowing to impose "costs and consequences" on those responsible.

"We're talking about an actual country deciding what content we're going to have. This affects every part of business that we have," Clooney said. "We cannot be told we can't see something by Kim Jong Un."

In the cyber attack on Sony and its employees, hackers released a stream of embarrassing emails and demanded that the film's release be scrapped.

"We have a responsibility to stand up against this. That's not just Sony, but all of us, including my good friends in the press who have the responsibility to be asking themselves: What was important? What was the important story to be covering?" Clooney added.

The news media's early coverage of the hack largely focused on the content of leaked emails between Sony employees and film producers.`

Clooney, who won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for the film "Syriana" in 2005 and Best Picture for "Argo" in 2012, said he is concerned about content in films and that it will now be judged differently.

"The movies we make are the ones with challenging content, and I don't want to see it all just be superhero movies. Nothing wrong with them, but it's nice for people to have other films out there," he added. -- Reuters