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Other People's Money

Other People's Money (1991)

October. 18,1991
|
6.2
|
R
| Comedy

When a corporate raider threatens a hostile takeover of a 'mom and pop' company, the patriarch of the company enlists the help of his wife's attractive daughter—who is a lawyer—to stop the takeover. However, the raider soon becomes infatuated with her, and enjoys the legal manoeuvring as he tries to win her heart.

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VividSimon
1991/10/18

Simply Perfect

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AutCuddly
1991/10/19

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

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Aiden Melton
1991/10/20

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

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Philippa
1991/10/21

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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HotToastyRag
1991/10/22

Just as Network can be watched to gain an education about television politics, and Wall Street can be watched to learn about, well, greed, Other People's Money is just as educational as it is entertaining. And since it's highly entertaining, that's saying a lot! Danny DeVito plays a slimy scumbag who makes business deals and often destroys companies. His next target: Gregory Peck's and Piper Laurie's struggling company. If you don't know what a corporate takeover is, the movie will teach you. As the old-world and new-world views clash, the old-timers pull out a secret weapon: their daughter. Penelope Ann Miller, while clad in some beautiful outfits, sasses and teases Danny DeVito as he tries to ruin her parents, hoping that the sexual tension will cause him to weaken or falter. I don't happen to find her very attractive, but Alvin Sargent's screenplay, based on Jerry Sterner's play, has given her some very good lines! Yes, no one likes to see a corporate goon pick on poor ol' Gregory Peck, but it's actually a really enjoyable movie. And, amazingly enough, besides the heavy subject matter, the movie is a comedy! For some great one-liners, some steamy romantic banter, and an economics lesson, you can't go wrong by watching Other People's Money.

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Momcat_of_Lomita
1991/10/23

This movie is great entertainment that delivers a message without being preachy. And a measure of how successful it is: it makes you believe that Danny de Vito and Penelope Ann Miller actually could be a great, sexy couple! It is very much a movie of its time: the late 80's, early 90's, when corporate "raiders" and hostile takeovers of firms were in the news. Stock traders made fortunes and corporations were laying off thousands of people at a time as CEO's sought to raise the price of their stock, and it didn't matter what a company was making-- or not making-- as long as the price of the stock stayed up.So, in this environment of "greed is good" and Wall Street being the tail that wagged the dog of American productivity, we have this movie, which pits the good guy, Andrew "Jorgie" Jorgensen (played by the archetypal good guy actor, Gregory Peck), against the bad guy, corporate raider Lawrence Garfield (played by Danny de Vito).Jorgie is the majority stockholder and CEO of New England Wire & Cable Company, a firm that is a creation of his family and whose interests and employees he regards as a responsibility of his family. As played by Peck, Jorgie is the acme of decency and old-fashioned conservative values: hard work and thrift, expecting loyalty from his employees and demonstrating loyalty in return. Stubborn and resistant to change where he sees change as conflicting with his values. An upright, honest, virtuous man who believes that moral rightness will always be recognized and will always triumph.Danny de Vito is his nemesis: a corporate raider who rose from hardscrabble beginnings in the Bronx to a posh Manhattan office and mansion, whose expertise is in finding stocks that are undervalued and making a profit through manipulating the market. He is unabashed about what he does: he loves "the game," as he calls it, and plays it with the fighting spirit of a junk-yard pitbull. There's no malice in what he does, no hard feelings, but also no apology for the carnage he leaves in his wake. He's just doing what he's best at doing.And so de Vito identifies New England Wire & Cable as a prime target for takeover: the company is worth far more than the value of its stock. That's all de Vito needs to know, and the fight is on.The interest comes when Jorgie brings his step-daughter in to advise on how to fend off de Vito. Penelope Ann Miller plays Kate Sullivan, a young hot-shot lawyer in a Manhattan legal firm. She's a HOT hot-shot, no doubt about it, and much of the movie centers on her interactions with de Vito.The thing de Vito brings to his role is great energy and joy. This is a character that could be played as dark, as evil, as someone to be reviled, but there is a genuine likability to de Vito even as you see that what he's doing causes a lot of people a lot of harm, and that he's not above doing unethical things if he thinks he can get away with them. But for all that he's definitely not a "good guy," he's someone you can't really dislike. He's a rogue, but he's a rogue completely without malice. Just like a tiger will tear the throat out of its prey and is a dangerous predator, but is still a beast with qualities that make you admire it-- from a distance, or with the bars of a cage to protect you.The movie's final battle, the scene where Peck and de Vito make speeches to the company stockholders in support of what they represent, is an amazingly articulate piece of writing that is as superbly acted as anything you're going to see in the movies. IMO that one scene alone makes the movie worthwhile. That there's so much more to like about this movie really makes it a winner.Dean Jones has a role in the movie that I think is one of the best of his career. I don't think he got the respect in his career that he deserved; he did a lot of work in Disney films, and I think this caused people to take his talents as an actor lighter than they should. He's excellent in his role here.And Penelope Ann Miller-- she is absolute dynamite in this role, she's really the backbone of the action. Her interactions with de Vito are warm and believable and the chemistry between the two of them WORKS.There are some flaws to the movie: the biggest is that there is apparently some back-story, some conflict between the Jorgie character and Miller's character, that isn't made clear. She's Jorgie's step-daughter and it's apparent that at some time in their lives, there was a conflict, and that there is a reserve between them. But it's never made clear what the issue was, and to this extent the movie isn't satisfying.Piper Laurie's character, Jorgie's wife, is also perhaps not fully realized. She's good, but there's something missing, something I can't really describe.But those are small quibbles. Over all, this is a superb movie that I think is one of de Vito's best roles, and is a funny, thoughtful, well-written story that characterizes a particular time and issue that were defining to America.

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bkoganbing
1991/10/24

About halfway through this film, I would have said that Danny DeVito's character of Lawrence Garfield was running a better than even chance of becoming the second assassinated Garfield in American history. But in the end he becomes with all its and his defects, the great spokesman for American capitalism. In fact you have to go back to John Wayne's McLintock to hear the system so well defended.DeVito is a Wall Street speculator who has earned the title of 'Larry the Liquidator' for his uncanny ability to spot in trouble companies take them over and liquidate them of all their tangible assets at a profit to himself and his investors. He's got his eyes on a company right now in the Rhode Island based New England Cable&Wire.Running the company is Gregory Peck who is the son of the man who founded it and it's the typical employer in a one company small town. Peck is his usual decent man who feels a responsibility to the workers and to the town which would just go belly up should his plant close down.Written fifty years ago and directed by Frank Capra, the film would have had the hero Peck triumphing over the evil gnome DeVito. Times have changed and the only way as William Holden so eloquently put it in Executive Suite for companies to survive is to grow. Research and keeping up with the latest technologies is the only way to go, a lesson Peck forgot. The Japanese have developed fiber optics, he's making a product for which there is less and less market.And that is the weakness of the system in America in 2008. No provision for retraining workers is made in too many places. Still it's better than Communism where job competency is replaced by knowledge of ideological nostrums. On the other hand Communism does have its advantages as DeVito says. All the lawyers are the ones liquidated first.Danny DeVito is an unpleasant looking man who is making people face some unpleasant truths. That's the strength of Other People's Money and why this is such a worthwhile film.

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Esteban Merlo
1991/10/25

I consider this picture very educative. Comercially talking the picture show me how business market goes in these days. The way Mr.De Vito roles the play of Mr.Laurence Gardfield is amazing! Not only Gardfield's position on the plot but also the rest of the crew were OK. to me. The way MrJorgy tried to maintain the company working, and how Gardfield showed to the rest of the investors how bad would be for them to keep on the company. The tittle is a good resume of the main plot of the movie. MrGardfield is all the time around other people's money even thought when he makes the company value increase. He makes that no because he is interesting in making the company works. He's real interest is to sell the company to make the investors making money.

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