Hard Cash (2002)

I love this movie so much

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Val Kilmer has chalked up an impressive resume. Some of his films have garnered many top awards and impressive accolades. Select a series of action or dramatic films and you'll find his name listed therein. Alright, he's appeared in a few schmaltzy movies too, but there are others which more than make up for them. Here is one case in Point. The film is called "Run for the Money" also known as " Hard Cash. " The lively story is of a recently paroled thief named Taylor (Christian Slater) who has promised his little girl he will not steal any more, but soon after is ensnared by a corrupt F.B.I. agent (Val Kilmer) who extorts Taylor to rob a Casino's earnings of $6 Million in return for his daughter's life. Having little choice, Taylor assembles a motley crew and sets out to rescue his daughter with the help of his combative and argumentative gang. A fine cast which includes Balthazar Getty, Daryl Hannah, Michael Rosas and Verne Troyer as Attila prove their worth in creating a surprising and exciting drama. The intricacy of the movie is the crossing and double crossing of plans which moves this film rapidly along. Kilmer is very interesting as the heavy, a role he so often avoids. Nevertheless, and despite the occasional cheesy segments, this could very well become a sleeping Classic for Kilmer and Slater. ****

The majority of user comments on this movie, Hard Cash, claim that this is the Worst Movie Ever, and loads of people have rated it a "1". I swear I have no idea what the hell everybody seems to have against this perfectly good movie. They must have expected something completely different, which I frankly don't see how is possible. The DVD sleeve is pretty up front about everything.This is not some big-budget Hollywood action movie, and, for cripes sake, it isn't meant to be! It's a low-key drama with interesting characters, situations and humor. And good actors. And yeah, it's straight to video, or reminiscent of a TV movie. So what? It's possible to do good stories in that format (and on that budget), too.From the moment I started watching Hard Cash, I had fun. Not for a single moment anywhere in the movie did I stop being absolutely engaged in the story. I liked the characters and the dialog and the action. I had nothing against the car and boat chases; for a small budget I thought it all looked pretty damn good. The characters were well fleshed out, the story flowed smoothly, with every detail being important. Lots of fun.This is a movie I'd normally rate a 7 or a 7.5 out of 10, but just because everybody hates it I'll raise that to an 8.God, it burns my ass when people just crap all over a totally decent, entertaining, well-written movie with good characters and performances all-round. Why, I oughtta...!!!

The film wasn't much good but what got me really distracted was Sofia (Bulgaria) trying to look like New York. Another sign that there was not much money to back this project (otherwise they would have at least tried Toronto). Of course it doesn't look as NY at all, for the whole movie I was trying to guess where in the world it was filmed (I guessed rightly that it was in Europe). Slater and Hannah definitely deserve something better than this cliché' full of scenes already seen in other not so great films. Certainly they aren't the best actors around but their and others' performances are what keeps together this lame attempt of a film.

I can't believe how bad this movie is!! The characters and the story are so shallow, if they were a pool a mouse couldn't drown in it. I don't know who to blame, maybe the director and editors, because this movie never got you to care about any of the characters. blah. The plot was too dumb. Maybe it was that midgets fault. I can't see how though. Daryl Hanna has always been an actor of questionable talent in my book, but Sarah Downing's performance made me want to throw rotten vegetables at her. Another reviewer thought that this movie had an element of comedy in it and I couldn't figure out why, but then I remembered the character Jose. This character had nothing to do with anything. He wasn't funny. I'm not even really sure if he was supposed to be funny. His only scenes could have been funny if they weren't so contrived. Once again, I can't believe how bad this movie is. Watch it if you want to punish yourself.