A Fool and His Money (1989)

the audience applauded

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Despite the cover art (and the DVD label itself, which is even more misleading), this is not a Sandra Bullock movie. See that tiny guy in the corner? He is the star of this movie. On the DVD itself, only his head is visible at the bottom of the disc, while Ms. Bullock takes up nearly half the image. While this movie does have Sandra Bullock in it, she only plays a minor role as the main character's girlfriend, and is in about five short scenes in the whole film. And I'm not sure where the picture of her with brown hair and a red dress came from, since in this movie she has black hair, wears glasses, and never wears anything close to that elegant.But enough about misleading cover art. While the concept is fascinating, and could make a great movie, the filmmakers here really dropped the ball. This movie is bad. Unfortunately, it's not bad enough to fall into the categories of "it's so bad it's good" or "movies that are fun to make fun of". The story goes nowhere, and the ending is so quick, nonsensical, and clichéd, that it appears that they had no idea how the movie was going to end and panicked when they realized they were running out of time. Add to that that the picture and sound quality on the DVD are terrible (about the level I would expect for something taped on a VCR circa 1985 on the lowest quality setting), and this movie simply isn't worth getting.

This was a brilliant film, not necessarily understood by everyone. The premise of a religion being marketed like a bar of soap has limitless metaphoric possibilities, and this film takes advantage. The occasional spotty acting and low budget appearance is more than made up by the wonderful writing. George Plimpton was a pleasant surprise as "God" (or at least the main character's idea of Him). I believe this was Sandra Bullock's first film, and I can see why she became a huge star. She is attention-grabbing when on screen. Jerzy Kosinski, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author gives a startling performance as a beggar, and Jonathan Penner as "Morris" is definitely believable.

I first became interested in this movie because Sandra Bullock was on the cover. Little did I know that she was barely in the movie, and not even her rare appearance (which was the only thing worthwhile) could save this movie. The only reason I didn't stop the movie after the first five minutes was because I was determined to see it to the end--no matter what. Unfortunately, after the movie came to a conclusion (if you can call it that) I felt as if I had been violated with the most awful cinematic experience ever. The troubling parts of the movie were the horrible acting, the worst script, and music that sounded like it was pulled straight from a "country's worst" compilation album, volume one. I would recommend anything else. This is probably the WORST movie I have ever seen, and I have seen my share of bad movies.

This movie is recommended for those who have insomnia's - otherwise don't waste your time. The plot outline on the cover is much better than the actual movie which is terrible. Listening to an oratory by a parakeet would be more exciting than this terrible movie!The transfer quality of the DVD is also bad. There is a lot of distortion on the sound which makes it hard to understand what is being said. The color timing shifts with the advancing frames. Together with a poor plot, the acting is bad, which is surprising considering some of the actors used in the movie. Although it is sold as a "budget movie," even the low price to pay is not worth buying this movie...if some of you insist on seeing "A Fool and His Money," look for it in the television listings. And, have a "pocket" video game or something to help with the boredom!