The Problem Lies In The Uncinematic Story

Rating: 7/10 (27 September 2005)

There seems to be some surprise that THE COLOR OF MONEY has only achieved an average vote of 6.8 ( I rounded my vote up to 7 ) since it has a legendary Hollywood actor reprising a role that made him famous with an up and coming Hollywood legend in a supporting role , in a movie that has yet another legend as director . Ask yourself this : How regarded would this flick be if it didn't feature Newman , Cruise and Scorsese ?
There's two problems involved
1 ) It's a sequel to another highly regarded movie which brings prejudice to opinion
2 ) The source novel by Walter Tevis does not lend itself to cinema . That's probably the main problem . People sit around in smoky pool halls talking , nothing much happens plot wise , it's low concept and most obvious of all is that the climax is spectacularly anti climatic
Scorsese and screenwriter Richard Price do have a go at making cinema out of an uncinematic story . Ignore the fact that it's about 9 ball pool a curiously American game that you don't see in British pubs and look upon it as a metaphor for hope and dreams . If it featured a manager trying to get a singer a record contract you'd still have the same story . Newman is good ( Though I think Bob Hoskins deserved the Oscar that year ) as is Mastrantonio but Cruise is superb and I can't help thinking that this and BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY are his career highlights , when he has to act all aggressive and angry he actually convinces
But at the end of the day people go to the cinema to watch a cinematic movie and despite the plus points THE COLOR OF MONEY probably belongs on the written page