Well, go figure, I liked this one, and didn't like the original

Rating: 8/10 (28 September 2002)

I saw Color of Money before i saw the Hustler. I didn't particularly care for the "original masterpiece" in the least, at least as far as entertainment value goes. Guess this makes me a neanderthal lacking in style or something, dunno.
Color of Money was humorous, enjoyable, Tom Cruise did an excellent job of playing Vincent. He was supposed to be obnoxious, annoying, and mostly immature. He was. It was supposed to bug Paul Newman to the ends of the earth, and it did. Vincent was cocky, young and talented, just like Fast Eddie, but Eddie had wits and was beguiling, whereas Vincent is simply in your face brash.
The end result is that Eddie wants Vincent to "become" a reborn Fast Eddie Felson, but he simply isn't, and this provides quite a bit of excellent interaction between Cruise and Newman.
A thoroughly enjoyable picture, in my opinion. As always, to each his own.