Not quite The Hustler Part II

Rating: Null/10 (23 August 2002)

I watched "The Hustler" a few weeks ago and fairly enjoyed it, so I decided to rent it's sequel, "The Color of Money" and compare the two. Maybe I should put sequel in quotations, because with the exception of Paul Newman's character of 'Fast' Eddie Felson and the sport of pool, I didn't feel a strong connection between the two movies. There's 25 years between the original and this sequel but we never get much of an idea what Eddie's been doing this entire time except that he's in retirement and now owns his own pool hall.
The movie takes place over a couple of months, yet nothing particularly interesting happens that warrants us paying attention or caring for any of the characters. Eddie is prodded out of retirement so that he can groom his new protege, the obnoxious, cocky, simple-minded Vincent (Tom Cruise, apparently reprising his meathead character from "The Outsiders") to become a hustler, just like he was so many years ago. However, Vincent's over-the-top brashness grows thin after about 5 minutes and I couldn't believe for a second that Felson hadn't come across better players with more charisma in 25 years than a simpleton lightweight like Vincent. None of the main characters (Felson, Vincent, and Vincent's girlfriend) were particularly sympathetic, and the "big point" of each scene had the subtlety of a jackhammer (SCENE 10: THE HUSTLER GETS HUSTLED....SCENE 15: THE STUDENT BECOMES THE MASTER....SCENE 19: THE HUSTLER REGAINS HIS LOVE OF THE PURE SPORT).
This movie is basically just a mediocre episode of 'Fast' Eddie Felson's life, no more, no less.