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Customer Reviews
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The Color Of Money: The coolest Scorsese flick
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Martin Scorsese is one of the best directors living today. Films like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, The King Of Comedy, and his most recent The Aviator are modern day classics.
The Color Of Money is also on the list of Scorsese's movie portfolio, and it's also one of the best movies made in general. The film stars Paul Newman (The Hustler) and Tom Cruise (Jerry Maguire, Rain Man) as hustlers out to make big cash in the pool halls. Newman reprises his role as Fast Eddie Felson, from 1961's film The Hustler, an oldtimer who is looking for new talent to sport around, Tom Cruise plays his target Vincent, a talented pool player and potential hustler. Felson teaches Vincent and his girl sidekick Carmen (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) everything there is to know about professional hustling and then out they go across country hustling through every state they pass on their way to the big championship in Atlanta. The highlight of the film is in the tense relationship between the desperate Felson, the crazy jealous Vincent and the manipulative Carmen, and how they manage to work as a team.
Recommended
A
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This DVD needs EXTRAS LIKE THEY DID FOR ROUNDERS
Simply put, I'll watch my old VHS tape of this forever. I will not buy a DVD of any mainstream movie that has no extras. GET ON IT ALREADY. Put Newman and Cruise together again for a commentary track. Assemble a handful of pros to do a featurette on it! I've seen other movies revamped two or three times with DVD extras but this one just keeps getting printed with a plain old brown wrapper. Put the Money where your mouth is!
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Paul Newman teachers Tom Crusie about pool and acting
"The Color of Money" is the movie for which Paul Newman finally won his Oscar for Best Actor in 1987, having been given an Honorary Award the year before when the Academy noticed it had passed him over for a quarter of a century. During that time Newman was nominated for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "The Hustler," "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke," "Rachel, Rachel," "Absence of Malice," and "The Verdict." If you go back and look at the other nominees each year you certainly cannot say that he was ever robbed. His best performance, in "Cool Hand Luke," lost out to Rod Steiger for "In the Heat of the Night," and was also up against Warren Beatty for "Bonnie and Clyde," Dustin Hoffman for "The Graduate," and Spencer Tracy posthumously for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." Nor can you say that the Oscar for "The Color of Money" was a gift, given Newman was up against Dexter Gordon for "'Round Midnight," William Hurt in "Children of a Lesser God," Bob Hoskins for "Mona Lisa," and James Woods in "Salvador."
I take this extended trip down memory lane because when I watched "The Color of Money" again I kept thinking more about the actors than the story and performances. Not only was I aware that this was Newman's Oscar winning-performance but I was also thinking about how this was another one of the films where Tom Cruise played second fiddle to an established actor (i.e., Hoffman in "Rain Man") and enhanced his own reputation as an actor as well as a movie star. Of course, if you want to learn about being both an actor and a mega-movie star, then who better to be your tutor and role model than Paul Newman?
Newman is once again playing Fast Eddie Felson, whom we first met a long time ago in "The Hustler." But automatically labeling "The Color of Money" a sequel to the 1961 film is really a mistake. It might be the same actor playing the same character but he is a different person. If "The Hustler" is before, then "The Color of Money" is after, and we missed the entire during part of Eddie's life. The movie makes much more sense as another one of those where the old pro teaches the young kid how to play the game. But since this is modern times the kid gets to teach one or two things back at the old guy as well.
Eddie has put the high-stakes pool games behind him and earns his living as a successful liquor salesman. Then one night he sees Vince (Cruise) playing pool and Eddie is intrigued. Not only is Vincent good, but he is also a complete "flake," and Eddie sees the opportunity to use this gimmick to make a killing at the pool tables where the big boys play for big money. Controlling the kid is the problem, so Eddie gets Vincent's girlfriend, Carmen (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), to help steer him in the right direction. Of course this one is going to come down to Eddie and Vincent playing against each other, which is and yet is not what happens. Unfortunately, this takes away from our pleasure in watching Eddie manipulate Vincent, because now we have to rethink everything that happened in the film.
"The Color of Money" is also the Martin Scorsese that least seems to me to be a Martin Scorses movie. But the director certainly knows how to feature his start. The best moment in the movie comes when Fast Eddie is going to break a rack of balls for the first time in a long, long time. He bends over the table and sees his own reflection in the eight ball and then Scorsese smashes into a powerful close-up.
Yeah, this is Paul Newman's movie. When you compare "The Color of Money" to "The Hustler" you are going to be more aware of Newman's growth as an actor than you are of the changes in the character. This is a classic acting lesson on how less is more, and I think you can tell from his own growth as an actor that Tom Cruise was either taking notes or has been watching this particular film more often than he has his blockbusters.
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A Great Movie that's about more than Pool. 80s Classic!
This movie appears to be about pool on the surface. But it's less about pool than it is about what motivates us as people.
Fast Eddie Felson of the classic, "The Hustler," returns to reverse roles in this 80s classic. Instead of being the young champ, he wants to train the young champ in Tom Cruise. But eventually, he realizes the hard way he doesn't have the stomach to play stake horse and in his heart he really wants the thrill of competition.
A lot of people will compare this movie to "The Hustler," since it is the sequel. There is no comparison. This movie really can't even be compared in pool terms. The pool shots that they hit in this movie are, for the most part, average to above-average. This is not the mind blowing pool play from "The Hustler" to be sure.
But this movie does have plenty going for it. For non-pool players, this movie has more character development. This movie also features some of the greatest cinematography of any film. And Newman, Cruise, and the supporting cast all put in stellar performances.
In short, this is a great movie that's worth watching just for enjoyment or on a deeper level for those who appreciate fine cinema. It's not half the movie that "The Hustler" is, but it has enough merits to stand on its own.
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Eddie didn't learn his lesson
This very fine movie, imho, is about the undying conflict between glory and profit. The normal smart guy goes for the percentage; only the dumb wannabes go for glory; and only the few, the very few, achieve it. Ninety-nine percent never get close. So what is life about? A retirement home in the Bahamas? Growing old gracefully? Knowing when you're beaten? Could be. That was the lesson Eddie was taught in The Hustler, and that is the lesson he teaches Vince. But he doesn't seem to have learned it himself. The bubble reputation in the cannon's mouth, is the way Shakespeare put it.
