Thursday 6 May 2010

Money for Nothing (1993)

Tagline: What would you do if you found a million bucks?
Cusack Plays: Joey Coyle, unemployed dockworker who finds $1.2 million which fell off the back of a truck.

If you are keen to see Cusack go blond and wear women's tights, this is the film for you! This comedy/drama is quite good fun as it follows Joey and his dilemmas when he finds a big old pile of cash. Obviously you would want to keep it, but its a crime to do so, the cops are looking for it and there's a reward for turning the culprit in. Joey's solutions? - get the mob to launder it, and try to stay cool. Hmm....

Also featuring performances by younger Benicio Del Toro, Philip S. Hoffman, and James 'Tony Soprano' Gandolfini (as Joey's big brother) this is certainly worth a watch. I particularly enjoyed John's Philly accent, and the scenes towards the end. It's actually based on a true story, with the sad postscript that the real Joey Coyle killed himself just before this film came out.



Monday 3 May 2010

Map of the Human Heart (1993)




Tagline: Born in the magic of youth. Forged by the passions of war. Their love knew no boundaries.
Cusack plays: The Mapmaker

Another example of just how diverse the films Mr Cusack picks are. This film, set before and during the Second World War, looks at the life of an Canadian Inuit, as he grows up, in saved from illness by a visiting map charter, falls in love and eventually ends up flying planes in the War. The most memorable scene is some sexytimes on top of a blimp. Cusack plays a mapmaker who the Inuit relates his life story to as an older man, and so he only appears for a couple of minutes at the start and end of the film.

I thought it was ok, although I probably wasn't paying enough attention. After this run of little bit parts I'm looking forward to a real lead role from Cusack...