Credits Director : Callie Khouri Starring : Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes, Ted Danson Our Score :

By Clint Morris

“Mad Money” hey? Yep, if I were a greenback I’d be pissed too – after all, nobody likes to see their own thrown to the curb, or in this case, washed down the drain. And with high-priced stars Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, Ted Danson and Katie Holmes headlining this thing, it’s safe to say that a lot of the paper stuff’s been used and abused here.

Anyone else wanna strangle Diane Keaton, whose films have seemingly gone from bad to worse in recent years, with her own turtle-neck jumper? Yep, me too. The girl can’t pick a plum part to save her life these days.
It’s maddening how such an obviously gifted actress – go check out “The Godfather” again, she’s brilliant in it! – can find herself doing garbage like this. Is it the ‘age’ thing? Is it because she has a crumby manager? Or is she letting a teenage niece pick her product? Whatever the case, something’s gotta give (hmmm… now wasn’t a bad effort Diane… more of those please?!).

Keaton continues her reign as the newly-crowned queen of crap that should’ve-gone-direct-to-DVD (the butt’s still not talking to me after making it get friendly with a theatre chair for a couple of hours whilst I tolerated “Because, I Said So”) with “Mad Money”, an incongruously cheap-sounding (Didn’t Chevy Chase do something with a similar title? Oh yes, “Funny Money”! - and no, it wasn’t… funny) comedy about a middle-aged woman, in debt up to her, ah, turtle neck (though granted, Keaton actually reveals her neck in this one!) who convinces her work pals at the Reserve Bank to snatch some cash. The silver-haired cleaner doesn’t see any harm in it – after all, the cash they’re planning to steal is headed for the scrap heap. They might as well make use out of it.

Though much more tolerable than her two-hander with Mandy Moore, “Mad Money” is still another weak addition to the otherwise solid Keaton CV. Not to say Keaton is terrible in it, she’s not; she’s just got nothing to work with. Same with Latifah, Danson (playing Mr Keaton) and Holmes – they’re all quite good in this, but again, their characters are as two-dimensional as an Aristocat.

C’Mon Diane, Michael Keaton didn’t take your surname because it was ‘funky’ – he took it because he was proud to honour you. Do him proud… again.