Search - Money Kings on DVD

A Good Movie, but Very Depressing

dmt277 | Houston, TX USA | 01/06/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This movie reminds me of tragedies like Hamlet where just about all the main characters die at the end. This movie was a very negative depiction of the illegal gambling/bookie world. Peter Falk plays this aging bookie, Vinnie who is about to be replaced by this young jerk Tony, who is played by Freddie Prinze Jr. Lauren Holly (Marybeth) and Timothy Dutton (Frankie) are a young married couple with big problems because Frankie is an unemployed drunk with a tendency to make bets that lose him big money. Well, Frankie makes this huge bet that of course loses him like thousands of dollars. Tony contacts Marybeth who is already working like a dog trying to keep her family from bankruptcy and forces her to find a way to make payments on this huge debt and also forces her to have sex with him. I won't totally give away the end, but like I said just about everybody dies.Freddie Prinze Jr. fans will be surprised to see their cute little good guy romantic comedy star playing a cocaine addict and all around jerk. Although, I thought he did all right pulling off that role."

The damage that a gambling addiction can unleash

Pork Chop | Lisbon, Portugal | 03/23/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Money Kings (1998) is a movie that has lost none of its relevance,
even 10 years after its completion. Although billed as a mob movie,
this picture is very realistic and natural about those who are
compelled to gamble, the loansharks who profit from the juice, the
bookies who reap big profits on the bets, and the police who get
fat from payoffs for looking the other way.

The entire activity seems symbiotic, and harmonious, until a
wildcard is thrown into the mix, in the form of the nephew of a
made man, controlling the territory in which the pub is located,
played by Freddie Prinze Jr., his uncle being Frank Vincent's
character, (who seems type cast in this type of role), played to
perfection.

Vincent's goal is to replace the bookie, played by Peter Falk, with
the nephew, and there is no end to the chaos brought about by the
25 year old novice, first trained as a collector of illegal debts,
and then as a partner to the bookie, to the point that a
PezzoNovante or Capo Regime (Tony Sirico), warns that he will clip
both Uncle and Nephew if their operations are not run
professionally, and free of public scandal.

Lauren Holly plays the golden hearted wife of a clueless bum,
played by Timothy Hutton, unfortunately, associated with this lowly
role, unlike Torrents of Spring, in which he played a rich man with
Nastassja Kinski in the 1980's.

A questionable aspect of this movie, is Falk, playing a charitable
bookie, who covers the debts of his players, and soft on collecting
from his clients, patient enough with their human failings to the
point of limiting or rejecting their bets when they're jobless or
going through tough times.

Another questionable decision, is to suggest a generation gap
between Falk, his clientele and the young Prince, who is going
through the school of hard knocks here, with an impressive lack of
natural ability in the underworld. Rudeness, lack of grace and
rapport with the patrons, accepting sexual favors in place of cash
of debts, a with a cocaine habit, blind ambition, trigger happy,
lack of religious feeling, all associated with the younger
generation here, unjustly.

Conversely, the strength of the script, is the up-close and
personal, realistic, natural humanity, poverty, alcoholism,
unemployment, over-work for low wages aspects, coupled with hunger,
the inner city, the compulsion to gamble, the use of cheque cash
advance services or drinking whiskey from a brown paper bag on a
public bench.

Overall, the lessons are two-fold, and concern first, the obvious
damage that a gambling addiction can unleash on the working class,
who are often are already under duress and distress; and secondly,
the chain-reaction that results when "efficiency" is rabidly
demanded at the higher echelons of the underworld, from the
bookie's clientele ( the pressure to repay illegal debts) resulting
in violence, intimidation, immorality, the likelihood of death,
implicating not only the authors of the mess (gamblers), but also
their immediate and arms-length family, who get tied to the
underground, to their astonishment. Needless to say, the risk of a
shootout is high when the ends justify the means, when it comes to
collecting money and debts.

The wide-screen release on DVD is welcome, however, the overall
feel of this work is that of made-for-TV, despite the flawless
acting."