The Color of Money

For the first time in more than two decades, I sat down and watched “The Color of Money” (1986). Wow. It really holds up. Really. It’s not about billiards. Or Tom Cruise channeling Charlie Sheen. Or Paul Newman’s pornstache and tinted glasses. It’s a character study on gamblers, con artists, what motivates them and what brings them down. Pure Scorsese. Newman recreates his Fast Eddie Felson character from “The Hustler” (a 1961 classic), but you don’t need to have seen it to enjoy this one. And it’s nice watching Cruise play an actual character instead of Tom Cruise Action Hero.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

One of the themes of “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” (2010) is that time is more precious than money. It makes me wonder, then, why filmmaker Oliver Stone fritters away 133 minutes while creating no suspense whatsoever. Even a motorcycle race between lead characters goes nowhere. Why? Granted, this film is about the 2008 world financial meltdown, so we kinda know how the story goes. Still, Stone could have added subplots with more intensity than a boring love story and a boringer lesson in Macroeconomics 101. Instead, he’s too busy trying to humanize Gordon Gekko, an all-time great villain. Why?

Red Dawn (1984)

“Red Dawn” (1984) is one of several “What if the Russians and us went to war?” movies from the 1980s. This one stars a Brat Pack B list. It’s a guilty pleasure for many red-blooded American men of a certain age. It makes passing reference to how hard it is to fight in Afghanistan (apparently, nobody listened). Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey are together, three years before “Dirty Dancing.” They even have a tender scene right before she blows up a Russkie with a grenade. She also has several scenes with Charlie Sheen, two years before “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”