All the Money in the World (Ridley Scott)

[TGM]

ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD

Director: Ridley Scott

imdb

[TGM]

This was okay, though it's also the second movie this week where we reached a point where I was sitting there asking myself, "holy shit, how is this thing still going?!" Definitely could've easily had a solid half hour trimmed from it.

I was mostly surprised by just how much Christopher Plummer is actually in the movie, though. He's in at least a third of the whole movie, and in a number of different locations at that, so that was pretty impressive to see just how much they were able to re-film and edit together in such a short amount of time. I expected for him to be in far less than he was, all things considered, so props to Ridley for at least pulling that off as seamlessly as he did.

[Ezee E]

Dare I say this is great? I was enamored the whole way through.

Heist and kidnapping movies tend to have unnecessary twists. Here, they're part of the whole theme of the movie, and it feels right too.

[Peng]

Scott could probably do this type of film in his sleep (and in fact may welcome the additional challenge of that recasting reshoot), and since I find him one of the most enjoyable directors on a pure technical craft term, this is propulsive dark fun for me. It lacks some extra dramatic layer that would take this to another level; Scott already has two compelling opposite forces in Christopher Plummel's repellant charm and Michelle Williams' fiercely humane portrayal, with the kidnapped kid tangent to provide tension and some class commentary. But the film needs a throughline of some back-and-forth to be really gripping. Maybe if Mark Whalberg's character is more substantial and better written (his late film's confrontation with Getty is a little embarassing)... 7/10