the audience applauded

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

An enjoyable enough film, which Richard Prior does as well as anybody could with. But it is nowhere near as good as it felt as a child or that it could have been.The plot and the rules of the challenge are an absolute mess and endless list of inconsistencies. He was told that he was not allowed to buy somebody a diamond ring say, or have assets but then spent most of the film buying gifts and items which could be constituted as an asset.The more that the film went on, the more daft that the premise became. When he was dishing out salaries he could have made each one bigger to spend more money.

A few days after seeing the 1945 Brewster's Millions, I finally watched the remake that was released 40 years later. It starred Richard Pryor as Monty Brewster, here a minor league baseball player who sees film of his late grandpa (Hume Cronyn) who tells him the conditions of his will. John Candy is Pryor's baseball buddy, Lonette McKee-who previously co-starred with him in Which Way is Up?-is his accountant, Candy's "SCTV" co-star Rick Moranis is someone who likes to repeat whatever someone next to him says, and David White-who I remember as Larry Tate on "Bewitched"-is one of the executers of the will. This wasn't as funny as the previous version I watched but I still had some good laughs watching Pryor, Candy, Moranis, and some of the changes in some scenes. So on that note, this version of Brewster's Millions is worth a look.

The down-on-luck baseball player Brewster (Richard Pryor) is about to have his life drastically changed after being the sole heir of a big fortune. But in order to get the millions of dollars he's forced to spend U$30 million in the period of a month without getting having any properties or certain things to himself or wasting money away, those are the rules given to him. AND he can't say to anybody what's he doing."Brewster's Millions" is all about showing how difficult is Pryor's mission. So what does he do? He hires people of any kind paying them with a lot of money, buys an iceberg and the most expensive stamp of all, run as a mayor, among other things. He's closely followed by his best friend (John Candy), an accountant (Lonette McKee) from the bank, and also a colleague of her whose mission is to make Brewster lose this "game" and let the money stay in the bank.Despite the great premise, the problem is that "Brewster's Millions" is never so much funny like it could have been. Constantly talky, very noisy but with a great pace, the film's weakest attribute (but it can be viewed as its best, in a way) is making the small characters to have the funniest parts of the show while the comic giants are only allowed to exceed themselves, or to have just a bunch of punchlines. Examples: Rick Moranis, playing the greatest impersonator of all and Joe Grifasi, playing Brewster's "personal photographer", they both offer such an enjoyable good time for us, more rewarding than all the fuzzy events with Pryor's character. Treated like an Frank Capra's comedy, or even the humor of the Marx Brothers classic or dynamic as "Trading Places" (released on the same decade as this one) this could be far more impressive. "Brewster's Millions" deals with ethics, moral, the money's importance in people's lives and manages to be a little funny. The greatest thing is that it touched some poignant themes but it never got too serious or tacky (sure, Brewster understands even under contradictory circumstances, that even with all that money he gets he doesn't necessary feel better about it), it simply stick to the cheerful comedy with plenty of humor. New territory for action director Walter Hill ("Warriors", "Streets of Fire"), exploring humored situations rather than explosions and fights, he stayed firm the rhythm presented in his works, very fast and well-constructed, with no time to waste. One moment changes to another without making us lose interest. Above anything it's a pleasant film for any moment. Low your expectations without finding the same Richard Pryor of classics like "Stir Crazy" or Silver Streak" and you'll be greatly rewarded. At least, this is one of his good moments. 7/10

Montgomery Brewster (Richard Pryor) is a replacement pitcher for a New Jersey baseball team. He and his friend Spike Nolan (John Candy) have dreams of joining the big league, but the problem is that nobody is interested in them. Everything hits rock bottom when they are locked up in gaol for brawling and are not bailed out by their coach. But a strange guy pops up, bails them out and takes them to New York City where Monty is brought into an office alone where three lawyers sit. Here he learns that he has inherited a lot of money, but there is a catch. His great uncle doesn't want him to be taken for a ride, but rather he wants him to use the money wisely, so he says that he has thirty days to spend thirty million dollars. If he makes it then he gets three hundred million, but if he fails he gets nothing. At the end of the thirty days he is allowed no assets, he can only give 5% away to charity and can only loose 5% gambling. When hiring people he can only get his money's worth. Nor can he tell anybody about it. As such he has to get rid of all of the money while everybody else is trying to get him to save it.This movie is based on earlier movies and the critics did not like this one that much. I have not seen the earlier movies (though would like to) but I enjoyed this movie. Richard Pryor and John Candy are both good, clean actors and comedians and the jokes are seriously funny in this one. It is quite amusing watching his friends wonder why Monty gets upset when he earns money and is joyous when he looses money.The whole purpose of this is to force Monty to get so sick of spending money that he won't blow away the money that his great uncle has earned. The lawyers want the money because if Monty fails then they get the 300 million. They don't think Monty can do it though, but when it seems like he is succeeding, they get scared and try to defraud him out of $20,000 so that they still get the money. Thus it becomes a competition with very high stakes. Monty looses nothing if he fails, but if the lawyers fail then they can be up for fraud.The interesting thing about it also is how people all come to bludge off Monty for the money. People swarm around him wanting jobs and simply money, and others try to swindle him, but Monty doesn't care. The fortunate thing is that when he wins, everybody is going to think that he is broke and they are not going to bother him anymore, while Brewster sits on millions of dollars. His friend Spike and the security guard show their friendship by collecting money for him after, so we can see beyond the movie that Brewster will remember them for their generosity.The cleverest thing Brewster did was run for mayor and then withdrawal at the last minute. This was a very fortunate occurrence that there was a mayoral election on at that time, because it would have been very difficult to get rid of it otherwise. The clever thing though was buying a very expensive stamp and then mailing it. It was this action that worried the lawyers and made them act against him.The critics did not like this movie but I do. This is a clever movie and Pryor and Candy are decent actors. Candy plays a good friend who is always there for Brewster and we know that this friendship will last even though Brewster has become a millionaire.Favourite Quote: Spike to Monty when they are in gaol: I don't think this is a race thing because I'm in here too (its funny to me since having seen Hanging with the Homeboys a few days earlier).