tonight's movie was Easy Money (1983)! and it was a great time! i needed a break from misery after the past two movies and decided to go with a comedy. of course, as most of you know, old comedies can be absolute minefields. thankfully, Easy Money is one such example of a comedy that sidesteps most of the really egregious aspects of old comedies, though it's by no means perfect. there's definitely some jokes that have aged poorly then others, but honestly? it made me laugh more then it didn't and that's something! and honestly, Rodney Dangerfield (Montgomery "Monty" Capuletti) is just an unbelievably funny guy even when he's not talking. the scene where he's painting the model airplane while his daughter practices violin? incredible. he's matched very well by the rest of the cast, including Jennifer Jason Leigh as Monty's daughter Allison, who is the newlywed wife of Julio Ocampo, who is played extremely well by Taylor Negron. their subplot is a ton of fun (and resulted in Anthrax sampling this movie in I'm The Man!) but i'm a little uneased by the racist subtext of why Monty dosen't like Julio which is never touched on aside from Monty saying that he "looks like he belongs in a gang." 80's movies! like i said, it sidesteps most of the landmines but not all. that's kind of the biggest one though. the rest of the movie is pretty much fine. well, except for Jeffery Jones as Clive Barlow, who could have been done a lot worse but also is not done very well at all and is also Jeffery Jones so the entire time he was on screen i was like 😬. anyway, there's not a whole lot to talk about in terms of presentation or music, aside from the Billy Joel theme song, which I liked but Billy Joel haters will probably react like angry cats at. everything is done with a confident hand but nothing really stands out aside from the way the scenes allow for the gags to work. this is not a movie for plot or deep characters, it's all about the japes here. there is a setup for the action though it dosen't start for a surprisingly long time. Monty is a man who works hard as a children's photographer and plays hard with every vice you can think of, while still caring deeply for his family. his wife Rose (Candy Azzara) is also very happy being with him, but her mother Kathleen (Geraldine Fitzgerald) is very much not and begs her over and over again to leave her because Monty is too low-brow for the Monahan family, who sees themselves as monied types owing to their ownership of the Monahan Department store. Kathleen also despises Monty for being italian and not irish, because of course she does. Kathleen is scheduled to come over to celebrate the wedding the next day of Allison and Julio, much to Monty's chagrin. Monty finds an excuse to get out of the house to go pick up the wedding cake with his buddy Nicky Cerone (Joe Pesci). the cake is picked up and thrown in the back of Nicky's plumbing company van as he and Monty then use the remaining time to indulge in the vices of life, including gambling, drinking, going to strip clubs and smoking weed while driving. the last one ends in a minor accident for them but a major catastrophe for the cake, which is now smeared all over the van while the family (along with Kathleen and her sniveling assistant Clive) wait patiently for Monty to show up for dinner. thankfully, the wedding day goes off perfectly smooth, aside from some very loud crying in the aisles. Monty is reluctant to give away Allison to her husband to be, but finally relents. at the reception, Monty once again indulges and also is cold to Julio. the newlyweds soon leave for their wedding night, only for Julio to discover Allison has no idea how sex works because neither of her parents taught her. this causes a rift between them and Allison returns home on her wedding night. that same night, Monty receives a phone call from Kathleen's lawyer Daniel Scrappleton (Tom Ewell) who informs him that Kathleen died in a plane crash. inheritance with strings attached hijinks ensue. this movie dosen't really require many CW's aside from the mild racism one (which honestly, why is it there?) and some other minor ones like drinking, nudity, etc. honestly, this was a fun time and i do recommend it, just make sure you are ready for some iffy jokes amongst the great ones.
