Diane Keaton, Katie Holmes, and Queen Latifah headline director Callie Khouri's (DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD) second feature film. Nina (Latifah) and Jackie (Holmes) are two of many employees with mundane jobs at the high-security Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. Their lives change forever when career mom Bridget (Diane Keaton) takes a job there as a cleaning woman after learning that she and her downsized husband, Don (Ted Danson), are hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Being surrounded by stacks and stacks of money is too much for Bridget to bear, and she corrals Nina and Jackie into taking the biggest risk of their lives: sneaking out of the bank money that is removed from circulation and about to be shredded. Amazingly, their scheme works, and soon the three are fast friends and the cash is piling up. But will they ever have enough "mad money," or will greed be their downfall?
The fun here is in how three average women pull off a remarkably low-tech scam in the midst of super-high security levels, hidden cameras, and constant monitoring. Keaton, Latifah, and Holmes make a nice team, playing very different women with very different needs. Keaton's Bridget is trying to maintain her family's comfortable, upper-middle-class lifestyle when her husband no longer can. Meanwhile, the sole concern of Latifah's single mom, Nina, is keeping her sons out of trouble despite their surroundings. And Holmes's Jackie is a one-of-a-kind free spirit, dancing to the beat of her own drummer. Danson has some of the film's best lines as he tries to put his wife's actions into perspective.
Blu-ray Disc Features:
Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35
Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
Dolby Digital - English
Stars
Diane Keaton: American actress/director, LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR
Queen Latifah: American rapper/actress
Katie Holmes: American actress, THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, DAWSON'S CREEK
Ted Danson: American Actor
Stephen Root: Actor/"Monkey Shines"
Christopher McDonald: American Actor
Adam Rothenberg: Actor, MAD MONEY
Roger R. Cross: Actor/"Beyond Suspicion"
Director
Callie Khouri: Screenwriter - "Thelma & Louise"
Producer
Jay Cohen: Executive Producer
Frank DeMartini: Producer, MAD MONEY
James Acheson: Supporting actor, KAZAAM/IN THE SHADOW OF THE COBRA
Michael Flannigan: Producer, MAD MONEY
Screenwriter
Glenn Gers: Screenwriter, FRACTURE (2007)
Composer
Martin Davich: Composer, JACKIE ETHEL JOAN: WOMEN OF CAMELOT (2001)
James Newton Howard: Composer, KING KONG (2005)
Executive Producer
Avi Lerner:
Executive Producer
Boaz Davidson: Israeli director, screenwriter, producer
Executive Producer
Dan Dimbort: Executive Producer
Executive Producer
Robert Green: Executive producer
Executive Producer
Trevor Short: Executive Producer
Executive Producer
Wendy Kram: Executive producer
Director of Photography
John Bailey: American Director Of Photography/Director
Review 1:
"[I]t gives you a good, infectious dose of its heroines' money fever." -- Grade: B-
Source: Entertainment Weekly
p.56 01/25/2008