Frankly Speaking: Money Monster Review

Money Monster, from TriStar Pictures, is an American crime thriller drama film that takes place in New York City. It follows a tv show that is about Wall Street and the stock market and keeps the audience in suspense the entire time.

The movie is about the tv show, Money Monster, and is hosted by Lee Gates (George Clooney), a master at reading the stock market and telling how it will fluctuate. Though, about 24 hours before the latest broadcast, the company IBIS Global Capital’s stock totally crashed due to a computer glitch, resulting in the loss of around $800 million. The CEO of IBIS, Walt Camby (Dominic West), was going to be interviewed by Gates on the show, but had left for an unexpected business trip and would be back at some unknown point. Around the middle of the show, a deliveryman comes onto the show and pulls out a gun. He then proceeds to take Gates hostage, threatening to shoot him if the cameras stop filming. The man then makes Gates open one of the boxes he carried onto the set, which contains a bomb-strapped vest, and makes the show host put it on. At this point, the director of Money Monster, Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), makes all of the non-essential staff and crew leave the building for their own safety. The person threatening Gates is revealed to be Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell), a lower class laborer who had invested his whole life savings of $60,000 that he had inherited from his deceased mother in IBIS stock because Gates had said in a previous episode that it was safe to invest in IBIS. This meant that all of that money was lost in the $800 million dollar glitch. From here, Gates and Fenn try to talk Kyle out of doing all of this, as well as figuring out why and how $800 million was lost all at once, since it shouldn’t be physically possible for that to happen.

One of the things that I really liked the movie was the plot and how it constantly kept you on the edge of your seat the entire time. Just when everything would start to calm down, something else would happen to stir everyone into a frenzy again. The movie stayed like this all the way until the end, which for the most part was very, very satisfying.

Another part of the movie that I liked was the characters, and how none of them were as flat as they first appeared. Each of them, from Lee Gates to Lenny the camera guy (Lenny Venito), made you feel something for the characters. Especially Gates and Kyle, who at the start of the movie were two characters that weren’t really likable at all. But as the story progressed, both of the characters made you feel sad, or happy, or many other emotions for them.

The only part of the film that I didn’t like was the ending, when a certain character dies (and who will not be named for spoiler’s sake). I feel like their death could have been avoided, but at the same time I also see why it was needed.

Overall, Money Monster was a fantastic movie. The story and characters were awesome and it kept you engrossed the entire time. The only part that could have been better was the death of a character in the end. But even with that, the movie was great and a must see. So I give Money Monster a 3.9 out of 4 stars.