Mad Money (2008)

Reel.com 8 of 10
Why should George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and their Las Vegas crew have all of the fun? Callie Khouri's clever Mad Money lets the girls in on the action for a change, as Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, and Katie Holmes hatch a scheme to "withdraw" funds from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City...Khouri didn't pen this script (credit goes to Glenn Gers), but her screenwriting experience--she won the Oscar for Thelma & Louise--ensures that Money holds together and delivers laughs as the women beat the system. The film makes creative use of flashbacks and breaks the fourth wall between cast and audience. Key players, already in jail, recount plot details to flummoxed police officers. Bridget's theory about crime being contagious might not click, but comments about society's inherent desire to spend money we don't have hit home...In time, though, Money stops paying close attention to details. Nina doesn't want Jackie's phone number programmed in her cell for fear it might link the two ladies, yet the three "criminals" eat out at the same rib shack together every few weeks. We notice this primarily because the scam has been fairly airtight up to this point. But the cast, uniformly good, smoothes over most of the wrinkles, and Ted Danson, as Bridget's incredulous husband, steals every scene he's in. - Sean O'Connell
 
Salon.com 6 of 10
If the theory of evolution applied to movies, there'd be no such thing as a sluggish caper film. Callie Khouri's "Mad Money" flaps its useless little fins desperately in a bid to incite our interest, and our laughter. But the picture has no legs, no style, no sense of movement other than the meandering, dawdling kind...The sisterhood message in "Mad Money" may be more muddled, but it still manages to seep through the movie's clammy surface. Keaton looks lovely here -- these days, even in the lousy roles she's been getting, she's at least interesting to look at -- but the movie makes virtually no use of her terrific timing. Latifah is equally radiant, but the movie constrains her charms instead of showcasing them. Holmes, as a dippy, trippy hippie chick, comes off best here: Of these three performances, hers at least has a pulse. Holmes, before her abduction and reprogramming at the hands of Ming the Merciless, was often a charming actress, and in pictures like "Pieces of April," she showed the promise of becoming quite a good one. If nothing else, "Mad Money" suggests that we haven't totally lost her. If she can bring a spark of mad joy to the act of stuffing money down her underpants, there may be hope for her yet. - Stephanie Zacharek