No Surrender Cinema: Money Talks
When Bulletproof Action Hall of Famers Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett took to the streets of Miami in Bad Boys, they captivated audiences and reignited the entire buddy cop genre. In the ensuing months and years we’d meet a variety of odd couple pairings that were out to protect and serve…if they didn’t kill each other first. One of the most popular entries in the genre was 1998’s Rush Hour, featuring comedian Chris Tucker and internationally renowned martial arts movie star Jackie Chan, a film that went on to tremendous box office success and spawned two sequels and a television series inspired by the films. What many fans forget is that the year before Rush Hour, Brett Ratner and Tucker had a test run, utilizing many of the elements that would make the Rush Hour series so popular. You’ve got a foul mouthed felon, a reporter desperate for a story, and an international incident about to happen in the most explosive and humorous ways possible, so let’s see what happens when Money Talks!
Money Talks marks the second time that Charlie Sheen has made an appearance here in No Surrender Cinema; loyal readers may recall that my very first column at Bulletproof Action covered Sheen’s turn as the vengeful spirit of a murdered teen in The Wraith. Here he plays James Russell, a reporter for Channel 12 News that spends his days exposing low level criminals like Franklin Hatchett (Tucker). Hatchett is your typical petty hustler, running scams out of a local car wash, and his luck runs out when he’s busted on camera in the middle of Russell’s expose. Things don’t get any better when he’s handcuffed to Raymond Villard during a routine prison transport. If you’ve seen how prison transports in action films go, you know that the shit has only just begun to hit the fan, and it’s not long before the transport is attacked, people are killed, and things are blown up. The only thing saving Hatchett from certain death is the pair of handcuffs attaching him to Villard, but when he realizes that Villard and his cronies don’t intend to keep him alive much longer, he dives out of the escape helicopter and lands in the water below, but not before absorbing the information that Villard has stolen diamonds hidden at a local auto expo.
Franklin may have escaped Villard, but now finds himself on the run, being blamed for the death and destruction caused by his men. After going from small time thug to America’s Most Wanted, Franklin decides to enlist the help of Russell (who Franklin blames for getting him put in jail in the first place) to clear his name. After a heated exchange where Franklin threatens to “kick his ass in the head”, Russell agrees to help Franklin if he gives him the exclusive on the story. This requires Franklin to lay low, so Russell begrudgingly hides him out. Adding to all the fun is that it happens to be the week of Russell’s wedding to Beverly Hills socialite Grace (Heather Locklear). Franklin reluctantly tags along and endears himself to Grace’s parents, especially her father (Paul Sorvino) when he poses as Vic Damone Jr., the product of the famed singer’s marriage to Diahann Carroll. Since Mr. Cipriani is an old school paisan, he takes a liking to “Vic”, and this makes for a few humorous exchanges between the two throughout the film.
While humor is a necessity in a film like this, let’s not forget about the trouble that lays ahead. Detectives Williams and Pickett will stop at nothing to bring Franklin in, his pregnant girlfriend Paula is hesitant to become an accessory to his perceived crimes, and Villard has his henchmen ready to take Franklin out at a moment’s notice. Oh, and there’s Carmine, the mobster that Franklin owes money to. Aside from his old friend Aaron, a gangster, it looks like it’s Franklin vs. The World. After getting Mr. Cipriani to accompany him to the Auto Expo and bid on the car that contains the diamonds, Franklin thinks he’s back on easy street, until Villard takes Russell hostage. This is when Franklin’s hustler mentality kicks in, as he sets the stage for the exchange, but also lets the cops, Carmine, and Aaron in on the rendezvous. What follows is an explosive finale inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where diamonds are found, lives are lost, and Franklin makes a play to save James and blow his enemies sky high.
Although Tucker’s work in Friday and Rush Hour seem to be what he’s best remembered for, Money Talks is a true gem of the era thanks in part to him. Tucker carries most of the film with his comedic charm and outlandish antics, but credit also has to be given to Sheen for playing the straight man role rather well. As far as the supporting cast, the villains seem to be there solely for the action sequences, because we never get any type of backstory or character motivations aside from the fact that they want the diamonds. We meet Villard during the prison exchange, we see his right hand man come to his rescue, but after the failed attempt on Franklin’s life, the movie segues into Russell’s poor attempt at witness protection.
Earlier in the review I mentioned how Bad Boys kickstarted a new era in action, and Money Talks also followed suit in its action sequences. This is just a small portion of the action that the film provides us; buses blowing up, people leaping out of helicopters, all of the rival factions shooting at each other, and Aaron and his enforcer coming to save the day with a rocket launcher. All of the action has that over the top energy that became synonymous with blockbuster action films, just not as much glamour and excess. I don’t mean for that last sentence to detract from anything that Money Talks offers either; the action, especially the third act where the Coliseum becomes a war zone, is just as endearing as Tucker and Sheen’s verbal give and take.
Money Talks might not get all the love that Tucker’s ensuing films would earn, but it’s a fun time and one of my most “rewatchable” films of all time. For those of you who haven’t seen it, fear not, because it’s rather easy to find. The film is currently streaming on HBO Max, and although it doesn’t have a Blu-ray release, it can be found on its own or on various DVD compilations (including one that features this film and all three Rush Hour flicks). I even recently saw a copy (paired with Ice Cube’s All About The Benjamins as a double feature) during one of my recent Dollar Tree DVD hauls. That means for fifty cents per film, you could watch Chris Tucker talk shit and blow things up while battling French terrorists for diamonds. If money talks, then it would tell you that you just got a hell of a deal.
