Millions (2004)

“God doesn’t rob banks! ” – Damien

Number of Times Seen –1  (15 Aug 2016)

Brief Synopsis – Two young boys find a bag filled with money just days before the switch-over between Pounds and Euros and must figure out what to do with the money before it becomes worthless.

My Take on it – Once again, here’s a review of a Danny Boyle film as I try to get through all of them this month.

I must admit that I actually found this one pretty mediocre and it might possibly be my least favorite of the lot.

The characters are quite quirky (as expected by Boyle), but even two cute kids like these can’t hold the film together long enough.

The way that things were presented to us here, the premise is an interesting one but the execution of it just feels lacking.

It was too easy to get bored of the characters and the storyline and once that happened, I didn’t care any more what would happen to these kids or how they would solve their newfound problem.

Bottom Line – Liked the premise, but I can’t say that the execution was done well enough. Probably one of my least favorite Boyle movies. Didn’t find any of the very quirky characters interesting enough and got kinda bored with watching these kids pretty quickly.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Damian favourite book is called “Six O’Clock Saints”. Popular in the UK in the 1950s, it is surprising that any parent would give a copy to their child, as the screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce points out at 03:08 in the DVD commentary, since it contains all the gruesome stories that Damian tells in class, plus many more. Its inclusion is a sort of homage to Martin Scorsese, who, according to Boyce, has cited it in interviews as one of his favorite books growing up and that it gave him a wider understanding of the human experience than had been revealed to him as a child. Roger Ebert’s 18 March 2005 review of the film, mentions that Boyce “got the inspiration for the screenplay from an interview in which Martin Scorsese said he was reading the lives of the saints.” (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy

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