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I liked this enough that I didn't feel I'd wasted my money, but I
didn't like it enough to urge anyone else to spend theirs seeing it.
This is hardly a new idea. Kirk Douglas plays an old man with a
buttload of money. Phil Hartman, Ed Begley Jr., and a gaggle of others
play his surviving relatives, who spend their weekends kowtowing to him
and doing each other down trying to line themselves up for when old age
claims him.
Olivia D'Abo plays the young girl who looks like she's in it for the
money.
Michael J. Fox is the once-and-future favorite, the son of the only
relative sufficiently idealistic to not give a care about Kirk
Douglas's money.
It's what you might call light entertainment. There are attempts to
keep the audience guessing but unless you've never encountered this
story in fiction or real life then you're not going to be surprised by
much that happens in this movie. There's nothing amazing or Academy
Award by what goes on here. Competently written, acted, directed.
Michael J. Fox's character actually goes through some evolution here,
but it isn't really possible for someone who looks like he does to
really be a bad guy in a vehicle like this.
Two and a half stars out of five. I can't think of anything in it that
was actively awful, except maybe Phil Hartman's clothes, but that just
enhanced his sliminess....
DFW
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