Brewster’s Millions (1985) Universal/Comedy RT: 97 minutes Rated PG (language, some sexual content) Director: Walter Hill Screenplay: Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod Music: Ry Cooder Cinematography: Ric Waite Release date: May 22, 1985 (US) Cast: Richard Pryor, John Candy, Lonette McKee, Stephen Collins, Jerry Orbach, Pat Hingle, Tovah Feldshuh, Hume Cronyn, Joe Grifasi, Peter Jason, David White, Jerome Dempsey, David Wohl, Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Milt Kogan, Carmine Caridi, Yakov Smirnoff. Box Office: $40.8M (US)/$45.8M (World)
Rating: **
It’s a damn shame when so much talent comes together only to create something as utterly mediocre as Brewster’s Millions, a comedy directed by Walter Hill (48 Hrs.) and starring two truly gifted funny men, Richard Pryor (Stir Crazy) and John Candy (Splash). It’s the seventh of eight film adaptations of the 1902 novel by George Barr McCutcheon. I’ve not seen any of the others, but surely they’re better than this weak effort.
Minor league relief pitcher Montgomery Brewster (Pryor) is going nowhere in life unless you count down as a destination. He’s let go by his manager (Orbach, Law & Order) after a bar fight he didn’t start. There’s no way he can make bail and it looks bad for him until a stranger (Grifasi, F/X) offers to pay it on behalf of a party who wishes to remain anonymous. Monty, thinking he’s a scout for the Yankees, goes to NYC with him only to find out he’s working for a lawyer representing his recently deceased great-uncle (Cronyn, Cocoon). It turns out he’s the sole heir to his fortune. Did I mention the old man was extremely rich?
He stands to inherit $300 million, but there’s a catch. Isn’t there always? In order to claim his inheritance, Monty must spend $30 million in 30 days with nothing to show for it at the end but the shirt on his back. Also, he’s not allowed to tell anybody about this arrangement. If he fails, the money will be divided among several charities by the law firm. OR he can forfeit the big money and take $1 million right there and then. It goes without saying Monty goes for the big money.
The firm assigns young paralegal Angela (McKee, The Cotton Club) to keep track of his expenditures. She doesn’t know about the $30M/30 day deal and is aghast at his spendthrift ways. She’s engaged to Warren (Collins, Star Trek: The Motion Picture), an ambitious young lawyer at the firm looking to make partner. He gets his chance when a couple of his bosses ask him to make sure Monty fails at the task placed before him. Two things go without saying; (1) Warren is a two-faced rat and (2) Monty and Angela start to fall for each other.
For his part, Monty does go hog wild, hiring employees and paying outrageous salaries for their services. He even hires his best friend Spike (Candy) as his public relations guy. He soon finds out getting rid of $30M isn’t as easy as it sounds. It seems like everything he tries just earns him more money. He’s frustrated and nobody understands why. He keeps trying though. At one point, he throws a lot of money into a mayoral campaign in which he urges voters to vote for “None of the Above” citing that neither he nor the other two candidates are deserving of the title.
It’s difficult to say what went wrong with Brewster’s Millions. Simply put, it’s not as funny as it should be given the cast and premise. It’s a screwball comedy without the screwball. There’s no comic energy. It starts out promisingly, but loses momentum before the midway point. A big part of the problem is Hill who never directed a straight-up comedy before. He makes great action movies which are really westerns in disguise. Comedy is clearly not his forte. This movie is L-A-M-E. The comic timing is off. The screenplay by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod (Trading Places) is disappointingly flat. It doesn’t accommodate either star or their comic talents. That’s not to say Pryor and Candy don’t try. They do, but they’re hindered by weak direction and writing. The PG rating doesn’t help either. It limits Pryor who’s famous for profane comedy. At times, you can see he’s making an effort to control himself.
I’m not saying Brewster’s Millions is a terrible movie; it’s just a disappointing one. I saw it at a sneak preview and the audience didn’t seem all that impressed with it. It’s amusing when it should be hilarious. Also, it wastes a talented cast that also includes Pat Hingle (Sudden Impact) as a good-guy lawyer, Tovah Feldshuh (Cheaper to Keep Her) as a snotty interior director and Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff as a cab driver hired by Monty to drive his limo. You remember him, his famous catchphrase was “America, what a country!” I’ll grant that the two leads have pretty good chemistry, but it’s nowhere near the level of comedy magic generated by Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy.
In the end, the highest praise I can afford Brewster’s Millions is that it’s okay. To its credit, it’s generally good-natured. It’s not mean-spirited in any way. It doesn’t try to comment on greater societal issues like poverty and homelessness either. Hill keeps things light. That doesn’t change my opinion. I can’t recommend it, but I can’t condemn it either. Hell, I can barely remember it.
