Many people close to me may be genuinely surprised to see this classic Richard Pryor classic 80’s comedy on my list but ‘Brewster’s Millions’ is here, and it is number 35 on my list. The surprise for me is that IMDb only gave this a 6.6 out of 10 and Rotten Tomatoes was even worse with a score of 35%. Shocking in my eyes and in these situations, I am tempted to turn to the box office figures and it returned $45.8m based on the production budget of $20m seems like a small success to me. Released in 1985 this comedy was directed by Walter Hill who has a list of great movies to his director name. Namely Hard Times, The Warriors, Southern Comfort, 48 Hours, Streets of Fire, Red Heat and Another 48 Hours to name a few. The screenplay was by Herschel Weingrod and Timothy Harris and based on a novel by George Barr McCutcheon. It stars Richard Pryor, John Candy, Lonette McKee, Stephen Collins, and Hume Cronyn. Rather than a plot I could just give you the premise of the story for this one.
Monty Brewster is a pitcher for a minor league team called the Hackensack Bulls. He is best friends with the catcher of the same team called Spike Nolan. After a game, the two are arrested in a bar room fight. When a stranger offers to post bail, they go to New York with him to the law offices of Granville & Baxter. Brewster is informed of his great-uncle’s death and that he has been left $300m fortune to claim this inheritance he has to complete a challenge. He is given $30m which he must spend completely within 30 days. Should he be left with just the shirt on his back at the end of 30 days the inheritance is his. Fail and the money goes to the legal firm working on the case. He can donate 5% to charity and lose 5% gambling but is not allowed to give any of the money way. He cannot buy expensive items and destroy them, and he is not allowed to tell anyone what is happening either. So how is he going to get rid of $30m to inherit $300m you’ll have to watch it to find out.
This is just funny and that is what you want from a movie. Richard Pryor is funny entertaining and loveable in his own unique way and playing this character to perfection. Having to devise ways of losing money while all around him are trying their best to keep him secure and save his money. While he is investing in icebergs and gambling on every long shot he can think of. Watching as his desperation increases as the thirty days steady ticks along. He comes up with some cunning ideas but are there some underhanded business to thwart his schemes. This is such a light-hearted and funny movie that you should just sit back and let it go.
Next up and a shock to me let alone you as we have a superhero movie in the top 50 and I am not quite sure how this happened either.
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