BLUE MONEY (director: Colin Bucksey; screenwriter: Stewart Parker; cinematographer: Peter Jessop; editor: Jon Costelloe; music: Richard Hartley; cast: Tim Curry (Larry Gormley), Debby Bishop (Pam Hodge), Billy Connolly (Des), Dermot Crowley (Brogan), George S. Irving (Ramirez), David Quilter (Rick Skinner), John Bird (Harry Diamond); Runtime: 82; MPAA Rating: PG; producer: June Roberts/Jo Apted; Sony/Weekend Video; 1984-UK)
“For fans of Curry it’s a frigging trip.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A fast-paced nutty comedy that’s loosely based on a true story about “blue money” (funny or loose money). Happy-go-lucky London taxi driver Larry Gormley (Tim Curry) goes to auditions as he aspires to break into showbiz as a singer who does impressions. Screw-up Larry gets the part in an upscale West End musical but the producer Harry Diamond keels over dead from a heart attack just as he gave Larry the part, and his death means no financial backing for the show. One day an unfriendly Colombian mobster courier named Ramirez leaves a suitcase with half a million dollars in his cab while he goes into a store to buy cigarettes and Larry steals the money. He convinces his slightly more responsible girlfriend Pam Hodge (Debby Bishop) to go with him to Dublin, where his mom lives, in the second-hand Cadillac he just bought. Larry picks up Glasgow hitchhiker Des (Billy Connolly), who turns out to be a dangerous petty thief. He’s also followed by his untrustworthy best pal Brogan (Dermot Crowley), a pickpocket he can’t shake as he smells something is up. Ramirez is killed by his Latin American mobster associates and Larry is followed by the hitmen, though he doesn’t realize it. Arriving in Dublin after a few exciting adventures on the road, Larry learns that the police, the mob and the IRA are after him. Rather than give the dough to the IRA and get political asylum in Ireland, he flees with Debby in the yacht he just bought. It leads to a fairy-tale ending.
It showcases Tim Curry as he impersonates Mick Jagger, Elvis, Satchmo, Billie Holiday, Bing, and Ray Charles. In the story he also impersonates a nun, an old lady and an American wheeler-dealer. The story zips by as an adrenaline rush in insanity; for fans of Curry it’s a frigging trip, for others it’s a test of how much Curry they like in their entertainment.
It’s helmed by Colin Bucksey (“Curiosity Kills”) and written by Stewart Parker for television.
REVIEWED ON 6/6/2006 GRADE: B-
Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”
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