Rent The Color of Money (1986)

Superb - The Color of Money review by sb

FILM & REWATCH Always has this down as a mid-level Scorsese - good but not top rate. Watching it again after several years and it’s just superb. Once you get over the shock of just how young Cruise looks you can see how well he plays the vain arrogant selfish prick that is Vincent. He drives Eddy to almost beyond despair with his antics and his refusal to tone it down that causes the final break with an excellent Mastrantinio trying to make him see sense. Of course the film is really about Eddie who is doing well enough for himself in the liquor business who initially sees using Vincent to get a final shot at redemption and then finally realising he can do that all by himself. Newman is just brilliant in the role - quiet , understated who has to have his pride humiliated by a younger hustler for the fire to reignite. At the time the feeling was he won the Oscar because it was felt they has better give him one sooner than later but watching it again he fully deserved it. Scorsese is at the height of his game here with some magnificent editing by his long time collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker where you are in the front row for every hammer break. Glad I screened it again as it really has gone up in my estimation - 5/5

Nerves of Baize - The Color of Money review by griggs

I've rarely been so invested in the fate of a white ball. Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker have a lot to answer for.

Schoonmaker holds those close-ups of balls rolling across the baize just long enough to make me nervous. About billiard balls. Michael Ballhaus gives the pool halls a grubby glamour, and the soundtrack keeps everything rattling along.

Paul Newman eases back into Fast Eddie Felson twenty-five years after The Hustler. Eddie sets out to teach a young hotshot how to hustle, then finds he has a few shots left in him.

The snag is the pairing. Newman barely needs to move, while Tom Cruise twirls his cue to Werewolves of London like it's his own music video. I enjoyed both, though they rarely look like they're at the same table. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's Carmen is the sharpest player in the room. Forest Whitaker pockets one scene with a sly hustle.

Fast Eddie's still got it. I just wish Scorsese had shown us that final game.