$ (1971)

While some call it light, I suppose that's true, but it's missing the point. $ isn't supposed to be nutritious, it's supposed to be delectable. The joy is in the unfolding story with no explanation of what's going on. Beatty says this method of robbing a bank has never been tried, but doesn't tell you what it is. The robbery starts, and you're still uncertain about how he's doing it. Then a few minutes into it, you get the, "oh. OH!" feeling and it's intoxicating to watch a slow-motion robbery, presented in batches of 60 seconds.I thought the chase was disappointing in its lack of true variety. Goldie's escape method is good, but in general its inventiveness pales compared to the bank heist technique. And all the puzzles make sense when you watch it a second time. But I'll never forget the feeling I had, watching this movie for the first time with my wife's 80 year old grandparents (!?!?!?), and savoring that joy of uncertainty..."what the heck is going on??" Mystery lovers, bon appetite.

$ is a light comedic heist movie with some solid performances from its lead stars Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn. The film is set in Hamburg Grtmany and most of the film was filmed there.The movie starts out with the crooks depositing there money in safe deposit boxes. While Joe Collins(Warren Beatty) is giving security tips to the banks manger. Dawn Devine (Goldie Hawn) is a hooker who seems to have a connection to some of the crooks and Joe. Joe conceives of a way to steal the crooks money because they cannot go to the police for protection. It ends with a fairly good chase scene and the rest plays out as you would expect.The acting in this film is first rate from Beatty and Hawne down to many of the supporting actors. The film is fast paced and moves along at a good pace. I did not like so many dark night time scenes these are done much better now with digital cameras.Overall an enjoyable light film that seems to go down well.Grade C+

A two-hour bank heist flick with the final 20 minutes featuring one of the longest chase scenes I've ever seen on film. In fact, Warren Beatty and the two guys chasing him must have been Olympic marathon runners to keep up that pace for so long, racing through Hamburg, Germany.This is a mixture of lighthearted and gritty material about an international robbery.Joining Beatty ("Joe Collins") in the hijinks is a young Goldie Hawn ("Dawn Divine") and "Goldfinger" of James Bond fame, Gerte Frobe. Scott Brady and Robert Webber also give shorter-but- memorable performances. In all, entertaining but not real heavy in the brains department.Nice to see this has finally been issued on DVD, and has a nice transfer.

How the hell did they get this made?! Presenting itself as a caper comedy, the misbegotten "$" is essentially two hours of people mumbling sentence fragments. The usually dependable Warren Beatty looks drunk, and the usually hilarious Goldie Hawn acts like she's on depressants. As for Gert Frobe, his most famous role - Goldfinger - was infinitely more admirable than his character here. Not even the guy with the champagne bottle of LSD can save this litany of worthlessness.Am I comparing this movie to "Plan 9 from Outer Space"? I wouldn't do such a thing even if someone paid me. "P9FOS" was idiotically made but ended up hilarious; this was idiotically made and causes you to feel like your brain just melted out of your ears. Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn made up for this when they co-starred in "Shampoo", but then they co-starred in the dreadful "Town & Country". Maybe they just shouldn't co-star in movies. All in all, I would rather have my skin torn off than have to watch this again. Awful.Maybe they should remake it with Jackie Chan. Then I would pay to see it.