A robber tosses his loot onto a freeway and it lands on the hood of a random passerby. Said passerby decides to keep the $600,000+ and use it to buy brand new…everything, for him and his wife. While the robber gets incarcerated, he offers half the money to his twin brother if he can track it down. If the young couple flashes their money around and started paying cash for big ticket items, they will be hunted down…they do, and they are.
The plot never gets too complicated. The gangster finds the couple and forces them to pay back every penny that has been either spent or stashed. Things escalate as the gangster moves into their home and gives them a 5 day time-line to repay. What starts off as a tense crime thriller turns first into a goofy accounting comedy (accounting, by the way, making for a very tedious way to eat up plot time), and then turns into a Fun with Dick and Jane type romp where the couple must rob a series of locations in order to retrieve the money they spent that they do not have naturally (they were in debt before finding the stolen loot). The script tries to make the stakes for the couple be quite dire, but there are too many embarrassing (and sometimes racists) moments, especially when the gangster is confronting people who may have the money, as well as some rather hammy performances by some of the supporting cast, for the film to be taken seriously.
Sean Bean plays the suit wearing gangster with ease, with his dangerous. psychotic side being played just subtly enough that he is a convincing force to be reckoned with. A pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth does his best to be believable and charming as the husband (it should be noted that this is a good chance to check out Mr. Hemsworth before he appears on the silver screen as the God of Thunder) but Victoria Profeta completely stumbles as the wife. Her unconvincing performance only enhances the campiness of the film’s comedic side, and not in a pleasant way. As a couple, they have decent chemistry but look awkward when they’re supposed to be distraught.
Video
Widescreen 1.78:1. The picture quality is acceptably clear. The darker tones could be just a pinch shaper but really I have no complaints.
Audio
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and 2.0 are both available. There is a very nice balance of car and city of Chicago sounds in all of the speakers, placing you right into the many driving scenes. The score and dialogue are equally clear with no notable flaws in the ADR.
Special Features
Deleted and Extended Scenes: A small gaggle of scenes that explain details that clearly were not crucial to the plot or moving action. Worthy cuts.
Making of Ca$h: Interviews and clips that look back at the different stages of development as well as muse on the idea that Cash is a corrupting element. That anyone can turn that much more evil if exposed to big amounts of it.
Trailers: For this film and others from Lionsgate.
Final Thoughts
This film could have gone in either direction. With a plot like this, either a lot more fun could be had, or things could have been a whole lot more “thrilling.” With some corny dialogue, weak supporting performances and the action grinding to a halt more often than not to literally crunch some numbers, this film falls short…stylized title or no.
