Forest Whitaker, Kim Basinger, Danny Devito, Kelsey Grammer and Ray Liotta star in director Mark Rydell's ensemble addiction drama detailing the manner in which gambling and drugs affect a variety of people's lives during the weeks leading up to a championship college basketball game.

The lure of easy cash drives the interlocking storylines of Easy Money, an all-star tale of gamblers, bookies, and gangsters. The movie draws together a blocked novelist addicted to the slots (Kim Basinger, L.A. Confidential), a magician on the skids (Danny DeVito, Get Shorty), a bookie with stress-induced stomach problems (Jay Mohr, Jerry Maguire), a debt-ridden plumber (Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland) who persuades his basketball-playing brother (Nick Cannon, Love Don't Cost a Thing) to shave points, and a gangster by turns mincing and menacing (Tim Roth, Reservoir Dogs). Tying them all together is a murder investigation conducted by a detective on crutches (an unrecognizable Kelsey Grammer, X-Men: The Last Stand). Even Money never achieves the raw, spontaneous energy of a Robert Altman movie (clearly an influence) or the social complexity of Crash (produced by the same company), but individual scenes and actors (particularly Whitaker as he twists his brother's affection to perverse ends) have an impact. Unfortunately, the movie never grips the viewer with the rush of winning or the knife-twist of losing; without that visceral punch, Even Money feels inauthentic and a little preachy. Also featuring Ray Liotta (Goodfellas) as Basinger's long-suffering husband and Carla Gugino (Snake Eyes) as a nurse in love with a brutal debt collector. --Bret Fetzer

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