Starring: James Franco, Kate Hudson, Tom Wilkinson, Anna Friel, Omar Sy, Sam Spruell
Directed by: Henrik Ruben Genz
Synopsis: Discovering a cache of cash in their dead tenant’s apt, a couple in debt take the money and find themselves the target of a deadly adversary-the thief who stole it.
I really have to question the movie making machine sometimes. Take ‘Good People’ for instance. Someone actually wrote this film. And then someone else actually wanted to make it, out of all the other millions of scripts out there. Then some one raised the money to help the person make it. Then some other person some how managed to get hold of the agents of James Franco and Kate Hudson. And THEY then agreed to be in ip the film presumably having read the script! How did it go from being written to starring James Franco without ANYONE saying “maybe we should just save the money or give it to charity or something instead”.
Now, I’m not saying Good People is the worst movie I’ve ever seen, I’m just saying that it is so incredibly average, cliche-ridden and hackneyed that I can’t see how anyone drummed up any enthusiasm to make it in the first place. Maybe Franco and Hudson just happened to be in London at the time and had nothing better to do?
The film itself revolves around a couple called Tom and Anna (played by Franco and Hudson of course) who are in debt and about to be evicted from their house. As luck, or not, would have it, the guy who they rent their basement out to dies, leaving a nice bag of money in the ceiling. Obviously the couple take it. But unfortunately for them the guy who died hadn’t won the lottery, he was a bit of a nasty geezer and his mates want their money back.
Heard it all before? Of course you have. We also have nice cops and corrupt cops, and stereotypical English gangsters as well. To top it off there is also another character played by Omar Sy who does nothing but muddy the water. I still don’t really know why he was in the film.
The trouble as always with this kind of film is that we are supposed to buy into the fact that these people are average joes, who suddenly turn into action heroes, when most of us would curl up into a ball if confronted by some tough London crime lord.
The performances by Franco, Hudson and the always reliable Tom Wilkinson are OK, but the script hardly gives them anything much to go on. I give full marks to the inventive ways of dispatching some bad guys at the end, but even then it expected me to believe this ordinary couple would even be able to pull such feats off.
Good People, bad film.
