Cash Review

Part of the fun of being a deckhand for the good ship Blogomatic3000 is reviewing DVDs. More often than not, I never know exactly what’s going to arrive in the post and again more often than not, I think it’s fair to say, the DVD screeners are usually fairly obscure fare. As such, I might not know anything other than the film’s title when I push it into the DVD player, which was exactly the case with Cash. What would it be? A hard hitting documentary about capitalism? A rom-com set in a bank? That long-awaited biopic of Australia’s finest tennis player? I was just hoping it wasn’t another godawful 50 Cent gangsta flick.

Turns out, Cash is a fairly charming French heist film, first released in 2008. 2008? I hear you think (I really can hear you. And see you. Put some trousers on for godssakes). What on earth is it doing being released now? Well, Cashstars a certain Jean Dujardin, the now Oscar-nominated lead in The Artist. With near-worthless euros gleaming in their eyes, Metrodome have decided to release this in order to cash in on Dujardin’s sudden success.

There’s nothing wrong with that really. It is the movie business after all. Fortunately, Cash is actually pretty good. Dujardin is the titular rogue, the leader of gang of con-people, who enlist the help of a police detective in order to out-con a rival con-gang led by Jean Reno. A whole load of clever tricks, silly escapades and double-crossing and side-swapping ensues.

Dujardin is as droll and charismatic as he is in The Artist (turns out he can do acting in sound and colour too). He reminds me a lot of a French Hugh Jackman. Reno isn’t on screen much and more or less phones it in, but you can forgive that, because hey, it’s Jean Reno. The flick comes across rather a lot like a Gallic Ocean’s Eleven film (at least I think it does; I haven’t seen an Ocean’s film in about eight years). There are lots of snappy cuts of people zipping up zips and clicking open brief cases, a fair amount of wit and a superficially complex but not really if you pay attention plot.

Other than that, it’s a decently made, quite likable little film. It’s probably not going to wear out its welcome and you probably won’t give it a moment’s thought after you eject the disc, pop it back in its case and replace it alphabetically by title onto your DVD shelf. Still, it’s fun whilst it lasts and serves as a little curio from Dujardin’s past as he skyrockets surely to global superstardom.