Who payed the critics

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Just as Network can be watched to gain an education about television politics, and Wall Street can be watched to learn about, well, greed, Other People's Money is just as educational as it is entertaining. And since it's highly entertaining, that's saying a lot! Danny DeVito plays a slimy scumbag who makes business deals and often destroys companies. His next target: Gregory Peck's and Piper Laurie's struggling company. If you don't know what a corporate takeover is, the movie will teach you. As the old-world and new-world views clash, the old-timers pull out a secret weapon: their daughter. Penelope Ann Miller, while clad in some beautiful outfits, sasses and teases Danny DeVito as he tries to ruin her parents, hoping that the sexual tension will cause him to weaken or falter. I don't happen to find her very attractive, but Alvin Sargent's screenplay, based on Jerry Sterner's play, has given her some very good lines! Yes, no one likes to see a corporate goon pick on poor ol' Gregory Peck, but it's actually a really enjoyable movie. And, amazingly enough, besides the heavy subject matter, the movie is a comedy! For some great one-liners, some steamy romantic banter, and an economics lesson, you can't go wrong by watching Other People's Money.

Larry Garfield (Danny Devito), is a corporate raider, deconstructing and selling off failing companies for prophet. Short and egotistical donut popping Larry or as his adversaries call him "Larry The liquidator", has his eye on buying out a New England based cable and wire company. This small town company employs most of it's residence. Owner in the autumn years the infamous Gregory Peck as Andrew Jorgenson and his wife Bea (Piper Laurie).Short and pudgy Garfield travels to Rhode Island and enters the factory and already complains about too many stairs but explains that a buy out is more wise than staying barely afloat. Jorgenson demands that he leaves the premises but the reality is there . Enter Stepdaughter/business attorney Kate Sullivan (Penelope Ann Miller). Smart, elegant yet feisty as Jorgenson has a plan to have Kate captivate the money hungry Larry and have him change his mind about swaying the stockholders. Jorgenson was right about Larry being smitten with Kate but as far as business goes Larry is not budging. Wife Bea makes a special trip to Larry's Manhattan headquarters offering one million dollars in greenmail to go away but Larry kindly tells the desperate woman, "I don't take money from widows and orphans." Meanwhile the company's President Bill Coles,(Dean Jones) is fearful of a company takeover forcing him into unemployment with no severance, offers his vote of the shares in Garfield's favor for one million dollars but only if the share make up the margin of victory.In that case he'll receive half. The dyes have been cast and the final showdown at the plant will take place. Iconic Gregory Peck's plea to keep the company afloat and little loud mouth Danny DeVito making sense of a changing economy telling the stockholders to invest in something else. Norman Jewison magic hasn't lost it's luster as DeVito and Peck work well together. Love the failed courtship between Devito and Miller as well. I thought this was a great vehicle for Danny DeVito in one of his most finest performances in his long and interesting career. Alvin Sargent's screen writing is superb as the rebuttal scenes at the plant are priceless . The two actors with their cadence and mannerism make the scenes so real. I give this movie half a dozen donuts out of ten.

Other People's Money is a wonderful movie, full of smart dialogue, good music, and a terrific Danny De Vito performance. De Vito is his usual funny, and easy-going self, while Gregory Peck is a strong-willed patriarch. Very good stuff there. The weakest performance is from Penelope Ann Miller, who isn't really convincing as the corporate attorney, but the material is so good that it saves the movie. The movie, above all, presents a balanced take on a fascinating issue: is the hostile corporate takeover an evil act? Although one could argue that a sub-textual ideology is present- in fact, in many ways, the script can be considered a yuletide cautionary tale written by Dickens sans the spectral spirits- it can easily be dismissed; there is never a feeling that the viewer is being spoofed one propaganda or another. The soliloquies rendered by Jorgenson and Garfield at the end form the killer application of the piece. They deliver two diverse, diametrically opposed filters on the same subject, and both participants challenge all of us to come up with a sane, informed opinion regarding it.What's refreshing about the movie is the writer didn't set up a straw man to argue either point view. Both sides present intelligent arguments from believable characters. The movie challenges us that what is rational is not always what feels good. An efficient and productive economy is one that has the ability to change, but there are costs - people get displaced. Where the script fell short and where many in our society lose perspective is that while businesses may die out people are flexible. One's skills can be revamped and applied to more productive pursuits. Instead, however, the scriptwriters concoct a not so believable happy ending. Still, though Other People's Money is probably one of the most honest movies to come out of Hollywood on the topic of capitalism.Overall rating: 9 out of 10.

This movie has to have been one of the most painful experiences of my life, and I dearly wish I could have not finished watching it in economics class. I don't know anything about the play, so I won't compare them, but there was pretty much nothing of redeeming value in the movie save the resolution to the company's plight and the speeches (which don't have a whole lot of redeeming value). First of all, Mr. DeVito's character was such a creep that the whole romance thing is way too ridiculous and disgusting to swallow and tolerate, much less believe. Second of all, the lead actress' acting was incredibly one dimensional. Third of all, every time Larry smokes and eats a doughnut at the same time, they managed to make it so disgusting that I felt as if I were having a heart attack, and I love doughnuts. You can't even look at him without gagging and hoping that he does have a heart attack. Everything in this movie makes your skin crawl, and I don't think it was entirely done on purpose. Perhaps they wanted to make Larry look like a creep, but that effect managed to seep into every single frame. It's not even that it's a poorly done film, it's just completely repellent. After I watched this, I felt disgusting for two days, as if I ate ash trays for lunch and dinner. This film leaves such a bad taste you can't enjoy what little good stuff there is.