Image courtesy of impawards.com
The Film: Brewster’s Millions
Notable Cast Members: Richard Pryor, John Candy, Lonette McKee, Stephen Collins, Jerry Orbach, Pat Hingle, Hume Cronyn, Joe Grifasi, and Peter Jason
DVD available on Amazon.com here
Film Synopsis:
What would you do with $300,000,000? That’s 300 million dollars! What if you had to spend $30,000,000 to get $300,000,000? Sounds easy enough..right? Buy a few cars, date a few women..you know the usual. How about some homes in all parts of the world? What about just buying a private jet and flying around the world? You could do a lot of things to spend $30,000,000. You would have $300,000,000 in no time as a result. Of course, there is a catch and it’s not as easy as it sounds to spend all that money.
This is the premise behind Brewster’s Millions. Brewster (Richard Pryor) is a minor league baseball player. He has a rich relative, who he never knew existed. Somehow Brewster is the sole heir to this man’s wealth after he dies. He can inherit $300,000,000, if he can spend $30,000,000 in 30 days. The catch is that Brewster can’t have any assets after the 30 days. So all those cars and planes and gifts to give to your women and homes you thought about buying..think again. No assets. Just the clothes on your back. You can’t waste the money in any way either. Want more rules? Okay..how about not telling anyone why you have to spend $30,000,000. No one can know about it. That may be the hardest rule to follow, since most of your friends will think you are crazy for spending all that money. What about the fact that two scheming trustees are trying to get their hands on that money, because if you fail in this task..they get it. You could just take the easy way out, though. You could get $1,000,000 right now for doing nothing. That is what Brewster has to decide. And since this is a movie, he chooses to go for it all. Why? What fun would it be if Brewster just took $1,000,000 right now have it be a 10 minute movie? Not fun at all.
This movie is pure comedy. When you consider that Richard Pryor is the lead star and his best friend, Spike, is played by John Candy..that should be a no-brainer. But it’s not just the things that say..it’s the things they do with the money that makes it funny. The two of them as a team are worth a look at this movie alone.
I think the best thing about this movie is that it’s unique, though. It has an original premise and one that you don’t see over and over again. You can say that a lot of movies seem like other movies. The basic outline for the plot of one movie seems like the basic outline for the plot of another movie. The characters are just different and situations they are in are different, but it has that feel of “I’ve seen this before”. This movie is NOT like that at all. It’s original and unique.
Besides the uniqueness and comedy of Brewster’s Millions, this film is a great look at why money usually doesn’t always buy happiness. You think money will solve all your problems, but as the Notorious B.I.G. once said..“Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems”! Brewster finds out that spending money with nothing to show for it and with no support from anyone is hard work. This film teaches Brewster (and anyone who watches the movie) the REAL value of money.
The Story Behind It:
Imagine..if you will..not knowing who Richard Pryor was. Okay..now the same thing with John Candy. Hard to imagine..right? Well..as a kid around the age of 10..that was me. I was born in 1982. This movie came out in 1985. I never knew about it. I don’t even remember hearing about it. I didn’t even know who Pryor and Candy were.
So how did I come about watching this movie then? Well..I’m a curious kid and I go searching in one of my mom’s closets and come across her movie collection. This consisted of VHS tapes that contained recordings of movies off of HBO and other movie channels. No real bad movies, because she let me watch them. But there were some really funny movies on these tapes. One of them was Brewster’s Millions. I liked to play baseball at the time, so maybe I was drawn into that part of the movie. It’s a small part of the movie, but it’s still there. What I really remember, though, is the premise of the film. Brewster and Spike spending all that money on purpose. It was crazy to me. I also noticed that Brewster and Spike were funny..imagine that.
It’s easy for fans of Richard Pryor or John Candy to watch this movie based on loving them. That is probably how my parents came about watching this movie. But if you have no idea who those guys were..the movie has to be good to suck you in and keep you watching. Especially if you’re a kid, who could be watching many other things.
As the years went on, Brewster’s Millions became a movie I watched over and over again. I had it on tape, but it was one of those films that came on TV every once and awhile. Usually during a rainy summer day, when you are out of school and have nothing better to do than stay inside and watch movies all day long. You see that today a lot. Movies that get played over and over again on cable and ones that you always seem to watch when nothing else is on. That was Brewster’s Millions in the 1990’s. That is why the movie has always stuck with me as a classic movie in more ways than one. And that is why I was quick to add this DVD to my collection when I saw it on the shelf not too long ago!
