Money Monster review - George Clooney goes Leslie Nielsen in popcorn hostage thriller

The Jodie Foster-directed satire about the financial meltdown isn't especially original, but it's arguably more honest than Oscar favourite The Big Short

A miasma of pure silliness settles on this movie directed by Jodie Foster, showing here in Cannes out of competition; it deserves a genre of its own: screwball action. Julia Roberts plays a harassed TV producer who has to keep in line her waning star: Lee Gates, played by George Clooney, the ego-crazed, silver-fox presenter of a TV show called Money Monster, giving stock picks and spurious shock-jock-type commentary on the market, celebrating unfettered capitalism by breaking into embarrassingly geriatric hip-hop moves with backing dancers. (He reportedly bears a certain resemblance to a real-life pundit: Jim Cramer, presenter of a programme called Mad Money, on CNBC.)

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