Greedy (1994)

Directed by Jonathan Lynn. Starring Michael J. Fox, Kirk Douglas, Nancy Travis, Olivia d’Abo, Phil Hartman, Ed Begley Jr., Jere Burns, Colleen Camp, Jonathan Lynn, Mary Ellen Trainor, Joyce Hyser, Khandi Alexander, Siobhan Fallon, Bob Balaban. [PG-13]

The venal relatives of rich, elderly scrap-yard tycoon Uncle Joe (Douglas) are tired of “playing nice” while waiting for the old coot to croak—especially with their inheritance threatened by the arrival of a nubile young “nurse” (d’Abo)—so they turn to a long-absent nephew (Fox) to suck up to Joe and secure them all a shared financial windfall. Amiable and relaxed to a fault, here’s the sort of comedy that really could have worked with tighter construction and a willingness to go for broke in its disgracefulness. As is, it starts well and has a handful of fun gags and ideas up its sleeve, but the jokes slow down as the story progresses, pushing too many of the relatives out of sight (Balaban doesn’t have anything to do) and even trying to get serious about its criticism of materialism and back-stabbing. Hartman gets the lion’s share of the big laughs as the most corrosively unscrupulous of the relatives, and it’s nice to see Douglas on the big screen again after an extended absence (minus his Oscar cameo); sadly, it was his last film appearance before suffering a debilitating stroke. Contains an extra treat for fans of the “Great Schnozzola”; to everyone else, just a head-scratcher. Blink and you’ll miss a young Kirsten Dunst.

59/100