Back in 1994, Michael J. Fox had one of his best comedic film outings as a long-lost, wannabe bowling professional suddenly pulled into a lot of family drama over a mega-fortune in GREEDY.
Fox is perfect as Daniel, bouncing nicely off his long suffering sports reporter girlfriend, Robin (Nancy Travis) on the way to nowhere, slowly.
His Uncle Joe (Kirk Douglas, having a lot of fun) is cantankerous, rude and loves abusing his money grubbing family.
Luckily for us, that family is played by Phil Hartman (stealing the show as kiss-ass Frank),
Ed Begley Jr and Bob Balaban to name just a few.
Their constant torture of each other in efforts to position themselves as worthy of Joe's fortune is a blast to watch. Well scripted by Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandell (Night Shift, City Slickers, Splash) this is one sorry family.
Uncle Joe manages to really stir things up when he brings home the young and beautiful Molly (Olivia D'Abo). She soon becomes his personal assistant/nurse and heir apparent, panicking the family enough that they seek out long lost cousin Daniel as perhaps the only worthy heir.
As Daniel goes from zero interest in the funds to living the good life a bit too much, his priorities change and he finds a few predictable but pleasant lessons along with the laughs.
Fox makes this kind of film look easy. He's funny, likable and shows great delivery.
Hartman and Douglas go toe-to-toe for plenty of the biggest laughs and Kirk is obviously enjoying the role.
Lightweight but funny, GREEDY grabs more than its share of laughs and gets a fun B.
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