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Truly Dreadful Film

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Tepper (Erik Palladino) finds a wallet in the streets. He's a caring guy who looks out for his elderly neighbor and about to propose to girlfriend Carla (Carly Pope). He calls Victor from a phone number in the wallet that belongs to Avery Phillips. Then he discovers that the wallet holds a $6 million lottery winner. It is the weekly poker night with Fishman (Matthew Lillard), Quigley (Ryan Reynolds) and Bolan (Dash Mihok). It is tradition to bet their lottery tickets and not check the numbers before hand. Tepper hopes that nobody comes for the wallet but then Avery Phillips (James Earl Jones) comes by. He decides to return the wallet but switch out the lottery ticket. Then the police locked down the apartment looking for a fugitive.The twist is flashing like a neon sign. So much so that it gets annoying. For the second half of the movie, I had great hopes that Jeff Probst would be smart enough not to do it. It would be a nod to fake out the usual twist but he falls right into the pitfall. This works a lot better as a moral dilemma which is destroyed. When Quigley makes that turn, the movie seems to figure it out. It just makes it so disappointing to lose it at the last moment.There are other problems. I don't know why Tepper switched the tickets. It solves nothing and assumes that Avery doesn't know the number he purchased. It makes no sense. If he just takes the ticket, it can always be explained as being stolen by somebody else. The game itself poses other problems. It feels more like a constructed premise although I must admit that I don't have another premise without a complete overhaul. It's just too fake. Why wouldn't they play before the draw? These two problem can be excused but the last 5 seconds cannot be.

Jeff Probst tight, unassuming film was a rare find. Saw it on cable, and since this is an indie film, one has to take one's hat to the director for having made the movie.The question that came to my mind is what would anyone do with the possibility of sudden wealth, one that is achieved by ill gotten means. The question, plays havoc with Tepper, who knows what he has in his possession. His friends have no clue to what's really happening and why is the stranger, Avery, allowed to stay and participate in the card game. Tepper made a mistake at the beginning of the film when he notifies about his finding. He lives to regret it, but ultimately, his own sense of decency when all goes haywire around him, takes hold of him and he does the right thing, or does he?The cast was very good. The action seems, at times, like a filmed stage play, but the performances by all save the film from being boring or losing the audience's interest. Erik Palladino is quite good as Tepper, the man with a conscience. Mathew Lillard, as Fish, is never dull. Ryan Reynolds and Dash Mihok round up the quartet of friends that meet for a card game.James Earl Jones is at times mysterious and a figure of pity because we all know what he must be going through, but then again, he had been playing with the quartet of friends and with the viewer.Good job by Jeff Probst.

What you'll get with "Finder's Fee" is 100 minutes inside an apartment with four poker buddies, a bus driver who has come to claim his lost wallet (JE Jones), a cop (Forster), and a couple of minutes of Carly Pope and an old lady. This claustrophobic journeyman drama is chock full of unnecessary filler including lots of lame guy talk, an annoying cop who keeps popping up for no apparent reason, and a $6 million lottery ticket. At issues is, of course, who's going to get the six mil? A marginal small screen watch which Tivo gave an unusually high three stars which suckered me into the film, "Finder's Fee" will require some serious dumbing down to avoid taking issue with the many likely possible outcomes in favor of an unlikely outcome contrived for entertainment value. Apparently a failed attempt to be a tight, dialogue intensive, character driven, one set drama (eg: The Big Kahuna, Glengarry Glen Ross, etc.), this flick is couch potato fodder. Turn brain off before viewing. (C+)

I honestly loved this movie alot. Two of my favorite actors are in this movie Matthew Lillard and Ryan Reynolds. This movie was very good because of the actors, the suspense in it wondering what will happen next, and the story line was good also.What made this movie so good is that this is a story that can happen to anyone, imagine yourself walking down the street and finding someone's wallet what do you do? Well this is what the movie was entirely about.I had no expecations when I rented this movie but I must say after watching it once I had to watch a few more times.10/10 movie