John Cusack's best role...

Is in a movie called "Easy Money". I'm watching it right now.
It's a true story about a guy from Philly, Joseph John Coyle, who found 1.2 million dollars that fell outta the back of an armoured car.
He tried to get it laundered, but that didn't work out. Matter of fact, it resulted in a scene that involves yet another actor-type that I just cannot stop looking at, Benicio DelToro, in a blooper. He plays a small-time mafioso type whom Joey turns to for help. They take the money to be laundered and Dino (DelToro) tells him it's a walk in and right out kinda thing, which it turns out not to be....(strike one). Then, during the "two, t'ree days tops" it's taking to do the first $600,000, Joey is awake the entire time (strike two), trying to find a safe place for the second $600,000. (Incidentally, the deal Joey makes is that he gets back his 'clean' $500,000 before he has to bring in the second $600,000. (The 'washer-guy' keeps $100,000 out of each half....) I'm not sure why Joey fixates on this detail, but it adds to his undoing in the end.)
Anyway, poor Joey...he (allegedly) tried to hide part of the cash under a toilet and caused a flood in the middle of the night, which led him to move it into the crawl space in the attic, which he promptly falls through, onto the hallway floor below, covered in insulation and hundred dollar bills.
That wakes everybody up and he and his older brother Billy (a young and even more gorgeous James Gandolfini) get into a huge punch up over keeping it, or turning it in. Billy, whom Joey says suffers from 'acute integrity', wants no part of it...just like Koslowski, the guy who was with Joey when he found it. He didn't want anything to do with it either, but a kid saw them and gave the cops a description of Kenny's (Koslowski's) Dad's car.
In the meantime, Joey first goes to his ex-girlfriend, who works in an investment firm, for help. There's not much she can do, due to reporting laws about 'chunks o'change' over $10,000. She's also kinda skeptical of him at first, until she figures it out. So, when she blows him off, that's when he goes to Dino and makes the '5 for 6' with 'the first 5 given back before the second 6 is washed' deal.
(With me so far?)
Okay, so he's freakin' out. Exhausted, stressed, alone except for a few neighborhood nimrods, and being closed in on by the police. The courier company offered a reward that eventually got to $50,000 and there were a few people catching on and fuckin' with Joey before that, even.
Then, Dino hears about the Chevelle that was seen (by the kid) being used to pick up the cash outta the street, on the radio and confronts Joey at the neighborhood bar, just after the cops had left. The detective was in the bar, asking questions and scaring the piss outta Koslowski. So, Joey's got his hands full already with this wuss, when they go outside and there's Dino, pissed. He figures out the Chevelle goes with the snivelling twit who's with Joey and gets even more pissed. He makes 'em dump the car in the Surekill (Schulkyl) River. While they are all there doing that, he and Joey get into another round about discussion about the deal. Dino winds it up by saying "Remember Joey...ya gotta bring in the second $600,000 to get the 5 for 6." (Strike three)
Joey just snaps then, kinda.
He gets his (dead) Dad's gun and decides to try to just get the $500,000 back and I'm not sure what he was gonna do with the second $600.000 Maybe he wasn't, either...
Anyhow, he goes to get his money and whips out this gun. The head washer guy tells Dino, calmly, to go get Joey's money..."every penny of it". Dino goes, he gets it, brings it in and sets it down. Joey puts the two guys that helped him against the wall and makes Dino lay on the floor, on his back, feet in the air. He then looks in a sack, only to discover they're all filled with change....quarters, nickels, dimes...He threw a handful of nickels at Dino and one stuck to his forehead, which is a cool blooper, cause it's there, then it's not, then it is again.
So, Joey goes off with these stupid sacks of coins, to the bar where he was supposed to meet his ex. Oh yeah, that's what he was gonna do with the second $600,000...split to Nassau, in the Bahamas...that's right. She shows up (late, of course) and they go to an airport motel and while they're waiting for the flight, she dyes his hair and drills him endlessly on his new identity. It's been four days now he's been awake.
They go to the airport, get to the counter at the gate, where the airline person tells them the bag they have the $600,000 in is too big for carry-on. Joey solves this by going to the gift shop with the suitcase fulla money, buying a pair of pantyhose, going to in the bathroom, putting them on and stuffing all the money in 'em.
They clear the metal detectors and Joey puts some of the cash into a bag that the ex is allowed to carry-on...musta been too uncomfortable. Just as they're going up the ramp to board, Lorenzi, the cop, catches up with them.
"Joseph John Coyle...turn around and put yer hands up...."
Monica, the ex (played by Debbie Mazar), in a last ditch effort to help Joey get away, grabs handfuls of cash and throws it down onto the crowd, screaming "Free money...Joey, run!" as about 200 people converge to grab the loot. He looks at her, gestures toward the crowd and asks "Run where?"
As they're driven away in the back of the police car, he throws one last handful of cash out the window.
It says in the little update at the end, that Joey was charged with a buncha shit, pled temporary insanity and was found not guilty of everything.
That's only half the story.
After the movie came out, Joey's life went to shit, apparently, because he committed suicide in the end. That sucks.
God love ya, Joey. I know I do.
Well, I love what Joey tried to do and the reasons he did it and it doesn't hurt a bit that he's portrayed by John Cusack. Wish he was still alive, though. It'd be worth risking death in either the city or the traffic to meet him.
Lotsa cool people from around here, actually. Gia Carangi is another one...another cool person from around here and another post.
Time to go clean some more...
I'll be back.
Peace.

Posted by: Stevie at 05:18 AM

Comments

Posted by: Kenna at January 13, 2004 08:10 PM (AkUpj)

Posted by: Stevie at January 13, 2004 09:18 PM (EKx9F)

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