User reviews

In the Ohio suburb of Middleton three boys gather their 'milk money' so they go to the nearby city, Cincinnati, and see a prostitute naked. One of the boys, Frank (Michael Patrick Carter), befriends the woman (Melanie Griffith) and wants her to meet his single dad (Ed Harris), a teacher who's trying to save the nearby wetlands. Malcolm McDowell is on hand as a heavy while Anne Heche appears as a kept woman in the city.

"Milk Money" (1994) is a modern day fairy tale that's part pubescent coming-of-age dramedy and part romantic-comedy. Critics reviled it, obviously because the subject matter made it an easy target but it has a lot of heart once you look beyond the prostitution component. For instance, Frank really just wants a caring mother, as well as a wife for his lonely, workaholic father who needs a good woman to rock his mundane world. The question is, can a call girl possibly be a 'good woman'? In other words, is there redemption for a soiled sex worker and what is the key to that redemption? Not only is love the answer it's also the element necessary for bringing out submerged love in the one being redeemed.

There's also a lesson about objectifying a woman. The boys only see the prostitute as an object to appease their curiosity and blossoming lust, but soon discover she's a human being with feelings and value beyond her body. Even more, the woman clearly wants OUT of the empty, repugnant lifestyle she fell into since she was 14; she craves love, wholesomeness and respect. Say what you will, but these are some heavy morals for a farce about some boys wanting to become men, a nice father concerned about the condemned wetlands and a pretty sex worker.

The film runs 1 hour, 47 minutes, and was shot in Cincinnati, Ohio, including the Wheeler house and the school, while the ice cream parlor & town scenes were done in Lebanon, about a 20 minute drive northeast of the city. Some shots were also done in Pittsburgh.

GRADE: B-

I saw "Milk Money" when I was eleven; much of what happens in the movie is the sort of stuff that would make any eleven-year-old boy think "Whoa...cool!" Looking back on it, I still think that it was pretty funny, but was it the most mature movie? No, and it doesn't pretend to be. I read somewhere that this movie was sexist; I wouldn't know one way or the other. All that I interpreted was that the movie was a nice, horny excuse to have fun. Richard Benjamin has proved himself to be quite capable as a director, and this adds to that.

I know, the prostitute-with-a-heart-of-gold context is a cliché, but this is a comedy, so it passes. And believe you me, this V (Melanie Griffith) is definitely a V for vendetta! Also starring Ed Harris, Malcolm McDowell, Casey Siemaszko, and a very young Anne Heche. Really entertaining, especially the report on the female reproductive system.

I'm sure this film is no longer considered politically correct since it involves a scene where a prostitute shows pre-teen boys her breasts, but it has a lot of cute moments and Melanie Griffith and Ed Harris have great chemistry. It made me smile more than I'd like to admit and I suppose that counts for something.

Very conservative people might not like the plot of this film (kid tries to get his widowed dad and an ex-hooker to fall in love with each other), but actually everything is quite harmless and fun.

The story gets sometimes a bit silly (especially when the boy takes Melanie Griffith to school as part of his "science project"), but the acting and the comedy is good. There was always a smile on my lips as I watched the misunderstandings between Harris and Griffith, when the dad believes that she is a math tutor and the hooker believes he knows her true job.

Ed Harris does a good job as the shy father, and Melanie Griffith is believable as the golden hearted hooker. But it's the kid (Michael Patrick Carter) the one who steals the show, with his winning smile and his mixture of innocence and curiosity.

In some cases I'd say this is better then Pretty Woman. I say "some" with weight because Pretty Woman is a classic. But Milk Money fills that "hole" you had watching pretty woman. Ed Harris's character is sincere and attentive which matches Melanie's softness (which at the best of times can spoil her on screen performances) perfectly. It's a classic boy meets girl movie with that dash of "damsel in distress but is now hardened and tough due to life being so rough and who now finally meets a man who breaks through it all and understands and loves her for who she is" - as far as romantic comedies go- it was better then I thought it would be and even gets the heart strings welling when Ed Harris tells her "this could hurt"...The story itself can be at times almost childish, but in the end that's part of it's charm.

Please forgive me but I fell in love with this movie even if it's not exactly the kind of movie that is hip.... Three young boys have no clue how a naked woman looks like so they save money to go to town and ask a hooker (Melanie Griffith) to show them her delicious body. One thing leads to another and V the hooker ends up staying by one of the kids (Michael Patrick Carter) who tells his dad (Ed Harris) that she's a mathteacher. And then in pure Pretty Woman-style the kid wants the hooker as his mum and tries to unite dad and the whore...and does it work? You know the answer but just a pimp (Malcolm McDowell) wants his moneygoat back... Well well, you laugh and I guess you are right as this history could have end up in something terrible but there is a freshness à la "Stand By Me" that makes "Milk Money" great and of course the performances from both Ed Harris and Melanie Griffith...just as usual Malcolm McDowell suffers from terrible overacting.

MILK MONEY is a lovely and sentimental romantic comedy about a precocious pre-teen who decides to set up his widowed father with a warm-hearted prostitute, who is on the run from some bad people. This film is a warm slice of contemporary Americana, beautifully conveying small town sensibilities and their positive and negative effects on the fictional hamlet of Middleton. The story is simple (though it does take Dad a little too long to figure out what this girl does for a living)and the environmental subplot is underdeveloped, but the movie is filled with believable characters and funny scenes, including one very funny scene where the boy uses the hooker as a visual aide for a school project on the female anatomy. Melanie Griffith shines in a tailor-made role as V,the proverbial hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold, in her most appealing performance since WORKING GIRL and Ed Harris is charming and sexy as the dad. Michael Patrick Carter is utterly charming as the boy and Malcolm McDowell and Anne Heche offer funny supporting turns as a gangster and his ditzy moll, V's best friend. An entertaining romantic comedy that's beauty lies in its simplicity.

Three near pubescent boys Brad (Adam LaVorgna), Frank (Michael Patrick Carter) and Kevin (Brian Christopher) decide to satisfy their burgeoning curiosity of the opposite sex by pooling their money together and buying a prostitute to see naked. Their ill advised venture to the city leads them into danger almost immediately until they are saved by hooker named 'V' (Melanie Griffith) and the boys convince her to accept their transaction. V gives the boys a lift home after their bikes are stolen using her pimp's car. When the car breaks down Frank offers to let V live in his treehouse until it's fixed hoping to set her up with his widowed father, Tom (Ed Harris), a science teacher engaged in a fight to save the local wetlands. When V's pimp turns up dead as a result of money stolen from his boss Waltzer (Malcolm McDowell) V's big city life clashes with the uptight suburbia in which she's taken refuge.

Released in 1994, the initial sale of the screenplay by John Mattson was considered such a hot commodity that Paramount paid $1.1 million for the script leading to a lawsuit against Mattson for violation of a verbal agreement with the Dino De Laurentis. When the movie was released the film was a bomb released in the late August dumping ground not even recouping its $20 million budget and made multiple critics "Worst of '94" lists including Siskel and Ebert (with Ebert's newspaper review not even being a review but a satirical conversation between two fictitious executives who greenlit the movie). All these years later and the movie is still as awful as it was when first released.

The movie is multiple movie really, it's a coming of age story about boys discovering their sexuality, it's a romantic comedy, it's a crime comedy, and it's a Home Alone style kid shenanigans movie all rolled into one, and surprise surprise it doesn't do ANY of those elements well.

The movie's kid characters are written like gimmicky TGIF sitcom characters with each one being an exaggerated "Type". Brad is the "cool" one with his preening looks, leather jacket, and combed hair that seems like it's trying to evoke the antiquated image of James Dean, Kevin is an uptight neurotic neatfreak, and Frank is a mixture of a wisecracker and an innocent. Frank is massively inconsistent in the movie being a pranking schemer when the script calls for it, and being cloyingly "cute" when the situation calls for it. None of these kids act like real kids and they exist more as excuses for lame jokes are idiotic decisions to move the plot forward. One point of massive stupidity happens early on in the film where the kids travel to "The City"(never identified by name) and start asking random women if they're prostitutes, when this fails a scuzzy man in a trenchcoat who sees the boys flashing the cash around is able to convince them to come with him to a secluded alleyway because if our characters had a pair of braincells between them there wouldn't be a movie. Even in the impetus for the boys' excursion to find a prostitute to see naked seems rather pointless because we see the boys have access to pornographic VHS tapes and magazines and there's really no rhyme or reason as to why they're doing this.

Things don't improve when V enters the picture, V is the textbook manic pixie dream girl fantasy to a "T" with her presence in the film feeling tinkerbellish against the Norman Rockwell by way of Andy Griffith town of Middleton that's so painfully scrubbed clean it makes Main Street USA look like Cabrini Green. The movie has this quasi 50s attitude with its quaint small town that wouldn't feel too far removed from a 50s sitcom like Father Knows Best. Everything about this town from the social attitudes to the behavior of the citizens feels like it's several decades removed from present day. V colliding with suburbia is a large part of the humor in this movie and it feels so artificial and phony because no one acts like a human being. The characters aren't so much characters as they are broad stereotypes and caricatures who are basically there to give one note reactions and overdone catchphrases as "Jokes", one scene repeats the dialogue "That is Bad. That is Very. Very. Bad" 3 times over the course of five minutes. Even the "meet cute" between Frank's father, Tom and V is such a hackneyed misunderstanding filled with unintentional double meanings with a sexual slant that it just makes you cringe watching it. I didn't laugh once at this movie, and more often than not I was groaning, cringing, or some combination of both. Scenes like where V has the boy's lift their shirts over their heads to see if they're "not harry enough to be dangerous" or the scene where they go to V's apartment to see her topless are just so unintentionally creepy and their sitcom presentation coupled with very bouncy shenanigans music only makes them worse.

When I was watching this film, I repeatedly asked myself "Who was this made for?" with all the sexual themes, innuendos, and a character who's a hooker it's way too outside of acceptable for a general family orientated comedy, but other scenes with kid shenanigans where they talk about farts, barf, or mistake feminine care items for weapons (yes, seriously) play to such a young audience that even Nickelodeon would see these jokes as beneath them. There's also a subplot with Tom trying to save some wetlands and I have no earthly idea why it's in the movie, it's barely a footnote all things considered and the movie doesn't establish anything about them other than they're important to Tom. The movie is basically Pretty Woman by way of a car crash with one of Chris Columbus' family dramedies and they just don't mesh well. Pretty Woman even though there's certainly a Cinderella type fantasy element to the story had a level of credibility to it because it was willing to look at the seamier side of its subject matter (The attempted rape by Jason Alexander's character is still a really well done scene). Chris Columbus movies aren't designed to tackle these kinds of issues and the fact they've built a movie tonally similar to Mrs. Doubtfire around a subject matter like this just shows a complete lack of awareness.

Milk Money is just junk. It's an ill advised attempt to take two popular film tends (Pretty Woman and Chris Columbus movies) and try to mix them together and we're given a mess. The movie doesn't work as a comedy because it tackles a taboo subject mater with a bubbly airheaded delivery more appropriate for a family sitcom, it doesn't work as a romantic comedy because it has dumb characters acting out an unbelievable premise, and it doesn't work as a coming of age story because there's no attempt at actually understanding a child discovering their sexuality and it's instead used as a lame excuse for catch phrases and awkward humor. It's a movie that alternates between tired jokes and cringe inducing situations and is easily one of the worst mainstream films of the 90s.

Melanie Griffith,(V) played a woman of the streets who meets up with three boys who want to see what a girl looks like in the nude. Of course, if they really wanted to do it the correct way, they could ask their dad's and possibly their mothers. However, this is a Hollywood film and it made the entire story quite funny, especially when they have a sex education class and decided to use a rather non-kosher way of presenting the facts. Ed Harris,(Tom Wheeler) plays the father to Michael Patrick Carter,(Frank Wheeler) who gets to be good friends with Melanie Griffith and introduces her to his father. This is a very entertaining film and you can find fault with this film whether you are on the left or right side in life, but comedy and laughs are good for everyone and I recommend this film for great viewing.

Melanie Griffith stars in this time waster as a hooker with a "heart of gold" Hmmm i doubt that most hookers have a "heart of gold" or that they look like Melanie Griffith or Julia Roberts for that matter..but anyway some local school boys end up saving their milk money to see a woman naked..of course they run into Griffith, who is being chased by a bad guy, so one of the children bring her home to their dad who is divorced and looking for love again and...zzzzzz....Oh I'm sorry i fell asleep..you will too.,, The only good scene is the one part where Griffith takes over a health class and talks a little about the birds and the bees.. on a scale of one to ten...2

I've loved this movie ever since I was a kid, and after about a dozen viewings (damn, I've been having too much time) there's one question that still bothers me: who's this movie aimed at? On the surface it definitely looks like a family movie. You have your Disney-like music under almost every scene, you have your tired, clichéd story about kids wanting to make sugary sweet adults fall in love, you have your character that gets his heart cut out wait what? You have your hapless but likable kids who pull all kinds of school shenanigans, you have...Malcolm McDowall as a crazed pimp who pulls out his gun at a school dance? This movie just bounces all over the place, but it's fascinating rather than bothersome. Furthermore, even after so many times this is still a pretty effective little tearjerker. You know this stuff is probably going to end well (with someone getting his heart cut out?), but getting there is quite touching. You know she'll stay in the end, but still, don't leave. Ed Harris and Melanie Griffith also have near-perfect chemistry, it always helps if the protagonists of your romantic comedy look like they actually want to be there. "Milk Money" has its shortcomings because it's essentially an off-brand "Pretty Woman", but it's a childhood memory that I kinda cherish to this day.

Michael Patrick Carter plays Frank, a pre-teen living with his widowed father (Ed Harris). Frank and his little buddies save up their milk money and allowances to see what a naked lady looks like. They decide to go into the city and rent a hooker.

The trip for the boys turns into a mess. A sympathetic call girl, played by Melanie Griffith, ends up escaping to the suburbs and hiding in Frank's tree house. She is trying to break away from her boss and the business. Frank's lonely father is given the impression the call girl is one of his son's school teachers. Being a thoughtful son, Frank tries to hook up the hooker with his dad.

Harris doesn't get a good chance to expand in this role. On the other hand, Griffith seemed to be at her best. Also in this pleasant movie are Malcolm McDowell and Anne Heche. Situational humor.

I am always interested to see what actors can and will do in their work. I got such a strong Klute vibe from Ms. Griffith in the beginning of this movie. And it was nice to see Ed Harris just be Dad. The story itself is one of those adult fantasies that utilizes the kid mystique. Of course the-Hooker-and-the-Dad plays out an adult fantasy of its own. It turned out not to be a movie i would share with kids, in spite of its rating. It's a "yeah, sure" movie, white bread with way too much jam. BUT, i'm still glad i saw the work of the six pros who make it a viable (okay enjoyable--i enjoyed it)i'm-too-tired-tonight-to-move home entertainment. Yes, Virginia, there is a Hollywood.

Milk Money (1994)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A group of young boys save up their "milk" money so that they can buy a father (Ed Harris) a hooker known as V (Melanie Griffith).

There's a bit more to the plot of MILK MONEY but that's the basic set-up. After the success of WHEN HARRY MET SALLY... these types of romantic comedies were in high demand so we got all sorts of strange stories and this here is certainly one of the strangest.

Once you get over the idea of young kids buying a hooker for dad, the film itself really isn't all that bad and in many ways it's pretty charming for what it is. You've basically got two fine actors turning in fun performances and that's what makes the film worth watching. Harris is especially good as the father who is still grieving over his wife. Griffith easily steals the film as the hooker with a heart of gold as well as a great body that is constantly in tight clothes.

The film's screenplay has a pretty basic set-up and it pretty much plays out as you would expect it to. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here and it's not one of the best films that the genre has to offer but if you're a fan of the cast then it's worth watching.

Through the time the prostitutes were unappealable stigmatized by the society as a whole, nevertheless had served them quite often concealed, this picture tries a demystification of most ancient profession, three boys want to see a naked woman alive, then gathered around 100 bucks to see one of them, they find V (Melanie Griffith) who accepts the offer, aftermaths she sees these little boys shelter from the rain, she borrow his Boss's car and takes a ride to them, the youngster Frank (Michael Patrick Carter) has a golden heart and charisma, the car break down in front his house, he introduces her to his widower and alone father Tom (Ed Harris) then he invites her to stay over at his tree's house for a while, hoping that V and Tom comes closer, with a terrific performance of the boy Michael Patrick Carter who is the heart and soul of the movie, allow foster an unasked sexual appealing over the couple, yet over the edge of the unknowns, Tom doesn't know who she really are, due Frank just suggest her a mathematics teacher, V is sure that Frank told to his father his past, no yet, a moving picture that bestow us a new look in this neuralgic point, will be possible a mundane woman becomes in a fair house wife? Yes I believe in a sudden change if had enough strengths to do it, actually I saw it at my tender age in a city which I lived for years!!!

Resume:

First watch: 1997 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 7

I can't believe someone wrote that this was a good movie for kids!!?? I'm sure having an ex-hooker for a mom would be ideal for any young boy. I can see it now...he and and his friends are sitting around playing Nintendo and drinking Kool-Aid and one of his chums says

"Hey, you remember the time your new Mom showed us her breasts for money?That was great!"

"Yep! That's my Mom she really enjoys exposing herself to preteens for money....anyone want some Cheetos?

As if he didn't have problems enough with dealing with a dead mother?? Now a hooker stepmother??

Alternate ending: Ed Harris was eventually fired for having a wife that exposes herself to schoolkids and had to pimp out Griffith to make the rent.

Okay so it is a story about a young kid trying to set his father up with someone because daddy has been lonely. Mommy is gone. So where does this boy and his band of innocents turn? Where else, a hooker! Horribly unbalanced, unentertaining, and downright unwatchable. Featuring Melanie Griffith at her whiniest and most annoying yet. Ed Harris' performance was, to put it kindly, forgettable. Avoid this one.

This movie SO typifies Hollywood.

We get (1) another prostitute who is gorgeous, sweet and with a heart of gold. (2) the prostitutes are nothing but victims of the cruel and abusive male pimps; (3) kids ages 10-12 are obsessed with sex (I'm talking about how Hollwyood sees the culture); (4) there are few higher callings than being a tree-hugger, this one chaining himself to a tree to save some wetlands.

On and on and on it goes in ultra-Liberal, politically-correct, morally-clueless Hollywood. Well, to be fair, the movie did have lots of charm and it's always nice to see Ed Harris actually play against type, meaning play a decent human being. Melanie Griffith never looked better, either. Too bad the story was so stupid and insulting.

Lighten up people...this is just entertainment, not Ghandi (yawn). I found this movie to be great entertainment for a Saturday afternoon. My wife and I laughed all the way through. Excellent performances by Ed Harris, Melanie Griffith and Michael Patrick Carter. The cross communication between Harris and Griffith based on Carter's lie is hilarious.

This is like pretty woman, but kids want to see boobs. I feel like the 90's could get away with the premise and there are some heartfelt moments, but there is no way people would be cool with this these days haha. Although, it is not near as raunchy as some of the reviews here made it seem.

The main kid is a good actor, surprised to see he didn't do much after this.

Bad direction, a weak script and a career-low performance by Ed Harris sideline 'Milk Money', a movie which could've been excellent, but wasn't.

Onetime-respected-actor-now-reduced-to-B-movie-star Malcolm McDowell delivers a hilarious performance with help from Melanie Griffith and talented newcomer Michael Patrick Carter, but they alone do little to rescue the film.

The first half hour or so is perfectly on tune, then everything seems to change gears and 'Milk Money' is pushed from a comedy to a sappy drama with an awful dance sequence, and an ending that's even worse. To complicate matters even more, Harris is completely miscast, and future star Anne Heche is seriously underused.

why anyone would give this movie anything more than a 1 rating is beyond me.

It is filled to the brim with clichés, terrible acting, a bad script, and just badness. C'mon, a hooker with a heart of gold? Again?!?! I watched this with my family when I was 12, because we lived in a town with one theater that showed one movie, and only on the weekends. We would go every week, no matter what was showing. We agreed unanimously that this was the worst piece of drivel that has ever been created. We still pretty much stand by that judgment.

I won't go so far as saying that this movie was created by Satan, but it has such a concentration of raw evil and bile underneath it's lily white veneer, that I wouldn't be surprised if Lucifer's hoof marks weren't all over this one.

Shame on anyone who gives this movie a 3 or better.

That quote from Milk Money above truly applies to this poor excuse for a movie; better to call it a flick, "movie" is too good for it.

Paramount supposedly paid over $1 million for the script (there's a sucker born every minute).

There is some decent talent here, but it is wasted, really wasted.

The pretext for this mess is stupid, implausible, silly.

It is not worth reviewing as a watchable film; needless to say, I didn't watch it all the way through.

Do not go near this flick! You will embarrass yourself, like these actors embarrassed themselves making it!