Five Dollars a Day

I’m surprised to see such blow ratings on the movie, personally I enjoyed it quite a bit. The beginning of the movie did start out looking a little cheesy and it was a bit slow going and I thought, ugh, the reviews were right. But nope, all actors were great in their parts and I thought it all came together wonderfully with a heartfelt message at the end. Well done

Formulaic, but Walken renders it watchable.

Interesting story, but it could have been executed better.

Awkward in so many ways. It almost felt like I was watching Birdemic sometimes for some reason.

Really fucking terrible

Pretty good. Christopher Walken made the movie. Without him, not much.

A REALLY good road movie about a dying father and his estranged son. Christopher Walken is just so cool.

Good film that was somehow missing a deeper emotional connections between the main characters. This movie isn't unlike, plot-wise, Big Fish in that it deals with a relationship of an estranged father and son and how the son finds it hard to trust a man who, somehow, can never be truthful or honest about anything. It deals with how that relationship is fixed as they bond throughout their trip. Yet somehow, whereas Big Fish is very emotionally powerful story about a man trying to figure out his father and who he really is, this film lacks that really important aspect that made Big Fish so great. I felt no connection to the characters and their plight, despite enjoying the film. I think Christopher Walken and Alessandro Nivola are, individually, good in their roles but somehow they never truly connect. It didn't feel like a real father-son relationship. Perhaps the script fails them in that regard because, again, Christopher and Alessandro are both good and the film, while not laugh out loud hilarious, provides them with some decent comedic moments. And that's about it really, it's a solid, if mildly forgettable film, that was missing a stronger emotional core.

Charming, sometimes clever and well-acted moments are wasted in this derivative movie that DOESN'T lack heart, but DEFINITELY soul. Alessandro Nivola's performance in the indie movie Junebug was limited by the strength of the movie and the role he played (for the later, think Mark Wahlberg alongside Christian Bale in The Fighter...a decent movie but a movie made by the performance of Bale, but also Wahlberg's ability to let Bale take full stage. In Junebug, Nivola's character was designed to make room for the other characters to shine. He did a really nice job. Junebug was also a better movie, so his role became lost in the shuffle. Here we get a Nivola that is supposed to cry often, punch and kick walls and smoke a cigarette with a caustic smile in the next scene. He does a fine job again, but to say he pulls it off would be inaccurate because the impetus for his actions is so implausible and flappy that he just comes off like a loony. Walkin, for all his potential phoning it in, was also enjoyable on screen. But it's scenes like the Dean Cain one that really brought this movie down to where it always remained from it's earliest seedlings: a half idea with some nice heart and localized support. There's not much worth your time here in the end. Much of the con artist mumbo jumbo is just that, watered down, often implausible and even discriminating to the audience at times. Most notably, a scene near the end when Flynn gets into the party by pretending to be the hired help. It was completely pointless since we are never shown any resistance or potential resistance to his entry. It was a jejune nod to a thought-to-be-jejune audience at a very late stage in the film where it would be least needed. Watch this for indie shots of Atlantic City and to catch a glimpse of Christopher Walkin laughing all the way to the bank.

Enjoyable enough, especially if you are a Christopher Walken fan, but nothing to go out of your way to see.