Directed by Jodie Foster, "Money Monster" rehashes the cliché film dramatization of Wall Street fraud and the commonplace Americans who are the big losers in a tycoon's greed.

George Clooney and Julia Roberts have good chemistry as the star television talking head Lee Gates and his hard-working producer Patty Fenn. The simplistic story is that of a "hostage drama" when Gates is held captive in the studio by a crazed investor who has lost his fortune due to a Wall Street scammer and the advice given over the air by Gates. The plot unfolds with Gates and Fenn actually bonding with the terrorist to get to the bottom of malfeasance on the part of the CEO of a company called IBIS.

With the primary setting a television broadcast studio, this film might have worked better as a made-for-TV movie, as opposed to a feature film. Most of the action was predictable, and much of it was also unbelievable. The relationship of the young terrorist and his wife was entirely unconvincing. And the inaction on the part of the SWAT team, who had successfully surrounded the terrorist both in the studio and outdoors, was equally improbable.

In the end, "Money Monster" was a formula film that should not provide any surprises to viewers. The only cliché that was missing from the film was a slow crawl across the screen that reads, "Based on a True Story."

The thing that grabbed me about Money Monster was the image of the future of financial shows. Gone are the days that Bernard Baruch would dispense wisdom from a Central Park bench or Sylvia Porter would give investment advice in her column. We have to package our financial shows as entertainment like everything else. Just like Paddy Chayefsky was predicting with deadly and unfortunate accuracy the trend in news broadcasting with Network, will we see this in our investment advice reporting?

The way Faye Dunaway packaged Howard Beale as the 'mad prophet of the air' in Network, Julia Roberts is the woman producer behind George Clooney financial show with Las Vegas glitz. But poor Jack O'Connell who blew a $60,000.00 legacy from his mom on investment advice gets a gun and some explosives and holds Clooney hostage on the air.

With the savvy Julia Roberts whispering in his earpiece Clooney becomes an investigative reporter and it turns out that there's quite a story of financial manipulation here that extends halfway around the world.

Poor O'Connell does a wonderful job playing an every man figure buffeted and bewildered by forces around him he can't begin to comprehend. Emily Meade also stands out as O'Connell's live-in girl friend who tears the hostage taker down in front of millions of viewers in one unforgettable scene.

If Money Monster is a harbinger of our future, that's one nasty future we are heading toward.

MONEY MONSTER is another addition to the sub-genre of hostage thrillers and one that reminded me a lot of that little-remembered '90s movie MAD CITY. It's not as good as that, but it's far better than its representation would have you believe. George Clooney is the TV show host protagonist here, doing his usual charismatic stuff on the outside but adding in some much-needed depth throughout and thus making his character more interesting. Jack O'Connell is a left-of-field choice as the antagonist but his edginess comes across well and he gives an interesting and watchable turn. Julia Roberts is the only weak spot, really, and her character feels like padding, not adding to the scenarion in any way. The film offers some much-needed satire of American TV and the financial market, and keeps the viewer on his or her toes.