One for the Money was theatrically released in the United States on January 27, 2012 and was both a critical and commercial failure. The film received extremely negative reviews from critics, with many criticizing the script and Heigl's performance, and grossed just $38 million worldwide against a $40 million budget.
Plot
In the Chambersburg neighborhood of Trenton, New Jersey, Stephanie Plum is divorced and out of work. Seeking a job at her cousin Vinnie's bail bonds business, she blackmails him into letting her become a bail enforcement agent and tracks down fugitive Joe Morelli, her high school ex-boyfriend who has skipped his $500,000 bail. Morelli escapes the inexperienced Stephanie, who turns to veteran bounty hunter Ricardo "Ranger" Manoso for help. Explaining that Morelli, a vice detective, is wanted for the murder of heroin dealer Ziggy Kulesza, Ranger buys Stephanie a gun.
Police officer Eddie Gazarra, Stephanie's friend, informs her that Morelli shot Ziggy at the apartment of prostitute Carmen Sanchez. Morelli claimed to act in self-defense, but no evidence could be found that Ziggy had a gun, and Carmen and another man at the apartment have disappeared. Stephanie befriends a prostitute named Lula, who points her to a boxing gym where she questions cage fighter Benito Ramirez, Carmen's boyfriend, and his manager Jimmy Alpha. Before Ramirez can assault her, she is rescued by Morelli, who reveals that Carmen was his informant and suspects Ramirez is responsible for her disappearance.
Stephanie receives a threatening call from Ramirez, and commandeers Morelli's car after searching his apartment. Desperate for money, she recovers her first fugitive, delivering her nudist neighbor to the police for failure to appear. In the shower, she is confronted by Morelli and left handcuffed and naked, forcing her to call Ranger for help. She visits Carmen's apartment and meets John Cho, a neighbor who witnessed the shooting. He explains that he knocked Morelli unconscious, after which a "flat-nosed guy" fled the apartment. After capturing another fugitive, who first steals her gun and shoots at Ranger, Stephanie learns that Cho has been killed.
She is tailed by Ramirez, who leaves Lula badly beaten outside Stephanie's apartment. Morelli asks for Stephanie's help in clearing his name, in exchange for sole credit and payment for his capture, and she agrees, allowing him to lay low at her apartment. Vinnie's regular recovery agent Morty Beyers arrives to take over Morelli's bounty, and steals the keys to Morelli's car, but is killed by a car bomb intended for Stephanie, and Carmen’s apartment building is fire-bombed. Wearing a wire so Morelli can track her movements from nearby, Stephanie spots the flat-nosed man at a butcher shop frequented by Ziggy. The man loads two barrels onto a truck, and Stephanie follows him and the butcher to a marina, where she and Morelli discover the butcher’s boat is being used to transport heroin.
Hearing gunshots, they find the flat-nosed man and the butcher shot dead in the truck, and Carmen's body in one of the barrels. They are attacked by Ramirez and subdue him, but are held at gunpoint by Jimmy Alpha. He admits that he, Ramirez, and Ziggy were selling heroin, and killed Carmen for informing on them to Morelli; at Carmen’s apartment, Ziggy did try to kill Morelli, but the flat-nosed man fled with Ziggy's gun. Stephanie manages to shoot Jimmy dead, but locks Morelli in the truck and delivers him to the police, along with her covert recording of Jimmy's confession, which exonerates Morelli. She collects the $50,000 bounty for Morelli, who arrives at her door, and they rekindle their relationship.
In an October 2010 interview, author Janet Evanovich stated that TriStar Pictures had purchased the rights to her novel thirteen years previously, and the film had been in development hell since that time. When asked about the status of the film, Evanovich commented, "Hard to believe they've been sitting on this multi-million dollar franchise for all these years but go figure."[4] In February 2010, Variety announced that Katherine Heigl had been cast to play Stephanie Plum.[5] In April 2010, Lionsgate announced that they had acquired distribution rights, would co-produce with Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Lakeshore Entertainment (which had acquired the rights from Columbia), and Julie Anne Robinson (The Last Song) would direct.[6]
The end credits showed, "In Fond Memory of Michael Dennison", because costume designer Dennison died from a brain aneurysm on September 2, 2010 during the film shoot in Pittsburgh, stunning the cast and crew of the film, which was preparing to wrap principal photography.[9]
Reception
Critical response
The film was not initially screened for critics[10] and was widely panned. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 2% of 54 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.2/10.The website's consensus reads: "Dull and unfunny, One for the Money wastes Katherine Heigl's talents on a stunningly generic comic thriller."[11]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 22 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[12] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.[13][14] It was ranked number 46 in a Rotten Tomatoes editorial on the 100 worst movies of all time.[15]
R. Kurt Osenlund of Slant Magazine criticized the cartoonish portrayal of New Jersey and its various caricatures, and the dumbed-down gender depiction of its main cast by an all-female production team, saying that, "This isn't girl-power filmmaking, this is cutesy contentment, a production team of gals enforcing their own stereotypes by willfully succumbing to demographic views of sexist Hollywood honchos."[16] Sheri Linden of the Los Angeles Times noted the film's poor scripting of Heigl's character, story progression, and balancing both screwball and black comedy, calling it "an ungainly mix of flat-footed gumshoeing and strained attempts at hilarity, all delivered with an unconvincing Joizy vibe."[17] Kimberley Jones of The Austin Chronicle said that the film's "glancing relationship with reality" involving its main heroine, story and setting doesn't translate well on the silver screen and is more suited as a made-for-TV movie, concluding with, "If the filmmakers can't be bothered to believe in the real-world implications of its premise, then why ever should we?"[18] Mark Feeney of The Boston Globe gave credit to the supporting performances of Leonardo Nam and Debbie Reynolds for having "an out-of-left-field quality the rest of the movie lacks."[19]
Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter believed Heigl and the film's supporting cast were up to the task, but felt they were undone by a script unsure of its genre, saying that it "mostly resembles a failed television pilot, a feeling which is only reinforced by its late-January release and failure to be screened for critics."[10] Jeff Otto from IndieWire repeated what Scheck wrote about the genre confusion, saying that it carries elements of a romantic comedy but "Otherwise [the film] dabbles in thriller territory, sort of an attempt at Elmore Leonard gone Jersey Shore. But it’s not smart enough for that."[20] Feeney felt the film was having a genre battle with itself over "gritty-ethnic inner city vs. girly-girly comic", calling it "chick-lit [Elmore] Leonard."[19]Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman added that if said "[Elmore] Leonard movie was scripted by a bad Nora Ephron imitator."[21]
Many critics derided Heigl for her portrayal of Stephanie Plum. Sam Adams of The A.V. Club found her miscast as Stephanie because she lacked any spunk or tenacity to make the character tolerable and charming, despite some decent comedic timing, saying "there's a hollowness at the movie’s center, right where Heigl's heart should be."[22] Andrew Barker from Variety wrote about Heigl having "an almost standoffish lack of conviction" in her performance,[23] and Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News described her as being "too movie-star glam, [too] stiffly prissy, and [too] lacking in any affection for Stephanie herself."[24] Gleiberman saw Heigl as being unsuitable to emulate the mannerisms of a guidette, saying that she portrays "working-class sexy slovenliness in an overly thought-out way."[21]Rolling Stone's Peter Travers also noted Heigl's miscasting as part of a "cringingly false" film that's devoid of the "Evanovich talent and energy" throughout the direction and screenwriting, concluding that One for the Money is "so godawful there'll never be another Plum movie to rectify this mess. Evanovich deserved better."[25]
Author Janet Evanovich was delighted with how the film turned out and did some joint interviews with Heigl to promote the film. Evanovich stated that she would now envision Heigl as Stephanie when writing the character.[26]Complex placed the film at number five on its list of the 25 worst movies of 2012. Complex staff writer Matt Barone said, "[I]f the movie's only offense was how it soils the Garden State's reputation worse than JWoww, it'd be reprehensible, but not worthy of severe public humiliation. But considering that One for the Money is also about as funny as a colonic, there's nothing left to do but rip it apart before banishing the flick from our memory banks."[27]
Box office
One for the Money was released on January 27, 2012 and debuted at number 3 behind The Grey and Underworld: Awakening with $11.5 million on its opening weekend.[28][29] The film grossed $26,414,527 domestically and $10,479,194 globally to a total of $36,893,721 worldwide, below its $40 million budget.[3] The film was promoted using discount ticket offers from Groupon.[2][14] Exit polling indicated high audience awareness of the promotion, an estimated 11% bought tickets using Groupon, and 93% of that segment indicated they would not have attended the film otherwise. Box Office Mojo estimated that the "Groupon bump" amounted to around $1 million.[14]
Janet Evanovich is an American writer. She began her career writing short contemporary romance novels under the pen name Steffie Hall, but gained fame authoring a series of contemporary mysteries featuring Stephanie Plum, a former lingerie buyer from Trenton, New Jersey, who becomes a bounty hunter to make ends meet after losing her job. The novels in this series have been on The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestseller lists. Evanovich has had her last seventeen Plums debut at #1 on the NY Times Best Sellers list and eleven of them have hit #1 on USA Today Best-Selling Books list. She has over two hundred million books in print worldwide, and her books have been translated into over 40 languages.
Stephanie Plum is a fictional character and the protagonist in a series of novels written by Janet Evanovich. She is a spunky combination of Nancy Drew and Dirty Harry, and—although a female bounty hunter—is the opposite of Domino Harvey. She is described by the author as "incredibly average and yet heroic if necessary".
One for the Money is the first novel by Janet Evanovich featuring the bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. It was published in 1994 in the United States and in 1995 in Great Britain. Like its successors, Two for the Dough and Three to Get Deadly, One for the Money is a long-time best-seller, appearing for 75 consecutive weeks on the USA Today list of 150 best-selling novels, peaking at number 13.
Two for the Dough, published in 1996, is the second novel by Janet Evanovich featuring the bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. Like others in the Stephanie Plum series, Two for the Dough was a best-seller, spending 36 weeks on the Top 150 list.
Three to Get Deadly is the third novel by Janet Evanovich featuring the bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and was first published in 1997. It won the 1998 Dilys Award.
Four to Score is the fourth novel by Janet Evanovich featuring the bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and her friends and family in New Jersey. Written in 1998, it is set mainly in Trenton, but also includes Point Pleasant and Atlantic City.
High Five is the fifth novel by Janet Evanovich featuring the bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. It was written in 1999.
Hot Six is the sixth novel by Janet Evanovich featuring the bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and was published in 2000.
Hard Eight is the eighth novel by Janet Evanovich featuring the bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. It was written in 2002.
Ten Big Ones is the tenth novel by Janet Evanovich featuring the bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. It was written in 2004.
Knocked Up is a 2007 American romantic comedy film written, produced and directed by Judd Apatow, and starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, and Leslie Mann. It follows the repercussions of a drunken one-night stand between a slacker and a recently promoted media personality that results in an unintended pregnancy.
Twelve Sharp, published in 2006, is the 12th novel by Janet Evanovich featuring the bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. The hardcover version appeared at the top of the New York Times Bestseller List in the week of July 9, 2006, while the paperback release has also been in the top four spots in 2007.
Isobel Katherine Stevens, M.D. is a fictional character from the medical drama television series Grey's Anatomy, which airs on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States. The character was created by series producer Shonda Rhimes, and was portrayed by actress Katherine Heigl from 2005 to 2010. Introduced as a surgical intern at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital, Izzie worked her way up to resident level, while her relationships with her colleagues Meredith Grey, Cristina Yang, Alex Karev and George O'Malley formed a focal point of the series.
Amy Loftus is an American singer-songwriter, now resident in Los Angeles.
Lean Mean Thirteen is a 2007 novel by Janet Evanovich, the thirteenth in the Stephanie Plum series. It was released on June 19, 2007.
Fearless Fourteen is a novel written by Janet Evanovich, the fourteenth in her series featuring bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. It was released on June 17, 2008.
Katherine Heigl is an American actress. She played Izzie Stevens on the ABC television medical drama Grey's Anatomy from 2005 to 2010, a role that brought her recognition and accolades, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2007.
Sizzling Sixteen is a 2010 novel by Janet Evanovich, the sixteenth in the Stephanie Plum series.
The Age of Adaline is a 2015 American romantic fantasy film directed by Lee Toland Krieger and written by J. Mills Goodloe and Salvador Paskowitz. The film stars Blake Lively as Adaline, with Michiel Huisman, Kathy Baker, Amanda Crew, Harrison Ford, and Ellen Burstyn. Narrated by Hugh Ross, the story follows Adaline Bowman, a young woman who stops aging following an accident at the age of 29.
Jackie & Ryan is a 2014 American romantic drama film written and directed by Ami Canaan Mann, starring Katherine Heigl and Ben Barnes. The film was released on July 3, 2015 in a limited release and through video on demand by Entertainment One in the United States.
1 2 3 Subers, Ray (January 29, 2012). "Weekend Report: 'The Grey' Leads the Pack". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on October 3, 2021. Retrieved October 3, 2021. They awarded the movie a poor "B-" CinemaScore, though, so it's unlikely it will hold up.
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