Greedy (1994)

Greedy: Directed by Jonathan Lynn. With Michael J. Fox, Kirk Douglas, Nancy Travis, Olivia d’Abo. Rich, old uncle Joe is surrounded by relatives waiting/hoping for him to die while trying to look good and backstabbing the competition. What should he do?

“Greedy has taken some of the plot situations in the Paramount classic If I Had A Million and carried them to incredible heights. It has a whole string of good performances topped off by one of the last performances by Kirk Douglas before he had his stroke.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eKirk plays the Richard Bennett part here, the millionaire who doesnu0026#39;t like almost all of his relatives, but gets a certain sadistic joy in seeing them perform like trained seals, trying to stay in his good graces. The only honest one of them is one of Ed Begley Jr.u0026#39;s young sons who is just like that kid in If I Had a Million who started playing that record of Iu0026#39;ll Be Glad When Youu0026#39;re Dead You Rascal You.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUnlike Bennett, Douglas does not decide to drop parts of his fortune on eight random strangers. He just keeps putting his family through their paces until they decide to dig up Michael J. Fox, a nephew he actually liked when he was a kid.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFox is a second string professional bowler whou0026#39;s got a TV producer heu0026#39;s involved with, Nancy Travis. The two of them invade Douglasu0026#39;s three ring circus of relatives and get put through their paces also. All the family is against Douglasu0026#39;s u0026#39;nurseu0026#39; Olivia Du0026#39;Abo who the family is afraid will get the whole inheritance.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eGreedy is a nicely paced amusing comedy which I think most of us can identify with. I know Iu0026#39;ve had a relative or two I canu0026#39;t stand either, but am forced to be nice to for a variety of reasons. The relatives are all greedy, but Douglas is one sadistic creep as well. Iu0026#39;d catch it the next time itu0026#39;s on the tube.”