Nothing To Lose: Classic Comedy Review

Starring Martin Lawrence and Tim Robbins, Nothing To Lose is a great comedy movie form the late 90s which unfortunately falls under the radar of most comedy fans. It fits into the category of nicely watchable and is a film that you can happily have on to settle down and relax with that doesn’t need too much thinking about and is filled with lots of funny lines, physical humour and comedic situations.

The film is about Tim Robbins character Nick Beam, who works in marketing, and whose life is turned upside down when he discovers that his wife is cheating on him with his boss. Dejected at the discovery he walks away and whilst deep in his thoughts whilst aimlessly driving around the city, he gets held at gun point by small time criminal T. Paul, played by Martin Lawrence.

Angry at the world and not caring about the consequences in the moment, Nick races his car miles and miles with T.Paul going from thief to being effectively kidnapped. The two have arguments and fights, but quickly enough find that they have to work together to avoid one calamity of a situation after another, with run ins with cops and other criminals.

The rival criminals are played by John C McGinley who people will recognise from the sitcom Scrubs, and Giancarlo Esposito, who is best known as playing Gus Fring in Breaking Bad.

Within these exploits, Nick and T.Paul hatch a plan to rob Nick’s boss. This would fulfil T.Paul’s want for money as a thief who is trying to support his family, and also satisfy Nick’s want of revenge on his boss for sleeping with his wife. Needless to say, the pair aren’t as smooth as the cast of Ocean’s 11 and there’s lots of mishaps and funny situations that unfold in their attempt to rip off the boss.

Conclusion

This film won’t blow your mind as the greatest comedy film ever made, but will probably be a film that you’ll happily return to now and again as one of those comfort comedies that you start to learn the funniest lines from. Lawrence is on great form and Tim Robbins plays comedy really well in a film which was soon enough after the Shawshank Redemption that he still looks exactly as he did in that film. I mention it because it’s fun thought to see him catch his wife cheating with another man and then turn to crime with a gun in his hand shortly after…yup, this film could almost be seen as a prequel to Shawshank! Now you have that thought you’ll never watch either film the same way again!

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