With seven Academy Award nominations, it appeared that Paul Newman, at age 60, might end his career in the ranks of top Hollywood entertainers never to have won an Oscar. In his case, it included leading actor roles in six films and as director of one. Five of the acting roles and his only director nomination were up against stiff competition. But, he won the best actor Oscar for this 1986 film. Never mind that it was a year with not much competition for best actor. But for Ben Kingsley's "Gandhi" in 1982, Newman would have won an Oscar that year for his role in "The Verdict."Newman is very good as Fast Eddie Felson. "The Color of Money" is very good but nowhere near great, as are some other films of 1986 – "Platoon," "The Mission," "A Room with a View." But only one actor from those top films was nominated for best actor (William Hurt, for "Children of a Lesser God"). Except for Hurt's film, the others with best actor nominations were all lesser known films of the year. The performances by the best actor nominees probably was very good, but without any other big names from big films, this might just have been a year when the Academy made a sentimental choice. The film also stars a very young Tom Cruise who, in just the past couple of years had scored a couple of blockbuster films. So, he clearly was on his way to stardom and top billing, very soon. The rest of the cast are fine in this film. It's a movie about pool shooting. It has some nice moments of drama, but otherwise drags a little in places. Naturally, there's a considerable amount of time showing pool games. Those who like to play pool or billiards should enjoy this film. Most of those who don't care for pool probably will find the movie slow or boring.It's nice that Paul Newman won his Oscar for this film. He was a top entertainer for a few decades – though not one of the great actors, or best entertainers. He was one of the best humanitarians, and many fans appreciated him as much for his genuine charity and goodwill. See this film if you like to shoot pool, or like Paul Newman or Tom Cruise. Otherwise, don't go out of your way to watch or buy it.

I prepared myself to this by watching The Hustler (1961) and enjoyed its' slow pace and character-driven story. The Color of Money kicks off with much more ballsy tone, really talking a lot about the game itself, and masterfully introducing the characters between the clacking of the balls and swooshing of the sticks. Scorsese goes very artsy with the camera angels and it gets a bit tiresome and feels a bit too intentional twisting and turning here and there, but overall the film is shot solid. Still, the biggest issue comes with the characters; you feel like you're almost there with Paul Newman, watching as he "plays" the kid and "plays" the girl, but it turns out that he's actually one step behind you in the end, which is a bit of a shame in the end. You'd want Paul to be the cleverest of them all, you'd want him beat that snotty annoying Cruise kid, but in the end, he is pleading for the last game and he gets hacked by Whitaker and he gets played by Cruise. Yes, he gets his say in the end, but still it doesn't feel somewhat satisfactory enough. Somehow, the characters end up in weird places and the development feels a bit off. Still, all is well and it's a beautiful film to watch, ambitious and very Scorsesean.

Every great director makes a few stinkers, and this is certainly one of Scorcesese's. The problem is he committed a movie "mortal sin" - he actually made Paul Newman look uncool playing a character he had played previously who was very cool. That is unforgivable.************SPOILERS AHEAD********************As with so many bad movies it really comes down to a ridiculous script. Eddie Felson, a billiards phenom in his younger days who had been used and tossed away by an unscrupulous gambler, is older and wiser and now acts as the unscrupulous gambler by bankrolling young pool sharks . . . Huh? Did Eddie learn nothing from his earlier experience. A rather unbelievable character flaw considering where Eddie was at the end of "The Hustler"Eddie decides to go on the road with a hotshot young pool player named Vincent (Tom Cruise) who is crazily cocky, dumb as a box of rocks, and presented in a smarmy way-over-the-top manner by Cruise. Vince has a girlfriend named Carmen (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) who early on reveals that she has no scruples herself. Uh, wait a minute. In "The Hustler" Eddie got involved with a girl, took her on a pool/gambling road trip with his evil gambler mentor and, without giving away the twists of that much better movie, lets just say it ended very badly. Wow, it seems Eddie has contracted a real bad case of memory loss which causes him to make every mistake he has made before. Who's is writing this dreck?The implausibility's get worse. Eddie gives Vince a very valuable cue stick, sort of a gift to convince him to become his protégé. Then he tells Vince to not use it when he plays - any savvy pool player will see it and immediately identify Vince as a hustler. Okay, so why give it to the brash and volatile young Vincent? Of course Vince goes out without Eddie and takes the cue and mucks up Eddie's gambling game plan. Eddie gets mad and drives his car away, with Vince trying to chase him down like a jilted girlfriend. Then Vince gets mad and Eddie gets in his car and chases down Vince, like an older jilted girlfriend. Meanwhile Carmen is disrobing in front of Eddie every chance she gets. Then they all make up. Then the wise, sage pool hustler Eddie Felson devises a con job which involves putting his grubby old guy hands all over Carmen, knowing full well how jealous and insecure Vince is about his relationship with Carmen. This leads to a cringe-worthy scene after the con job in which Vince acts like the immature teenager he obviously is while Carmen and Eddie try to placate his anger by saying, "We were just acting!" It made me feel a little dirty, watching the great Paul Newman explaining how actors who kiss in movies don't really mean it. Who put these words in his mouth?There's more, including one of Scorcesese's most gratuitous camera spins, doing 360's around Newman like some drunk teenager doing donuts in his souped-up Chevy in a supermarket parking lot, but why continue? This is simply a bad movie, all the more embarrassing because it almost taints the memory of its superior predecessor . . . almost.On the plus side, Newman looks great, MEM is very sexy, and Forrest Whitaker turns up in a great cameo as a slightly crazy pool hustler. His character was more interesting during his brief screen time than anything Newman and Cruise could muster. The rotten cherry on top of this melted pile of ice cream is the fact that THIS is the film for which Newman won his only Oscar. My advice for Newman fans (of which I am definitely one) is to avoid "The Color of Money" and remember the legendary actor for all his other great performances.

If the performances were so great, why only rate it a 7 out of 10? To begin with, I watched this with my kids back in the 80's and we got hooked on 9-ball right away--we would play in this garage, and I would dominate until one of my younger kids dropped the 9-ball by accident, ending my streak. So, the film has sentimental value to me.In the clear light of day, however, I re-watched it recently, and recalled what annoyed me the first time: Newman's reactions to Vince seem inconsistent and inexplicable. When Vince (Cruise) does what Newman (Eddie) tells him to do, Eddie is angry - when Vince does the opposite, Eddie gets mad (once, even driving off and leaving him). I didn't get it.We are supposed to view Eddie as the mentor here, but, frequently, the roles reverse. For example, when Eddie decides to play a competitive game against a stranger (a young Forest Whittaker), he finds he is the victim of a clever con-artist -- he throws a hissy-fit, but Vince's reaction is the correct one: "Forget it - we'll get this guy next time." Eddie won't listen. Who is the impetuous protegé now?There are some great pool sequences, however, and a glorious scene where Vince - armed with a totebox containing a world-class cue - encounters the Hall #1 player, who asks: "What have you got there?" "Doom", replies Vince with a big smile. Wish I had the game to say that.So, if you can tolerate characters that react unevenly to situations, and aren't always likable, you might enjoy this unique film featuring Paul Newman's only Oscar-winning role (he shoulda won for Cool Hand Luke).