It's been a while now since I saw "The Hustler", but my memory suggests that it was substantially more grim and gritty than this much later sequel, if one could even call it that. That might owe to the earlier film's black and white photography adding a noirish feel to the smoke filled pool parlors and lounges where the young Eddie Felson used to ply his trade. With "The Color of Money", I couldn't get quite comfortable with where the picture was going or if we would ever get there. The basic plot is understood, the now older Eddie (Paul Newman) would take upstart newcomer Vincent Lauria (Tom Cruise) under his wing, teach him how to read his opponents, stake him in his matches, and collect his share of the winnings. I never really got the sense though that Vincent was ever really along for that ride, since he almost never took Eddie's advice, allowing his ego to constantly get in the way of their shared goal.

What I got the biggest kick out of had to do with the musical lyrics set to various confrontations Vincent dealt with on the circuit. Eddie's warning about Moselle was comically echoed by Warren Zevon's line - 'You better stay away from him, He'll rip your lungs out Jim' - that was great. Later, as Grady Seasons runs the table, Vincent has to consider - 'Are you gonna fall for this'?

The other noteworthy moment watching the film today had to do with Paul Newman's character talking to Vincent early in the story, and explaining how he would teach him how to hustle. The discussion might have just as well turned on Newman giving pointers to Cruise on how to act at this early point in his career. That's not meant to be a put down, but you can definitely see the difference between the actor Cruise of today compared to two decades earlier. Just an observation.

I suppose my qualms about the picture have to do with it's pacing in the latter half, when the focus is on Fast Eddie's decision to compete again. There's that swimming pool dive that comes from nowhere, and the attendant visit to the optometrist when he realizes his sight is impaired. That just seemed to break the flow of the story enough to give it a disjointed feel. Later, Eddie's victory over Vincent in the tournament seemed tainted, and then of course, that's revealed to be true. I guess I was looking for the picture to end on some kind of message shedding light on the underlying decency of the principal players, but instead it looked like they both wound up behind an eight ball.

Pool hustler Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) discovers a cocky, young pool player Vincent (Tom Cruise) in a local bar. Along with Vincent's girl Carmen (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio),he tries to teach the youngster all that he knows about the hustle.

Tom Cruise overplays the cocky arrogant characters. At times, he plays him like a cartoon character. Luckily Paul Newman could bring the acting chops to this movie. When Paul's character loses to Amos (Forest Whitaker),you see a history of the man's failures. You felt his defeat emotionally. Martin Scorsese directs this. I wonder if Martin Scorsese held back a little. The violence and grittiness for which he's known for isn't all there. They're traveling the darkest and lowest pool halls, but it could have been much worst.

This film brings together the classic American actor, Paul Newman, with a popular stud of the time, Tom Cruise. With a notable cameo of Forest Whitaker as Amos the hustler.

How to judge this film? It is not as great as Newman's original time around as Fast Eddie ("The Hustler"),but still a great film just the same. And it hardly ranks as one of Cruise's best, though he gets that craziness out of him here (with a bare minimum of running). Scorsese has done better, much better, but he was working within a framework here and I think as far as sequels go, this one is pretty great.

A must-see film, not so much because it is one of the better films, but because it has three great giants of film together in one place. Love it or hate it, this is a strong presentation of talent.