Moola

In this comedy, Steve Hodges (William Mapother) and his pal Harry (Daniel Baldwin) are best friends and business partners who both have crumbling marriages. Nearly broke and at wit’s end, they hit the jackpot—or at least seem to—when a big corporation offers to buy the chemical light sticks they’ve developed. Supposedly based on true events, this innocuous laugher sports a good cast but strikes an uneasy balance between situational and absurdist humor. Director Don Most would have been better off choosing only one approach.

Shelf Talk: A solid cast—which also includes Treat Williams, Charlotte Ross, Curtis Armstrong and Efren Ramirez—should help draw in the curious, and Allumination promises a “fully homogenized” national advertising/promotional campaign. Tying the film to the product whose development it depicts—the OmniGlow Bovine Beacon—could pick up additional consumers in areas where the Beacon is frequently used. You also can report that director Most—formerly “Ralph Malph” of the venerable ’70s TV smash Happy Days—snagged a best director award at the Newport Beach Film Festival.