User Reviews

As *Ron Smolin* points out in his comment (July 17th, 2003), this isn't a movie that's going to change your views on the universe. It's pretty Disney formatted: good wins versus evil; the handsome & smart hero gets the handsome & smart girl; even fat people and small people and foreigners and geeks can get a beautiful, SLIM girl (of course, not the other way around); and making money's OK, if it lands in the pockets of the heroes). All those imperatives are there like on a menu for the movie that won't hurt anybody's principles...

That said, there are moments to be enjoyed, some nice ideas in the production design, even a little self irony (rather shy, but you can spot it if you pay attention...). The actors, especially the "geek-team" and most other supporting roles, really do a very good job (they actually helped me get over the too perfect, too tasteless "Andy" character, played by the otherwise very capable Adam Garcia).

It's really like a movie for early teens that can entertain grown-ups as well - and doesn't pretend to be anything else.

Perfectly OK for harmless entertainment. And for that little dreamy delight we can experience when we manage to forget that, most of the time, the world is a much more cruel and complex place than it is in this movie...

Remember reading those nice adventure stories when you were about 10, where a bunch of kids invent something from their garage and it costs less than their weekly allowance combined? Replace the kids with four old guys, the garage with a lab and you get this movie. You'll love this movie if you don't have a clue about "computers", otherwise, you'd have to try very hard to keep yourself from banging your head on the wall until the movie ends!

I enjoy the writing of Po Bronson, with Bombardiers being right up there with Catch-22 as one of the funniest books I have ever read. I remember enjoying The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest as well, although I think I keep confusing it with Microserfs by Douglas Coupland. When I saw this movie was playing on Showtime, I had no idea that it was made into a movie. I guess it was only released in L.A. and New York in 2002. Well, it's certainly a cheeseball interpretation of the book, with sub-par writing by Jon Favreau, who adapted the screenplay. But, being a movie about the dot-com generation, I can't resist. It's not horrible, and having Rosario Dawson cast as the female lead certainly doesn't suck.

It is sad that the reviews on this movie are so poor. Personally my wife and I thought it was very good. I enjoyed the movie and the concept of a 99 dollar laptop is nice. We are quite some time from a price like that, but one can dream. Anyway, I have learned to never let someone else's opinion spoil what could be a great movie. I really enjoyed the film and hope the reviews get better!!

This opened early in LA, and my friend dragged me to see it because of Adam Garcia, and I went along hoping for something entertaining because I'd enjoyed the writings of Po Bonson. This movie was probably the worst film I've seen this year. It felt cheap and cheesy in almost every regard. The story was quite weak and preposterous. The camera work and production values were hokey looking, aside from the holographic computers. The writing done by the usually wonderful Jon Favreau was the worst thing about the film. At times it was painfully bad. The two leads seemed miscast. Adam Garcia as ad exec Andy Caspar seemed particularly out of place and silly. His American accent was quite poor, and magnified by some of the ridiculous outdated slang he was forced to spout. The other lead/love interest Rosario Dawson was wooden and cliched in her performance. The only high point of the film for me were Andy's band of misfits played by Jake Busey, Ethan Suplee, and Anjul Nigam. The few laughs I managed were on their behalf. Over all the movie just wasn't interesting to keep me involved and I didn't care enough about any of the characters to give a flip what happened to them. For a similar story done much much better I'd recommend Mike Judge's Office Space.

If you ignore the stupid use of technology and the ridiculous computing concepts that litter this movie, then you maybe able to enjoy this movie.

I'm a computer technician, and i was more amused by the obvious lack of computing knowledge the screenwriters had, then by the movie..

Things like the stupid talking mailbox, how stupid is it to talk about some software gimmick when you're supposed to be discussing hardware solutions??

If you're interested in the subject of the $100 laptop, you'd get a lot more (realistic) information from going to slashdot.org and searching for "$100 laptop". There actually is such a thing, that the implementation is a lot more intelligent then in this cheesy comedy.

I was expecting so much more from this film, but it failed to deliver. Adam Garcia has gone down hill to star in something like this.

The plot was over complicated, and the ending seemed to drag on far too long. After overcoming obstacle after obstacle, I realised I just didn't care if they won or lost.

Rosanna Dawson is completely wooden in this performance, and has no chemistry with Garcia. The only bit of entertainment comes from Garcias band of geeks, however even this isn't enough to save the file.

Plot holes are major and massive, such as using technology that is far too advanced, and being able to get an entire marching back onto the high security premises of another company!

Avoid this. Watch Office Space instead.

It starts out feeling a lot like Revenge of the Nerds. The stereotypical marketer type and a lot of stereotypical nerds.

It improved, I thought. It's actually a longer than expected movie for a light genre movie. That gives them time for more character development, and a slower plot progression, which I was OK with.

What's to like - Andy is very likable. Maybe too nice a guy in some ways, but I was OK with that too. Every now and again, the lead character does not have to have one of those seemingly obligatory moments where he acts like a total jerk.

The technology was not totally unbelievable. It was plausible enough that I was able to accept it, in any case. For $99, maybe not, but hey, it's a movie, you have to have some suspension of disbelief.

The "bad guy" was almost too much of a jerk. I would have preferred they dialed him back just a bit - he felt like one of the perennial bad guys you have in a cartoon.

A lot of the supporting cast was pretty decent and funny.

While the plot did not break new ground, there were enough unique elements to hold my interest.

Mainly, I think the character interaction was what made it entertaining. While the dialog was not amazing or anything, I felt the cast did a fine job of delivering the dialog, and imbued the movie with a sense of fun.

I gave it a 6 out of 10; it was cute, and entertaining, and not totally insulting to my intelligence.

The yuppie Adam (Adam Garcia) decides to quit a successful career and work in a research company, in order to create something tangible in his life. He is assigned to develop a US$ 99.00 computer and joins three weird nerds rejected by the other team. The group accepts the challenge to build the piece of equipment, is well succeeded and cheated by another engineer. "The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest" has a so illogical and imbecile screenplay that might be recommended for morons only. The premise of a very young man, in the beginning of his career with such a prestige in his company with his boss and deciding to twist his profession to create something and follow his dreams is so ridiculous that does not deserve my time writing a review. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Os Primeiros 20 Milhões" ("The First 20 Million")

The idea of a $99 computer may have been a big dream in this film, but to those who have seen the documentary TED, it is a reality. Of course, the real $99 computer is nothing like these guys dreamed up!

Andy (Adam Garcia) wants to really build something like his father. So, he quits his marketing job and goes to work at a dream factory. They do not accept him and give him the $99 computer project, which no one believes is possible. he has to recruit his own team.

He gets the only guys left. When you see them, you will know why they are left - no one else would touch them. Jake Busey, Ethan Suplee (Randy from "My Name Is Earl"), and Anjul Nigam join Andy.

While Andy is not busy on the computer project he is trying to make it with Rosario Dawson. You know that she is really the reason I am watching this movie.

But, I got a bonus. Besides almost seeing Rosario shine, I got a lot of laughs along the way and I got to see a jerk (Enrico Colantoni) get his due. Not bad for an hour and a half.

If you're less than 10 years old (let's say) you might like. for the others, don't waste you time and your money for this "movie" The script is so poor, humour is so stupid, characters are so carricatural... that's definitely cheap and crap movie

Ignore the low rating, flames by computer geeks and bad reviews. The First 20 million is always the hardest is an excellent tale of backstab business, living the dream and starting over.

The actors work wonderfully together to produce a high quality of wit and light humor not seen in many of the movies of 2002, and the producers did an excellent budgeting job, seeing as the movie was made on a small budget. The cast are a diverse bunch, and it can only be a matter of time before they all hit it big.

I recommend you at least see it before judging it, remember, it's been badmouthed around the web by geeks who believe the technology in this movie is impossible, remember, the movie is not about computers... but about living the dream!

$20 M is the perfect B movie. Good looking teens/20-somethings, far-fetched, farcical plot, sex, set in California, impossibly dated, and not too much artistic value. The cast is stereotypical, but is very good in ensemble. It is fairly well shot, the story flows exceptionally well despite its obvious plot flaws, and the overall result is a FUN movie. $20 gets filed with the more entertaining B movies I have seen first thing in the morning after a weekend binge. The critics need to relax about this one. I do, however, agree that Adam Garcia should work with a better agent. His talents outweigh his film credits.

Simply awful! From the horrible stereotypes to the bad music choices, this film will hopefully pass the theaters and head straight to late night cable. A talented cast wasted. A sad commentary on what gets green-lighted in todays movie industry.

Are you kidding me? Jon Favreau wrote the screenplay for this movie? ::shaking head:: Jon, what were you thinking?! This movie is predictable and sophomoric, and the characters are shamefully stereotyped. I get the feeling they were aiming for Revenge of the Nerds, but ended up with Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love. It's a shame that I'll never get that 105 minutes of my life back.

"The First $20 Million..." is an easy-going comedy with a romantic bent which sticks Garcia out in front as a computer geek who aspires to be another Steve Jobs by working with some other geeks who are trying to build a $99 computer....er, something like that. A happy-go-nowhere little flick which is too uncool for the young demographic and too young for adults, I'm guessing it's a movie in search of a market. Hard to swallow and hard to follow with laughs which are too few and too far between, "The First $20 Million..." is an uninspired albeit earnest novel knock-off which is best saved for broadcast. (C)

A man quits his job, and winds up taking on a very strange assignment from his new boss,, him along with 3 other guys, will attempt to do the impossible create assemble and get up and running a 99 dollar pc. what a challenge this now presents to the man,, Jake Busey , and Rosario Dawson star in this kind of strange but cool movie. along the way they encounter many challenges from bigger companies,, Corporate America and the like,, our main character doesn't really like his boss,, and who really can actually say that they do,, I don't care for my idiot , incompetent boss, and also I thought that the teaming up of him along with the other 3 guys was kinda cool, because each man ultimately brings something to the table,, kind of a Jr. Silicon Valley , training ground so to speak,, not a bad movie,, but not great either.

It obviously has a high budget.... THATS ABOUT IT.

The topic's silly. The story is awfull. The actors are lame. Direction too. Its totally un-realistyc. Its dummy; silly, lame, stupid. It might sound as if I got something against someone involved in the movie, but I don't. I just saw this yesterday on TV... I even got angry for being watching something so stupid! Its non-sense. IT really really really sucks!

Someone could have spent the money wasted in this movie to feed some poor country, invest in AIDS treatment... hey! even invest in real tecnologhy! Buying a gun or some drugs would be a better use of the money, than producing or even waching some crap like this. It is just, so far, the WORST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN. Trust me. And Im sorry for the actors involved! they were just doing their jobs!

This movie is so bad, it's not even bad enough to be cult-like bad.

I can't tell you a single thing good about this movie. I don't know where to begin with how poorly done it is.

It seemed to be shot with available lighting in a lot of scenes, or no lighting when there should have been some fill. The acting was stilted, the delivery as well. The editing was horrible for a film of it's budget. The props and concepts were horrid. The references to computers and technology were 20 years behind. Let's not even start with the useless titles and their horrid size and font.

The entire time I watched this I was mad, frustrated even. I kept wanting it to either become much worse, in which case I could enjoy it for its badness, or better- neither of which ever happened. I just sat through it screaming, "Why? Why?".

Boy, the reviews of this film are terrible, but I think it was a fun movie, with clever characterizations and satire. Okay, it's not a top-notch film, but come on, it's a blast to watch, and does not deserve such evil comments that have been made. I think Adam Garcia keeps the movie running smoothly with an amiable personality. Farce is a tough nut to make, so I guess people can't handle some of the silliness. But this film is not as bad as many are led to believe.

The Movie is well done, the cast has good comedic timing and Miss Dawson shines in her role as the sensitive artist. The cast works well together each highlighting the others presence. It's a good comical farce and a good buy at $14. The perfect afternoon movie when some laughs are in order.

Not that it was in the 'so-bad-it-was-good' category (though close in some ways), but it wasn't the cinematography, or the dialog or anything of that sort that I liked. What did it for me were things like the sneaky insertion of some good concepts, and topics I'd thought about years ago but didn't believe anyone else ever had.

Back in 1985 I was thinking about a cigarette-box-sized computer with holographic display and voice i/o, while frustratedly assembling 256k(!) 8088 machines with full-height 5-1/4" 10MB(!) hard-disks and 12" amber CRT displays. I didn't think of the space-touch interface, but hey that was almost 20 years ago.

Where these guys really shone was in their 'when life serves up lemons, make iced tea because everyone else will be making lemonade' approach to problem-solving. It's like looking at a boating magazine and seeing an idea that helps you with a home design. Synergistic cross-pollination beats idea theft and cro-magnon style greed in this film and that's refreshing no matter what vehicle it's riding in.

Anyway, that's my 2¢ worth.

I really enjoyed this movie because it was very relaxing and different then the typical american movie. Don't get me wrong Im all for explosion's and Effects but this movie was good in its own way.

I think that anyone who has watched this movie enjoyed it in its own kind of way. After watching this movie I started thinking of stuff that can be invented and must say it got me thinking for a good while.

this movie would of been more of a hit in the late 80's early 90's.

The actor's in the movie were funny,I never felt like the movie was starting to get very long. 8/10