Ted Forrest who works for the Dynasty Card Company is murdered by Keith Heading and his men on the street, they switch the tape before police arrive. Johnny Stewart is a lifelong con-man who meets a girl, Amber Evans, and tries to impress her by cleaning up his act and doing things the honest way. He becomes a mailroom clerk at the credit card firm where she works and soon finds that he needs money to impress Amber. So, he develops a scheme to commit identity theft with the credit card information of deceased cardholders to which he has access due to his mailroom position. He justifies his actions because he knows that he is only stealing from the company and not harming the individual cardholders. Chris Fields trains Johnny how to do the job, until Keith threatens Chris in the men's restroom making him feel scared. Lt Walsh asks Chris questions about Keith,Chris is stabbed and killed by Keith's hitman in the subway station. Lt Walsh investigates Chris's murder and find credit card receipts on him. Keith promotes Johnny from mailroom clerk to supervisor to replace Chris who was killed. With the help of his brother and fellow conman Seymour, he charges large amounts of money to the cards with the intention of impressing Amber. The supervisor, Keith Heading, records Johnny stealing a returned credit card and cons him into joining his credit card ring. Seymour takes the stolen credit card trying to buy a four fingered ring, but a security alarm came on saying card stolen. Seymour tries to escape but is caught by mall security and questioned by police. The police authorized a sting operation on Seymour to tape Keith's conversation and to capture him. Lt Walsh becomes furious about the sting operation. Keith's hitman is trying to kill Johnny for blackmail until he shoots Walsh in the arm. Keith kidnaps Seymour and Johnny goes after him until he escapes. Keith tries to kill Johnny by shooting him in the shoulder. A fight ensues between them until Johnny kills him by hanging him. Seymour and Amber visit Johnny lying inthe hospital bed injured and decides to settle down.
Cast
Damon Wayans — Johnny Stewart / Anton Jackson / Blaine Edwards
The film had a mostly negative reception. Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times recalled that "there are amusing things in 'Mo’ Money'—the chemistry of the Wayans team, the paterfamilias routine of Joe Santos as a good cop, the piquant sexiness of Stacey Dash—but they get steamrollered by all the high-tech crash-bang movie machismo." Hal Hinson wrote in The Washington Post that Wayans, "the 'In Living Color' star, who wrote and executive-produced this new picture, has a handful of these sublimely blank moments in 'Mo' Money,' but not nearly enough to anesthetize us to the film's painful deficiencies." The New York Times' Janet Maslin wrote that "the film would have been helped by more directorial spark than is supplied by Peter MacDonald, who is effectively stumped by the screenplay's split personality. Some of the material is played as comedy but a lot of the film hinges on some intrigue involving a corporate swindle, and neither the scheme nor the villains are compelling." The film received a slightly more favorable review from Variety, which stated that the "loosely structured film has trouble meshing its very funny gag scenes with rough action footage, but it should earn mucho change from escapist fans." It holds a rating of 16% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 25 reviews.
Box office
The film debuted at No. 1 at the box office in the United States, grossing $12,385,415 during its opening weekend. It ultimately finished with $40,227,006 at the North American box office. The film was released in the United Kingdom on December 18, 1992, and opened on #5.
