ONE FOR THE '90s (2/4/2012)

ONE FOR THE MONEY (PG-13)

BY JAKE MATHISON

February 4th, 2012

Starring: Katherine Heigl, Jason O'Mara and Daniel Sunjata

Directed by: Julie Ann Robinson

Written by: Stacy Sherman (screenplay), Karen Ray (screenplay), Liz Brixius (screenplay) and Janet Evanovich (novel)

One for the Money is a dated film that may have worked, and even worked well, a decade ago. But as it stands, it's not fresh enough to keep an iPhone era attention span, and its obvious '90s shtick mostly misfires when translating to its modern setting. It's a shame, too, because this is probably Katherine Heigl's (Knocked Up) least offensive role in, well, forever. But the Stephanie Plum of One for the Money clearly hasn't aged well as a character, and the film's weaksauce plot is only barely masked by the explosive charisma of Jason O'Mara (TV's Life on Mars and Terra Nova) as an ex-flame on the lam. Fans of the cozy mystery genre, without a particular allegiance to Ms. Plum, would do better to revisit 1998's brilliant Zero Effect instead.

2.5/5 stars

One for the Money is rated PG-13 for violence, sexual references and language, some drug material and partial nudity

AP Photo