REVIEW - 'American Hustle'

'American Hustle' (R) **
Con artist Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and his seductive partner Sydney Prosser Amy Adams), are forced to work for a wild FBI agent, Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia in an effort to take down corrupt politicians, starting with Camden Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner).  With Jennifer Lawrence as Irving's crazy wife, comedian Louis C.K. as Richie's superior at the FBI, and Robert De Niro as the head of the mafia.

Simply put, I didn't like it.  I know I'm in the extreme minority on this (94% on RT, 88 on Metacritic, on numerous 'Best of the Year' lists, and nominated for numerous awards, and will most likely be heavily nominated at the Oscars), but to me 'American Hustle' was not a good movie.  The 70's soundtrack was awesome, the bad 70's hair/clothes were awesome, the scene with Robert De Niro was great but as for the movie itself...not so much.  It was rather slow paced.  I checked the time on my phone 3 times and I lost count of the number of times I kept fidgeting around in my seat out of boredom.  Scenes just kinda go on and characters keep on talking and I couldn't really get invested in any of it.  And for being billed as a 'Comedy' it wasn't very funny.


This is from the same director as 'Silver Linings Playbook' and 'The Fighter'.  'Silver Linings Playbook' is great and I may or may not be writing more about that movie within the next few weeks as the year ends and I'm compiling end of year list(s).  'The Fighter' I didn't really like (also couldn't really get invested in the movie as a whole) but at least with that movie I liked several of the performances.  'American Hustle' I couldn't even get behind those.  They aren't bad by any means I just didn't think they were as amazing as almost every other review says.  And Jennifer Lawrence looks a little young to be playing Christian Bale's wife.

My expectations were high for this after seeing the first trailer for it.  But I was disappointed. 






TRAILERS
'Million Dollar Arm' - Disney's latest sports movie involves 'Mad Men''s Jon Hamm picking up cricket players from India to play professional baseball in the United States.  Didn't look horrible...just kinda bland.

'Her' - Still looks all right, but looks really......odd, to say the least.

'About Last Night' - Remake.  And in spite of Kevin Hart being in this version of it I did manage to chuckle a few times.  I haven't seen the original and I don't really go see chick flicks so I don't really plan on seeing this.


'Robocop' - Remake.  Doesn't look all that bad.  Still haven't seen the original...

'Jack Ryan:  Shadow Recruit' - Reboot.  Once again, doesn't really look all that bad.

'3 Days To Kill' - A dying Secret Service Agent trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter is offered an experimental drug that could save his life in exchange for one last assignment.  This could be awesome...or it could be really dumb. 





Okay...still need to see 'The Hobbit' and 'Wolf of Wall Street' before I'll call it a year.