American Hustle

I remember when first seeing the trailer for this I wasn't really interested. However, I was mesmerized from start to finish by these characters. Definitely my vote for best allaround pic of everything I've seen so far.

Best Lines both go to Miss Lawrence:
#2. " I know who that is"
#1. " Sometimes all you have are f##g poisonous choices :* "

Great unusual funny movie!

The entire cast were amazing.

9/10

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“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa

Great music, great atmosphere and style. Christian Bale rocked in this film, very understated performance that speaks volume from a simply stance. The rest of the cast do well for themselves.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

Bale can play anything, and he's obviously great at transforming himself into his characters. The whole time I was watching him onscreen, I was thinking, "This is the same guy who played Batman?!"

He deserves an Oscar nomination for this, and so do Amy Adams, who I am not a fan of but can't deny she was brilliant here, the always amazing Jennifer Lawrence, and Bradley Cooper.

I liked this. About half way through, I realized that it was confusing, but then realized...it's about scams. Scammers are forced by an FBI guy who is essentially scamming his boss to participate in a sting (i.e., a scam done by cops) on politicians who are taking bribes (yet another scam)...and on. The acting was excellent, Amy Adams' boobs are all over the place, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper are predictably excellent. I'll have to see it again so I can understand all the levels of deception in the plot.

Ashdoc's review---

Spoiler alert !!

American bulllshiit---that's what this movie was named when it began as a screenplay....

One wonders what kind of run the film could have had at the box office they had continued with a name like that....

But they changed the ' bulllshiit ' to ' hustle ' , and boy !! what a hustle they showed.....

Two con artists ( Irving Rosenfield played by Christian Bale and Sydney Prosser played by Amy Adams ) are having a nice life together conning people out of their money , until the FBI barges in like a villain into this paradise in the form of agent Richie Dimaso ( played by Bradley Cooper ) . Richie catches them doing a loan scam , but says that he will not press charges if they help in arresting 4 other people .

Richie , who is eager to advance his career at all costs , decides on a potential target for arrest in which the duo's help is required---a politician called Mayor Polito , who is not really a bad guy . Richie's own boss and Irwing oppose this to no avail .

As Mayor Polito is trying to revitalize the casinos of Atlantic city , they plan to set him up with a fradulent Arab sheikh ( actually their own agent ) who is supposedly looking for investing his money in casinos and catch the mayor taking bribes from this so called sheikh for furthering the investment in Atlantic city's casinos .

But there arise complications to the whole plan like---

1) Richie is too eager for making the plan successful and get promotion in FBI and so tries to push a suitcase of money too fast into the mayor's hands due to which the mayor smells a rat and walks out of the first meeting....

2) Richie's immediate boss in the FBI is not ready to help out in the vast investments required for the plan to be successful leading to verbal and then physical fights between them....

3) Irving's wife Rosalyn ( played by Jennifer Lawrence ) gets to socialize with the mayor's wife , and boy !! she is a volatile and dangerously unpredictable person who can spill the
beans on the whole plan if she is in that mood.....

4) Irving loves Sydney but Rosalyn is unwilling to divorce him....

5) Due to the above fact Rosalyn and Sydney both hate each other's guts and a catfight can break out whenever the two are in the same room---as it does....

6 ) The mayor brings some other people into the project , and the entry of these people is totally unexpected and an unpleasant surprise to Irving and Sydney and Richie....

7) Rosalyn gets into a relationship with one of the persons brought into the project by the mayor !!

8) The pressure of all this too much for Irving who constantly needs heart pills to handle it....

So is the FBI's plan to entrap the mayor successful ??
And what happens to Irving and Sydney ??

Go and watch the movie for the answers....

The movie has some real surprises in store towards the end---surprises that totally justify the title of the film...

Acting by Christian Bale ( as Irving ) and Bradley Cooper ( as Richie ) is superb , and both Amy Adams ( as Sydney ) and Jennifer Lawrence ( as Rosalyn ) inject real seductiveness into their respective roles as rivals in personal life .

But the director is king , and his direction is well worth a salute....

Some real comic situations arise and some tense ones too , but both keep you interested throughout....

This hustle is well worth a visit to the theater...

Verdict---very good .

Just got home from this. Absolutely fantastic. Great cast, great soundtrack, just all around a great film. My wife even gave it 2 thumbs up, and she doesn't usually like a lot of the stuff I drag her to.

I had a tough time liking this film. It just seemed too "something" Well that happened to turn out being a good thing. Not great, but pretty dammed good. 4 outta 5 from me.

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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

American Hustle is surprisingly unsatisfying. Great cast, great acting, great costumes, but it felt like I was watching a movie pretending to be an ironic version of a mediocre 1970s TV film. More thoughts:

The 1970s never looked so good, but there's something missing from this stylish con-comedy. At over two hours long with very little happening, the pace starts to drag. The story isn't even that sophisticated for a 'hustle' movie and you may feel short changed on the drama front. Too much style, not enough substance. 5/10

American Hustle was barely even a movie, just an elongated sitcom. A bunch of scenes, some quirky, some 'serious,' built around aphorisms, slapstick and a flimsy plot.

A shocker. Totally derivative - again, Goodfellas/Casino/Wolf .. but with none of the charm. This is what happens when lunatics take over the asylum ie. the actors take over the movie. I like Bale and Cooper, but here, it was like a cockfight - who could outDiNiro Di Niro, like Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Bale either wore a prosthetic or put on weight, maybe from eating the rewrites. Sooo Raging Bull, dude.

Cooper forgot he could speak French and didn't need to do this. Go to Provence, munch on an escargot and have a nap.
And Amy. If everyone's in 70's grunge, why do you look so current?
Her acting was try-hard, small town playhouse, did a better job down-playing in 'Her.' But we're not nominated for that, are we. Btw Never attempt a British accent again, you're only good for 3 words, then back to Santa Monican.

Due to a complete lack of substance, Hustle relied a lot on trying to be funny. Hence the obsession with hair. Toupees are funny, right? Then Cooper perming his hair was er, funny, right? Then every woman had curlers at some stage - boy, that was funny, too. Nothing like follicular humour for the masses, surefire.

Ramshackle, shoddy, incoherent - grifters stinging, re-stinging, re-re-stinging? Don't know, don't care. Perhaps the people responsible for this mess should watch 'The Sting,' and get a few tips on clever, entertaining movie-making.

This film was all about the actors, in self-indulgent full flight.
Now watch 'em all go up and collect oskars ... by default.

Anyways....

I respectfully disagree with your review. I loved most of the performances in this movie, with the exception of Jennifer Lawrence, which I merely found good.

I thought the plot had plenty of substance, despite being an "actor's movie". But to each their own, of course.

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Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake... I... drink... your... milkshake!
-Daniel, There Will Be Blood

I completely agree man I'm so dumbfounded by all the great reviews and awards. It seemed like a half ass Goodfellas or another mob movie. The acting was good but out of place, the 70s theme was presented Inaccurately. Jlaw was really good but just looked way to young to be with that group of people.

Jennifer Lawrence (great actress though she is) didn't cut it for me, but purely on the grounds of youth. She just looked way too young for the role.

I just started the movie, Ive never seen it. Im noticing right away Christian Bale seems like hes doing a Robert DeNiro impersonation. Did anybody else come to that conclusion?

I seem to like Bale the best in Russell movies, so I never thought that. Lots of people thought Russel was doing Scorsese and Bale was doing DeNiro in this though. I thought the movie was fantastic.

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Letterboxd

It's a great movie. It is Scorsese-esque to be sure. I don't think Bale was much like DeNiro though.

No he wasnt physically impersonating DeNiro, but his voice...oh I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing it intentionally. Yes to the Scorcese comparison too as the story blueprint is like watching Casino 2. Hey, great stuff nonetheless.

De Niro didn't even know who Bale was on set

It probably would be good he didnt know who he was, or he'd probably break his balls for being Batman. Back when DeNiro & Pacino were making the movie HEAT they both broke Val Kilmers balls unmercifully for being Batman, and always called him Batman off camera. Kilmer hated it.

American Hustle has two things going for it big time - banter and rhythm. The banter, and seemingly natural flow of its delivery is impressive. Ive never seen such enthralling jibber-jabber. The whole rhythm of the movie is frenetic. Constant even when nothings going on. If a viewer wouldnt like those things then they probably didnt like American Hustle.

The energy of the film is top notch as no actor is phoning their performance in, and look to be working their asses off like theyre newcomers in a breakthrough role. Russell must bring that out in his actors being such a driven headcase himself.

...and the musics AWESOME!