American Hustle

Strangely, there was no thread.

So, I saw American Hustle. I don't think it deserves all that praise and nominations for the Oscars, but it's a decent enough movie.

IMO, Christian Bale delivered well, unlike, say, Bradley Cooper (Richard's grunt is hilarious).

I never saw what's so special about Jennifer Lawrence and I'll probably never will. As for her character, she's quite irrational. And that bullshit about The Power of Deception felt so idiotic and forced.

Jeremy Renner was alright. Carmine was a genuine guy and I simpathised with him.

Amy Adams trying to do the English accent was so hilarious (both In-Universe and out). She did okay.

And, of course, Robert DeNiro's cameo is priceless.

Some of the things in the con and the con within the con felt a bit forced or written at the last hour (like the guy who impersonated the lawyer, Simone. I didn't see him in the scene where Irving met Sydney, and I felt they oughta have shown him, at least).

The soundtrack was alright, apart from the inclusion of what seemed like an Arab version of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit", which was out of place (it's New Jersey, folks, not San Francisco).

And, finally, David O. Russell clearly liked filming Amy Adams. Not that we're complaining, of course.

What did you think of it?

edited 2nd Feb '14 9:47:00 AM by Quag15

I'm seeing it next friday. I'm looking forward to it, but indeed judging from the trailer I don't really see why it's been getting praised so much. But I thought the same about Captain Phillips, and that turned out to be my second favorite 2013 movie.

The actors really carry the movie. The plot itself really isn't that spectacular but the actors have such great chemistry with one another and it has a really good screenplay.

Only slightly related, but does anyone know the name of the song that starts around 1:05 in this trailer?

"10538 Overture" by Electric Light Orchestra.

The screenplay, I felt, was achingly begging for an Oscar. Same cast as Silver Linings, which was actually a pretty contrived film. Hustle could easily have taken place in the present, but a period piece with a clear moral at the end is more likely to be nominated.

I did like Jeremy Renner's golden boy politician a lot; but since the opening caption asserts:

most of this movie is bullshit

..or something on those lines, he is not the focal point. I very much enjoyed the scenes in Atlantic City, though.

The screenplay was alright (and Jeremy Renner was good). Also, johnnyfog:

When I said he was a bit shitty, I meant to emphasise the "a bit" part. Maybe the direction and the writing were both to blame. When he was good, he was good (like the bits where he was a complete jerk and bully to his boss). One thing I didn't like (and I found kind of Narm-y) was some stuff like his grunting on the phone and some of the dialogue with Sydney.

edited 8th Feb '14 8:01:11 AM by Quag15

So I saw it. It starts out really slow (there were tons of walk-outs in the first half hour), but once it gets going it becomes great. There were tons of brilliant little moments: Robert De Niro suddenly speaking Arabic, the ice fishing story and of course 'don't put metal in the science oven!'. And as mentioned before the acting was absolutely fantastic. The more I think about it, the better it gets really.

edited 8th Feb '14 4:32:12 AM by Rvdz

If it wasn't for the heavy competition (DiCaprio, Chiwetel Eljofor...), Christian Bale would probably win the Oscar.

The "don't put metal in the science oven" part was really funny.

I know. I wrote too fast.

edited 8th Feb '14 8:08:14 AM by Quag15

A spoiler tag needs two [ to work.

But yeah, imho this year has been extremely good for oscar-y movies. Captain Phillips, American Hustle and Wolf Of Wall Street are all in 9,5/10 territory for me. And i think Bale, Di Caprio and Hanks (who sadly wasn't even nominated) are all deserving of oscars.

Just give 'em all Oscars. Divvie up the votes 25/25/25/25.