Review Tuesday: AMERICAN HUSTLE (2013)

The reviews of in-flight movies continues...

AMERICAN HUSTLE

A couple low-level con-artists are enlisted to take down government corruption

I had heard the raves for this movie since last year. That was probably the first mistake. I heard everyone going on and on about how great this movie is. How great the acting is. GOTTA SEE IT!

Christian Bale played Irving Rosenfeld. He owned a small chain of dry-cleaners and practiced a little con-artistry on the side. Then he met Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) and together they were able to ratchet up the swindling a couple extra notches. Until they met Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) who busts them and brings them in to help him take down government corruption. All the while you have Irv's wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) whose big mouth threatens to blow the sting up at any moment.

While the synopsis sounds exciting and fun, the movie drones on for well over two hours. The stellar cast does a good job, but to me this film needed some editing. It just didn't need to be so long in my book. There seemed to be so much character development that might not really have been needed. They invested about five minutes to a stupid microwave oven! C'mon?

If you have read a review on BAXOJAYZ.COM before you will already know that I detest Bradley Cooper. He's exactly the character I can't stand in this movie. He's a sneering, whining, self-indulgent, tantrumming, ferret-faced douche-bag. From the first moment his face is on the screen, you hate him, and it never eases for the rest of the film.

Christian bale is difficult to look at. He's a fat balding guy with a terrible comb-over and some sort of clump of lint tied into the middle of it. It's a sight that can cause nausea.

Jeremy Renner as Mayor Carmine Polito was quiet charismatic and likable in the film.

The ladies, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence are both simply delicious. I don't think I have ever seen either look better in a movie. Even as a dumpy house wife, Lawrence comes across as impossibly sexy, and manipulative in an airhead kinda way. 

I would say the best parts -- the ladies, Robert DeNiro, Louis C.K., etc -- were vastly outweighed by dull banter. I found myself struggling to continue watching it. 

For free, I would call this movie perfectly watchable, but if I had gone to see this in the theaters I might have walked out asking for my money back. Not my cup of tea.

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