o'russell's ABSCAM movie AMERICAN HUSTLE

Russell obv wants to make Flirting With Disaster at larger and larger scales; that's what he's done with the last two movies. But he can't stop condescending to the audience: when AH began with closeup of Bale adjusting the hairpiece it was like 'lol seventies.' The "Live and Let Die" setpiece was misconceived too; none of the damn musical cues work.

lot of actors having fun acting in this one

crazy costumes and get a load of my hair o yeah well get a load of this accent you think that's something get a load of this gut good times

he's the Sturges of his generation

i think even more than being stupid or w/e it was just incoherent and disjointed, like i liked silver linings playbook and fwiw thought many people misconstrued it but yeah it was def pretty corny and basic, but it worked as a movie, like it had a cohesive rhythm and plot and everything people acted the acting and it made sense it had some jokes, this one was just a mess

amy adams boobs did look super incredible tho

maybe it was cause i ffwded through some scenes but i didnt realize til the big reveal that brad cooper thought she was english all along lol

btw she is v attractive

Nothing in SLP made sense! A funny-sad account of Coop with mental problems, a family drama, Lawrence getting slut-shamed, Coop and Lawrence doing Dirty Dancing: Duluth Afternoons. The tone was wobbly and no one had any idea what they were playing.

naw it was cool it worked

he wore that shopping bag lol

man i wish walhberg had played that role

Coop isn't even believable as a dude who would try to read Hemingway.

yeah i will say about silver linings playbook that if it hadn't been further evidence of russell having lost it and hadn't been ridiculously overrated (which is a stupid armond reason to resent something but there it is) i wouldn't hate it nearly as much, i might even admire it was a romcom that somewhat breaks its mold like crazy stupid love (crazy stupid love much better than silver linings playbook fwiw), who knows.

what coop would read hemingway

i like the idea of russell bringing his weird sheen to normal okay movies like the fighter or slp but this didnt even have that cool alternate universe vibe

yeah coop's a smart guy, it kinda acted against him here though he's good at playing assholes (like bradley whitford level good) so that helped.

I don't mind him in AH; it's his best work cuz he's good at playing dim w/out being smug.

limitless still the definitive coop movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVHAd3jwZy0

"Live and Let Die" was the best musical moment in the movie! It added some energy instead of just signifying blandly in the background.

Saw this today...it felt about seven hours long, every single part was terminally miscast, all the men had hairstyles so Saturday Night Live-does-the-'70s the director might as well have put titles on the screen reading "Haw haw, look at his fuckin' hair!!!", one music cue was never enough when five could be stuffed in, not one character had a discernible motivation except maybe De Niro's...I can't believe I lasted the whole thing. What a piece of crap.

he's the Sturges of his generation

― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, December 31, 2013 1:54 PM (56 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

when is he going to make his great escape then

i got excited at the beginning of "live and let die" that he was gonna go the full magnolia and have the whole cast do a lip-sync montage. I mean, why not.

directors cut

also i'm never going to get used to jack huston having an entire face

he had a nice look amongst all the kitch

I don't see what the problem with this movie is. The American dream as long con. Maybe it's a little too on the nose, but every single character in this movie is constantly pretending to be someone or something else to get ahead. That's the underlying motivation of pretty much everyone. J. Law, Bale and Renner are the most true to who they are, but each has a fatal flaw. Renner means well, but goes corrupt to help his constituents. And Bale ... has fake hair. J. Law ... actually her character is pretty strong. She's not aspirational.

And I never saw it as a real love triangle. The romantic allegiances stay pretty steady. Bale wants a divorce from Lawrence, but wants to keep the kid, and he gets both. Adams wants to run off with Bale, and she does. Cooper's the only one who thinks he's getting something he's not going to get - Adams - but her flirtation with him was never more than part of the long con. She goes method with her romantic deception.

every single character in this movie is constantly pretending to be someone or something else to get ahead. That's the underlying motivation of pretty much everyone. J. Law, Bale and Renner are the most true to who they are, but each has a fatal flaw. Renner means well, but goes corrupt to help his constituents. And Bale ... has fake hair.

that's the trouble: that's all they're allowed to be

Surprised at the vitriol in this thread. I thought the film was sort of slapdash but also a whole lot of fun.

Yeah I was going to say it's not a great movie but it's not the disaster you backlashing reactionaries are painting it as.

Again, maybe if I'd seen "The Fighter" or "SLP" I'd hate this, too. This was my first taste of nu-Russell.

i didn't think it was a "disaster" just really fucking mediocre.

"The Fighter" is fine too.

and yeah, there's gonna be a backlash when a middlebrow anchorman 2 is getting pumped for best picture

i honestly just couldnt believe how bad it was no backlash

I guess I'm surprised not just because I liked the movie but because it seems like the kind of film that ILXors would like.

Took me a second to comprehend that Anchorman 2 is not the one with Oscar buzz. I was, like, who thinks Anchorman 2 is even middlebrow? What the fuck is ... oh, I get it, American Hustle is the middlebrow Anchorman 2, because of the clothes!

Only foreknowledge of the results is keeping me from starting a Hustle vs. WoWS poll.

This post maybe closest to my own reaction:

the total way less than the sum of its parts, but so many great parts

― |$̲̅(̲̅ιοο̲̅)̲̅$̲̅| (gr8080), Saturday, December 28, 2013 10:09 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

American Hustle is the middlebrow Anchorman 2, because of the clothes!

along with the clothes and the well-stocked '70s jukebox it's also about a dude trying to make it big while dealing with a love triangle and a coterie of wacky pals, also some vague sense that all this wide-lapeled buffoonery set the stage for the unethical antics of today. only one movie plays it for laughs and the other is a wan Tribute To Movies That Got Trophies Before. both are kind of wandering, admittedly.

not really sure what the great parts were, aside from some acting bits

russell certainly gets a fine stock of actors, but considering he lets them dress-up and wild out and doesn't get in their way as long as they can take his abuse why wouldn't they

i get why people defend movies they really loved and enjoyed from the haters, but i don't get the "oh it was no big deal but fine enough, haters!" stance. like, if it wasn't that great, and blatantly in the vein of movies that have been great, why not let people shit on it?

It sounds like part of the problem is that you didn't think American Hustle was playing for laughs. Which is weird.

yeah i wished this was a disaster, this was just mediocre garbage. think something like dick works better as a counterpoint though i get the timeliness w/ anchorman 2 comparison.

It sounds like part of the problem is that you didn't think American Hustle was playing for laughs. Which is weird.

forgive the shorthand - it was definitely a comedy, just a more pretentious one.

Odds I'll watch this again are sky low.

yeah balls obv a lot of diff parallels can be made and hopefully nobody's so literal as to need their hands held past "b-but anchorman 2 has a wedding in it and american hustle doesn't how can you compare" but i do think it's funny that we have two different "GET A LOAD OF MY PORNSTACHE" ad campaigns at the moment and earns a little contrast and compare

I don't care if anyone trashes American Hustle; I was just saying I was surprised, is all.