Review – American Hustle

Movie Title: American Hustle

Director: David O. Russell

Date Released: December 20th, 2013

Date Seen: December 22nd, 2013

 

Part 1 – Spoiler Free Quickie Review

A movie about a conman, Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and his partner, Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) who must work with the FBI to save their own asses.  However, things get a little out of hand, with an agent pushing them too far – Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper), and Irving’s unpredictable wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), just being herself.  What will happen as we get into the world of hustlers, FBI agents, mob bosses and congressmen?  Watch it and see!

Or don’t, that’d be ok too.  Honestly, I see that this was a well shot, directed, and exquisitely acted movie – however, it wasn’t my cup of tea. I was bored mostly because I just didn’t “get” it.  It moved at an awkward pace for me, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes with super whispery dialogue so I missed things.  I honestly had NO idea how they were actually conning people for the longest time, and once they got to the big cons – I was even more confused.  Let’s be reminded that I’m not a dumb person, I’m working on my PhD, – the plot just seemed all over the place and so I kept zoning out (I guess) and thus missing important details (again, I guess).  I went to the bathroom at what I thought had to be towards the end of the movie, because it seemed like I had been watching it for hours – but no, I was only an hour into it.  It just dragged on and on and I didn’t really care.  It just clearly wasn’t my thing.

However, I loved the filming and the acting in this movie.  It was shot in a way that was reminiscent of other films and directors, with some scenes being pretty straightforwardly obvious who they were imitating (Goodfellas is a big one), but it fits in with the whole “forgery” idea in the plot.  There’s a line in the trailer even, “Who is really the master? The artist or the forger?” And that’s what David O. Russell appeared to do in a few scenes.  But, I didn’t have a problem with this.  The movie is full of lots of golds, reds, and oranges, with lots of sparkle, making it a pretty film to look at.  There’s also a lot of dance scenes or just scenes set to music that are enjoyable to watch.

The real standout of the movie though is the acting.  Everyone in this movie is superb. Part of it is the character writing and part of it is the acting.  I know a lot of this movie was improved by the actors, but still, some of the characters were just so great.  I left the movie wishing the entire thing was actually just about Jennifer Lawrence’s character, Rosalyn, because she was just so damn interesting.  She was hilarious, smart, but a bit of a train wreck.  I wanted to just see what kind of shit she would have gotten into.  Amy Adams was the other star.  I love that the main women in this movie were both probably the smartest of them all.  You do see a lot of Amy Adam’s side boob, a lot a lot a lot.  Luckily, she has a very nice side boob so that’s good.  We have a very unattractive Christian Bale, with his beer belly and comb-over – but it works great for the character.  He does a lot of this “oh god what have I gotten my self into” semi blank stare that I wasn’t really a fan of, but otherwise great.  Bradley Cooper’s character was very unlikeable but, in a good way. It worked well for the plot and I liked what Bradley Cooper added to the character in the curly hair, attention to how things look, etc. The only person I wasn’t big on was Jeremy Renner as Mayor Carmine Polito.  He just seemed very idiotic to me and Jeremy Renner had the most ridiculous hair of them all.  I know that’s hard to believe, but he quite possibly did.

The hairstyles really had a staring role all themselves – with Jeremy Renner’s odd Johnny Bravo – eqse hair cut, Jennifer Lawrences up-dos with a various amounts of curls hanging out, Amy Adams with nice beautiful red flowing locks, Christian Bales comb-over, and Bradley Coopers incredible perm.  Yeah, they deserve an Oscar themselves.

See this if you like very talk heavy must pay attention the entire time movies, and you like the genre.  I think this is a good movie – it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

 

Part 2 – In Depth Spoiler Ridden Review

I can’t really spoil anything since I didn’t get a lot of the movie, due to my either stupidity or zoning out.  Or both, there’s a great chance that both of them happened.

The things I were really confused about was why they had to pick Jeremy Renner’s character to start the con with, because they all seemed to agree that he was a good guy, so I don’t know why you’d target him other than his connections.  I guess that was it.  I also was like “why are we dealing with casinos, and what do the politicians actually have to do with this?” I figured out towards the end (during the con) sort of what was going on, but by then I just didn’t care.

I did really like the FINAL con, that was nice, but I felt really bad for poor Jeremy Renner’s person, who again, just seemed like a nice guy who got caught up in a bunch of people being assholes to him – but that was kind of the point of Christian Bale’s last speech now wasn’t it? Yep.

 

Overall: 7/10

It was a good movie, but not my thing at all, otherwise it would get higher.  I can appreciate it for what it is though – a fine study in acting and directing, but the plot just wasn’t for me.

Review – Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

Movie Title: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

Director: Paul Weitz

Release Date: October 23rd, 2009

Date Seen:  Around when it first came out, and again on July 14th, 2012

 

Part 1 – Spoiler Free Quickie Review

I like this movie.  It’s not great, it’s not horrible, and it’s a fun watch.  I find it significantly lacking in the plot department.  I mean – there’s a plot there, and it’s alright, but re-watching it this time I found it wayyyy too much build up for little climax.  And yet, I still like the movie because I think it’s cute.  There’s a lot of cute or funny scenes, some funny characters, and it’s worth a watch.  It has the typical vampires that feed off humans and leave them alive versus the “vampanese” that actually kill the people that they are feeding off of.  We get a lizard boy, a monkey girl, Salma Hayek as the Bearded Lady, and some other random creatures that make it interesting.

 

Part 2 – In-Depth Spoiler Ridden Review

The movie focuses around two boys – Darren (Chris Massoglia) and Steve (Josh Hutcherson).  They are best friends.  Darren is obsessed with spiders and Steve is obsessed with vampires.  On day, they conveniently get invited to a one-night-only freak show.  They go because their family and teachers forbid it in every way.  We learn that Darren has over-bearing parents while Steve has none? Or something like that.  So anyway, Darren sneaks out and meets up with Steve and they head to the freak show.

From the very beginning, they have a very strange encounter.  What appears to be a tiny creature gives them their tickets and bites Steve on the hand.  But whatever, they continue in.  We meet Mr. Tall (Ken Wantanabe), who appears to be the director.  We find out later that he is the circus director and is the big boss man in charge at the camp.  The boys start watching the show and it is not your ordinary freak show.  Instead of being illusions, or just unfortunate people, there are some weird things going on.  There is a wolfman who bites a womans arm off – and it grows back.  There is a man who can eat stuff and then (it seems) fart it back out into something else.  For example, he ate some pipes and rods and then farted them into a bike shape.  There’s also a lizard boy, a bearded lady…and then a man with a spider?  What?   It is Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) – who Steve immediately recognizes as a vampire from one of his many vampire books. He has a spider that of course, Darren is fascinated with, and thinks is beautiful.  Crepsley reveals that just one bite can kill any man.

About this time, a teacher from the school and some other people come to shut the circus down.  Steve and Darren both run off to avoid being seen by their teacher.  Darren notices a door that is Crepsley’s.  He goes in it and sees the spiders cage – and takes it – right as he hears people start to come in.  He hides in the closet.  He overhears Gavner Purl (Willem Dafoe) and Crepsley discuss the possible upcoming war between the vampires and the vampanese.  Crepsley reveals that he’s always tried to stay out of it.  About this time, Steve comes barging in and begs to be made into a vampire – Crepsley hackles him for a bit and then tests his blood by tasting it.  Steve appears to have evil blood so they turn him away and make him leave.  Purl leaves as well, right about when Crepsley notices that the spider isn’t here.  He starts going towards the closet and Darren escapes through a secret door – with the spider.  As he runs out, a car comes by and picks him up.  In the car is Mr. Tiny (Michael Cerveris), a “human” that appears to be majorly in charge of everything and everyone, and his vampire minion, a vampanese by the name of Murlaugh (Ray Stevenson).  Mr. Tiny is clearly trying to get Darren to join him, but Darren can tell that something is just not right with them.

The next day at school, Darren reveals to Steve that he was there last night – and not only heard Steve asking to be a vampire – but also that he stole the spider.  They are clumsy and the spider gets out.  There’s a horrible scene watching them try to “get” the fake animated spider – and the scene ends with the spider biting Steve.  Steve, apparently, goes into a coma, so Darren goes straight back to the theater to admit to Crepsley what he did.  Crepsley agrees to save Steve – if Darren becomes a half vampire and becomes his (Crepsley’s) assistant.  Darren accepts and so Crepsley makes him a vampire.  First he tests his blood and finds out that he has good blood.  Then, he turns Darren by pricking each of their fingers and sharing blood.  They “flint” (they kind of zoom across the land super fast) over to the hospital, he gives Steve the antidote, and then Darren tries to get Crepsley caught but he is gone too quickly.

The next day, we see that Steve is all better.  At home – Darren has a moment when he almost lunges after his sister because he is hungry.  Conveniently, that night Crepsley shows up.  Darren has realized he can’t continue the way he is without Crepsley’s help.  So – they fake his death.  Crepsley gives him a drug, breaks his neck, and then throws up off a roof.  At his funeral, everyone is all sad, but Steve notices the pricks on Darrens fingers – and thinks he is faking it.  IE – he suspects that he is actually a vampire.  Smart kid.

So, Crepsley goes to dig up Darren from the graveyard.  After he’s all dug up – Murlaugh shows up and there’s a little mini fight but Darren and Crepsley gets away.  They head to the camp.  At camp – some fun stuff happens.  Darren becomes the roommate of Evra the snake boy (Patrick Fugit) and makes friends with Rebecca (Jessica Carlson) – who we later find out is a monkey girl (ie she has a tail and is great at climbing).  We get to see some of my favorite parts – like watching them do chores around the camp, making friends with each other, watching the other freaks, etc. There’s also these awesome little creatures that are made from the recently undead – that like to bite.  They’re just hilarious.

So at some points during all these scenes, we see Mr. Tiny approach Steve about becoming a vampire… hmmm I wonder if he will?  Mr. Tiny also comes to the camp once to ask if they’ll give up Darren.  We’re unsure why he wants him – but whatever.

So eventually after more adorable camp scenes, one night the vampanese come to camp.  The people in the camp try to fight them off – while Crepsley and Darren escape.  Mr. Tall comes and yells at them all to leave – and they do – but only after they take Rebecca as well.  Crepsley has to stay hidden, because it’s daylight – but Darren heads back to camp and finds out they’ve taken Rebecca and told someone to tell Darren that “they’ll see him at home”.  He goes home and finds no one there, but a poster for the freak show.  Darren goes to the theater.  There he finds Murlaugh – and he has his (Darren’s) family and Rebecca strung up.  And out comes Steve, revealing that he is now a vampire.

So this is where the movie falls flat.  It has some potential to be a good decent fight scene, but there’s only like 30 seconds of them fighting – and then Crepsley shows up and there’s about another minute of fighting.

And woo – the nice vampires win.  I could describe the fight but it’s just so disappointing that I’m not sure I want to.  Just know that the climax is over in all about 5 minutes.  Murlaugh dies, and Steve goes off with Mr. Tiny and Darren with Crepsley.

The end.  Ah.  They left the movie open for a sequel but it obviously wasn’t successful enough for one, and I’m ok with that.

 

Overall: 6/10

It’s a cute movie, but it’s not great.  It’s definitely a watch it on tv but don’t seek it out type of movie.