AMERICAN HUSTLE

The cast of American Hustle

AMERICAN HUSTLE (2013). Director: David O. Russell.

"Sometimes all you have in life are fucked-up, poisonous choices."

Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) is a married con artist/loan shark with a really elaborate comb-over who works with his lover, Sydney (Amy Adams), in conning desperate and larcenous people out of their money. They get caught by arrogant, ambitious agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper), who tells them they can stay out of jail if they help him in a sting operation. The target for entrapment is Atlantic City mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner of Mission Impossible -- Ghost Protocol), who needs money to bring gambling to AC (this takes place in the late seventies). When Polito begins making deals with gambling experts who happen to be mobsters, such as Victor Tellegio (Robert De Niro), Richie, who begins an affair with Sydney, figures he can bring down even bigger fish than Polito. Realizing they are the ones the gangsters will go after when the whole thing blows up, Irving and Sydney come up with a secret counter-scheme, but will Irving's jealous wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), cause more problems than they can handle? 

American Hustle is an okay movie with some clever moments and a fairly satisfying ending, but it's incredible that it won an Oscar as Best Picture -- all four lead actors won Oscars as well --  proving that studio backing and aggressiveness can and often is more responsible for the garnering of awards than genuine quality. The acting is okay (but never outstanding) for the most part -- one could single out Bale [American Psycho] for his character role -- but the cast members all seem to be exuding personality in a naturalistic manner rather than acting (a common occurrence in modern-day movies). Also the movie is played as a black comedy, which is also typical of many new movies, and has not a single likable character. It also has senseless scenes, such as a girl-on-girl kiss between wife and startled mistress in a ladies room, that seem thrown in for titillation and nothing else. American Hustle also tells an 80 minute story in two and a half hours! It in no way compares to great con man/film noir classics of the past such as Too Late for Tears/Killer Bait.

Verdict: This isn't terrible, but a masterpiece with truly great acting it is not. **1/2.

MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS

THE AVENGERS (aka Marvel's The Avengers/2012). Writer/Director: Joss Whedon.

The super-heroes featured in the movies Thor, Captain America, the First Avenger, Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk band together to form a team called the Avengers [which first appeared in comic books in the early 1960's] when evil Loki of Asgard comes to Earth and enlists the aid of extra-dimensional robotic warriors and giant metallic worm-dragons that threaten to tear apart Manhattan. There's no real story or fully dimensional characters in this so the movie offers some good special effects and a few exciting sequences that save the movie from the scrapheap. The whole thing is an overlong live-action cartoon and often resembles a high-class video game. It's hard to imagine what audience members who aren't familiar with the comic books will think of this, as it's even confusing to long-time readers. [These Avengers seem modeled more on the heroes of the "Ultimate" universe than the regular Marvel universe.] Alan Silvestri's music helps a bit, but Seamus McGarvey's cinematography is generally mediocre. Samuel L. Jackson scores as SHIELD director Nick Fury, and Tom Hiddleston pretty much walks off with the movie as Loki. The other actors offer the right amount of attitude. [In some comic book -- and Star Trek -- movies the actors often emote as if they think they're doing Shakespeare!] In the comic books Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) is known as the Black Widow, and Clint Barton (Jeremey Renner) is known as Hawkeye, although I don't believe those names are used in this movie. NOTE: To read more about the early origins of all of these characters see The Silver Age of Comics. 

Verdict: Well ... it's somewhat better than Marvel's other summer movies with the exception of X-Men: First Class [which easily out-classes The Avengers] but it has its moments and is often entertaining. ***.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE -- GHOST PROTOCOL

Tom Cruise goes climbing

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE -- GHOST PROTOCOL (2011). Director: Brad Bird.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) of the Impossible Missions Force invades the Kremlin with his associates to obtain a nuclear control device, but a terrorist named Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist) beats him to it and sets off an explosion to cover up the theft to boot. Now Hunt and his group have to get the device back from Nyqvist and his associates before he can use it to set off a missile capable of devastating destruction. The best scene in the movie -- which unfortunately occurs at the midway point and not at the climax -- has Hunt climbing a skyscraper at 130 floors [for some contrived reason] with the seamless special effects making it seem as if Cruise himself is up there with no protective netting [sure!]. Cruise is fine as an action hero; Simon Pegg, Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner play the team members adeptly; and Lea Seydoux makes an impression as an evil if attractive assassin. [Patton and Deydoux have a rousing cat fight at one point.] Mission Impossible -- Ghost Protocol  is exciting, well-directed and quite well done for the most part, but ultimately it's a fairly standard spy movie with mostly unmemorable characters.

Verdict: Absurd but entertaining. ***.