Bradley Cooper is the greatest movie actor in the world today.

Rating: 8/10 (27 December 2013)

This movie starts out as an unmitigated clunker. For the first half hour or so the story is a meandering nothing, featuring characters who are utterly devoid of interest. This movie is so flat that it gives cause to leave it alone, and chalk it as another waste of time and money. Then, all of a sudden, the movie takes on new life. It immediately becomes interesting, exciting, and above all, fun to watch, and the reason for that: Bradley Cooper. He saves the movie; in fact, he IS the movie. He so thoroughly dominates this movie, meaning, every scene, that the producers could have sent the rest of the cast home. Christian Bale is not funny; Amy Adams is not funny; Jennifer Lawrence is outright shrill; Robert De Niro isn't even credited; but Bradley Cooper IS funny, and engaging, and, most importantly, entertaining. He carries this movie. The story itself is ridiculous, another Hollywood parody on law enforcement, and suggests that federal agents can be co-opted and turned by con artists whose cons are so transparent that a child could see through them. Bradley Cooper rates a 10; the rest of the movie rates a 5. 10+5=15/2=7.5, round off to the next highest number, 8, hence the rating of 8.