An Absolute Shocker.

Rating: 1/10 (16 December 2013)

The only good thing about this film is a story about ice-fishing by Louis C.K's character. The rest of the film is abominable. For a film about supposedly intelligent characters, doing supposedly intelligent things, it sucks. When the characters have to tell the audience how smart they are.... this bodes poorly.
For the most part the performances were good, each of the lifeless, background-less, soulless, pieces of flesh were played well, despite the poor writing that included them in a script so full of holes that it was hard to find a piece of sensical narrative. And despite being seriously miscast, Jennifer Lawrence once again demonstrated that she can act.
O. Russell exploits all of the female cast, showing frequent side boob, nipple candy and an excessive splashing of Amy Adam's apples. Excessive probably doesn't go far enough.
This film is designed to distract and confuse an audience intent on glorifying an excellent cast, despite a mire of terrible writing, average directing, and non-plussed cinematography.
After nearly two hours of drivel, Robert DeNiro makes an almost pointless appearance as, wait for it... a mobster. In a story that is already going nowhere, this absurd side plot is totally unnecessary. With unbelievable interactions, inane dialogue, inexplicable scams, and dreary narrative I couldn't wait for it to end after only half and hour and by this stage I was shaking my head on a regular basis.
So what is all the fuss about... who knows.