Niro De Niro

Rating: 7/10 (18 January 2014)

Grifters, they're not, but they bring a pretty good American Hustle to the screen.
There's a good surprise to expect towards the end, but the one that surprised me most was when Robert De Niro shows up. Yeah, it's a gangster-kinda film, so, naturally, he would. But, what threw me was that Christian Bale basically portrayed a young Robert De Niro this entire film. So much so, in fact, I could never see Bale. Just De Niro.
So, it was odd seeing them both on screen at the same time.
Beyond that, you do have some damn good performances from the female leads. Amy Adams, whom I always see as a Muppets lead, did great here, but she was outshined by the always fantastic Jennifer Lawrence.
Those two, Amy and Jennifer, actually did so well, that you nearly forget about the male leads (and their terrible wigs) in this feature.
I digress. This movie, about lowlifes who get caught and have to turn tricks now for the feds is decent enough. Not great, but watchable through to the end. Sadly, it's really nothing I haven't seen before and yet, the humor, music and performances did make it watchable and interesting. I wouldn't necessarily vote it into the Best Picture noms from 2013, but you could do a lot worse.
* * * Final thoughts: Jeremy Renner's always been a favorite of mine, as is Jennifer Lawrence as of late. Sadly, neither portrayed their best performances here, but still did what they could. Though it would be nice for the nominated Lawrence to pull in another Actress Oscar win, my eyes are centered in on Julia Roberts in August: Osage County.