Don't Do the Hustle

Rating: 5/10 (15 February 2014)

This kind of movie does nothing for me. It's not about story or characters. It's not even a showcase of any kind of craftsmanship or style. It's just a self-indulgent vanity project for various actors to play dress-up in retro '70s clothes and try to out-ham each other. The film is an awkward mix of drama and comedy with pretensions of being something akin to Goodfellas. You can tell as you watch that there is a lot of improv going on. Everyone acts in this overdone manner that gets old fast. Of the cast, Jennifer Lawrence comes out best. Amy Adams looks great and probably offers the closest to Lawrence in terms of an enjoyable performance. But the material (or lack of it) lets her down. It lets them all down, really. Christian Bale and Jeremy Renner are both fine, though much better than this film and the stupid hairstyles they are forced to wear to get laughs. Bradley Cooper is the worst, as he often is. He's such a try-hard and I am baffled by the continued push this mediocre actor is getting. Any movie where he is praised I automatically want to avoid it, as experience has taught me he is a very limited dramatic actor and only marginally better with comedy. David O. Russell is obviously the flavor-of-the-month right now so I'm not surprised at the amount of hype this film has received and how completely overrated it is. See it if you have a couple of hours to kill but don't expect much.