Film Review: American Hustle

David O Russell has had a very interesting career, and it has been a great deal of fun to watch it develop. Intriguing films like Three Kings (1999) and I Heart Huckabees (2004) gave way to Oscar contenders like The Fighter (2010) and Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Hustle lands somewhere in between all of his work. Like his early work, it is unapologetic in its ambition, yet it has the polish of his recent work at the same time. In tone, it resembles the Coen brothers, and in story it is not dissimilar to a younger Tarantino.

The casting is interesting - not perfect, but still great. Christian Bale is Irving, a low-stakes New York conman who meets Sydney (Amy Adams), whose fiery intelligence and insatiable ambition intrigues him but ultimately lands the pair with Richie Di Maso (Bradley Cooper), an FBI agent who hopes to parlay the duo's skill into a bigger political catch that will catapult his career into the stratosphere. It should be mentioned that the film is a loose play on the ABSCAM fiasco of the late '70s.

Story: 3/5 - It's a fun story, to be sure, and I really like the role that ambition plays. Everybody has their own checks, and it is the characters without restraint that drive the plot. When Irving can't control his wife (Jennifer Lawrence), she gets entangled with the mob. When the FBI can't reign in Richie, he continually escalates the situation. The amount of twists made me think of Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), but I still found it relatively predictable. I wasn't a fan of the narrator, either. It wasn't really necessary and kind of dumbed the movie down.

Writing: 5/5 - The writing was thrilling, and really made me think of the Coens. You get to meet all of these characters, and somehow to like them all. Every scene is well written, and some are absolutely hilarious. The tension doesn't always work. It's not perfect, but it's close.

Acting: 5/5 - Where to begin? Christian Bale and Amy Adams as leads aren't going to disappoint, you know that when you buy your ticket. Bradley Cooper swings for the fences as the maniacal sometimes-antagonist FBI agent (think of Gary Oldman's Norman Stansfield from Leon, but with more incompetence and less evil). Jennifer Lawrence is sultry, reckless, and impossible to ignore, like a train about to go off the rails. That I want to bang. Louis CK is hilarious in a bit part as Cooper's commanding officer, and I continue to be impressed by Robert De Niro's latest work in a cameo as a mob boss. Jeremy Renner is solid as a New Jersey mayor committed to doing the right thing for his people, by any means necessary. This is a Best Cast contender.

Aesthetics: 4/5 - The music is a blast. The costumes and sets are awesome. It's really just a good-looking film.

Final Score: 85% - Not the Best Picture contender I envisioned, but its still one of the most entertaining pictures of the year.

Film Review: Grudge Match

Look, maybe I'm a sucker. I love a well-done fight movie. I love Rocky, all of them (except V, fuck Rocky V), even the one where he goes to Russia and ends the Cold War. I thought that Rocky Balboa (2006) was a very good movie and a deserving entrant in the franchise when a lot of people hated it.

On the other hand (De Niro's), Raging Bull is quite possibly the greatest bit of American cinema ever, and almost undoubtedly the finest film of the last 35 years. The title sequence gives me chills every time.

Hell, I liked Warrior.

So when I heard about Grudge Match, I didn't know how to feel. Did we really need to dust off what are essentially mimicrys of Rocky Balboa and Jake Lamotta? How much story is left to tell there? At the same time, didn't Rocky Balboa show us that this kind of movie is possible to make? Where do we set expectations for this?

Grudge Match is the story of two boxers who split a pair of enormous fights in the 1980s, only for Stallone's 'Razor' Sharp to walk away from De Niro's Billy 'The Kid' McDonnen, the rematch, and millions of dollars, for reasons he never tries to explain. After a present-day altercation drums up media attention, the son of their late promoter (Kevin Hart) encourages the two to do a rubber match.

Story: 2/5 - It's just ok. The story is fairly predictable, but it's still fun. The relationship between the two fighters is interesting, and it was entertaining to watch them air each other's dirty old laundry over the course of the movie.

Writing: 3/5 - Maybe I bumped my head the night before the movie, but I thought the movie was funny enough. Nobody's going to win an award here, but there's enough emotion to make you care and just enough comedy to make the 113 minute runtime bearable.

Acting: 3/5 - Say what you want about De Niro (and most are appalled that he's still acting), but with his appearances in David O Russell's films, I would hazard to say his last 12 months have been his best work in the last 15 years. He at lease looks like he put on and lost a good deal of weight as part of this role. Sly Stallone is what he is. If anybody can play a run-down former boxer, it's him. I love Alan Arkin, and he's fine as Stallone's old trainer, 'Lightning.' Kevin Hart is just comedic relief, but he does a decent job. I was impressed with Jon Bernthal as Kid's son, BJ, mostly because I hate The Walking Dead. I liked some of the cameos, like Tyson and Holyfield, and Chael Sonnen.

Aesthetics: 2/5 - These guys are too old to be pretend fighting, let's just be honest. It doesn't look good, it doesn't look believable. Stallone did alright in Balboa, but 67 is a lot older than 60. The production values were good - they captured the downtrodden Pittsburgh as well as the glitz of Las Vegas.

Final Score: 50% - Grudge Match currently has a 21% rating on RottenTomatoes, so maybe I'm missing something, but though it ran a bit long for me, it was worth a watch.