I agree with you. In Spain, this film was released under the title 'La Gran Estafa Americana', which translates to 'The Big American Fraud', and that's exactly how I felt about it upon leaving the theatre.
10 Oscar nominations for a film that gets boring 1 hour in, is at least 30 minutes too long, and presents us with characters, dialogues and plot events that are trying way too hard to come across as complex and intriguing, but that instead end up feeling irritatingly empty, superficial, unrealistic, and plain boring.
And as if this weren't enough, we get over-the-top performances by pretty much the entire cast (which is admittedly great, at least on paper), and excessive hype surrounding Bale's physical transformation for the role, which is not only completely redundant in terms of plot, but is far less impressive than what he has us accustomed to (if you don't understand what I mean, watch 'The Machinist' and then see him in the film he shot literally 6 months later, 'Batman Begins').
What exactly was all the hype about? And the positive critic reviews? And the award nominations? A real disappointment of a film, especially after O. Russell's solid 'The Fighter' and excellent 'Silver Linings Playbook'.
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steffeeric
11 years ago
I don't know how you can say SLP was excellent and bash American Hustle. I thought this was just as good if not better than SLP. The characters were great and although it is more of a comedy the performances were just as good as well. I can understand not loving the story because honestly there isn't that much going on for a 2:30 hour movie but the acting, the cinematography and the dialogue were all an A+ in my book. There wasn't exactly a ton of stuff happening in SLP and although it was more realistic American Hustle is just so much more fun.
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JayHova12
11 years ago
Completely disagree. Everything about SLP was superior.
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steffeeric
11 years ago
Care to elaborate?
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JayHova12
11 years ago
Acting for one. Cooper, De Niro, Lawrence all did well in American Hustle, but I think they had better material to work with in SLP. Bale himself was unclear of the plot while filming American Hustle, and he was told to run with it. It just didn't work, and his performance belonged in a comedy skit.
The pacing of American Hustle was awful.
The only character I had any sympathy for in American Hustle was the mayor, he was the only one who's heart was in the right place. Had zero sympathy for Bale's character, he was just a turd of a person. None of the main characters in SLP were "bad" people, they just all had their issues.
American Hustle was supposed to be funny, but it played out like a drama. SLP was a drama with some funny scenes, as it was intended to be.
American Hustle seemed like a cheap ripoff of Scorsese. SLP was a bit of a sappy love story, and maybe some found it predictable, but it still had it's own charm.
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steffeeric
11 years ago
American Hustle was supposed to be funny and in my opinion it was funny despite the obvious drama. It was certainly much more over the top than SLP especially the characters played by Cooper, Bale and JLaw.
I completely understand only really having sympathy for the mayor. He was getting screwed the hardest despite having the best intentions...he was the person you were supposed to have the most sympathy for. I had some sympathy Coopers character in the end as well despite his intentions but that is because I actually liked his character but I can understand why some people didn't.
I don't think these two movies should really be compared because they are totally different outside the cast and director. I can say SLP probably was the better constructed film but it isn't nearly as entertaining in my opinion.
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