MovieChat Forums > American Hustle (2013) Discussion > what is wrong With you people?

what is wrong With you people?

posted 10 years ago by tatanisha-browne
63 replies | jump to latest

American Hustle was a fantastic movie! I loved every part of it, the story, the acting, casting, writing, etc. And more importantly it made me a new fan of Christian Bale and David O Russell. Isn't that one of the goals of a big movie with an all star cast? (At least for the studios anyway) To draw in people who wouldn't have otherwise been interested? I was very happy to see Amy Adams show some depth instead of her usual character. Jennifer Lawrence, though cliche (and maybe even stereotypical) was very entertaining. The characters were strong and memorable. The movie invokes emotion (another goal of a good movie). Laughter, concern, frustration, stress, sorrow and the whole nine. How can anybody not like it?

[–] emvan 10 years ago

This post could literally exist on the message board of every movie ever made, no matter how popular. The more widely popular or acclaimed a movie is, the more the small minority of people who (for whatever reason) didn't like it are motivated to complain.

All of these people, of course, are convinced that their taste defines reality. If 90% of people think a movie is great, and they think it sucked, they'll rush to come here and declare everyone else to be wrong. It would be comical if it weren't so pathetic.

Imagine a foodie message board that had to put up with endless posts along the lines of "You folks think mustard tastes good! You are wrong and you are all idiots. Mustard tastes awful. End of discussion."

I do look at negative threads for movies I liked, because perhaps 1 in 20 has some substantive criticism. And sometimes I can tell from the nature of the complaints the actual reason they didn't like the movie, which often has to do with a mismatch between the movie's style and they way their brain operates. (Yes, all too often that's because the movie is smart and they're not, but there are other mismatches that have nothing to do with intelligence.)

While reading these complaints is relatively benign, paying any attention to them (other than in the form of private, derisive laughter) is a waste of time.

Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.

[–] evygaspar 9 years ago

I'm sorry, but this is a rather large pile of crap. Those of us who know movies KNOW this is a bad film. It is bad overall. The actors may be considered objectively talented but the script, the pacing, the story, the performances: everything about this film is just subpar. IF in the hands of an actually talented director, this may have gone somewhere at least decent. As it is, David O Russell is a joke. He hasn't made anything worthy of ANY praise since Huckabees, and the only reason Huckabees works is because of the absolutely solid performances from stunningly talented actors (and Jason Schwartzman) as well as a genuinely funny story. Its greatness (which can surely be debated!) stems from drawing on good ideas and following the "Wes Anderson template".

American Hustle bombed at the Oscars for a reason, and I personally was happy to see it flushed. What a pitiful attempt at a movie.

[–] emvan 9 years ago

Rotten Tomatoes collected 251 reviews of American Hustle.

233 liked it or loved it. Lots of love, as the average score (including the negative reviews) was 8.2/10.

15 thought it was mediocre.

3 hated it it like you do.

So, you are asserting that you "know movies," and that 1% of the top 30% of professional film critics (CriticsTop10 collects about 800 best-of lists at the end of each year) "know movies," but the rest do not. (If you include all of the negative reviews of any sort, it's 7%.)

At present I can only see your reply, but I'm pretty sure I used the words "pathetic" and "comical" in my post. Thanks for supplying evidence.

In case I didn't make it clear: film doesn't work the way you think it does. A film needs to be viewed with a brain. And brains don't work the way you think they do, either; they are incredibly different from one another. The combination of any given film and your brain is not the film. If you hate everything about a movie that 93% of viewers like or love, that's obviously about your brain and not about the film. Period. Fact. And to continue to assert otherwise is comic and pathetic, and comes across to others as narcissism so intense it borders on the delusional.

[BTW, when I saw the film a second time, it didn't get better, as truly great films do. I downgraded my score from 9.5 to 9.4, in fact, which doesn't happen often. It got nominated for a lot of Oscars but didn't win any because it's a film that's tremendously entertaining but a little thin; it falls short of Oscar-worthy greatness.]

Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.

[–] kfckid-365-296572 10 years ago

Silly us, having our own opinions and all. Who , in the hell, wants people to all be the same? Great, if you like it, and great for those who don't..

[–] axy23 10 years ago

I couldn't agree more, awesome movie, great acting, captivating story, 9/10

[–] EJverh 10 years ago

My main problem was that I didnt care one bit for any of the characters, and thats a pretty low bar for the movie that was made for characters, not plot. It wasnt bad, just extremely overrated for all the praise it got.

[–] nammage 9 years ago

Agree. I didn't care for any of the characters. Not one. So, I had to focus on the plot. And it was mildly okay. It's watchable. A lot of things are "watchable". I didn't hate it, I just didn't love it. It's average.

-Nam

I am on the road less traveled...

[–] lakurfiss 10 years ago

Just re-viewed this film last night. This time, I was absolutely floored by it. It's such a pleasure watching some of the greatest young actors on screen today, working with an impeccable script, just ...SAILING!

Jennifer Lawrence especially took my breath away. The scene between her and Amy Adams in the powder room stands up with the best woman vs. woman scenes ever filmed. Amy was outstanding in her role as well.

The entire cast, top to bottom, put on an acting workshop. How does Christian Bale continue to do what he does, playing all of these various roles, bringing complete authenticity every time? Compare this to his portrayal as Tommy the broke down crackhead, in "The Fighter," David O. Russell's other masterpiece. The characters could not be more different, but Bale sells it!

I call it 10/10!

[–] c-a-m-d-e-n 10 years ago

@tanisha-browne Finally a person on the American Hustle IMDB page who knows what they're *beep* talking about.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] denise1234 10 years ago

bluesdoctor^

Yep!

And, I had a hard time getting thru 'Wolf of Wall St'...very meh...

"Shake your hair girl with your ponytail"

[–] milo44 10 years ago

Agree with you .. I have seen it maybe 30 times and bought the sound track .. to all the others .. I guess .. to each his own ... but this is a great movie .

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