American Hustle

American Hustle
(2013) [Trailer]
Directer: David O. Russell [IMDB]

David O. Russell is a dick. Besides that fight with Lilly, there are also stories of him and Clooney going at it, as well as other actors too. Yet he always seems to have a lot of reoccurring stars up in his films. Maybe he has cooled down now, maybe it was all hype to sell his movies, either way homeboy delivers some quality titles and I was really excited to check out his newest gem... American Hustle.

Synopsis: A small time con man and his side job get tagged by the Feds and coerced into bringing down bigger fish to fry.

About 30 minutes into this film, something felt really off. I was yawning and checking the time.... basically losing my focus. The story wasn't that incredible, which isn't a huge deal, just unleash those characters and sell me on how interesting they are, right? Wrong. No one was great... not that Cooper, Lawrence, Adams, Bale and Renner weren't great (they all had awesome performances), it's just the characters they were portraying were bland. They also bring in Robert De Niro at one point, set him up as some major threat and then nothing... you never see him again.

There were a decent amount of laughs and some moments that pulled you in here and there. The soundtrack was fantastic, I think it blended in perfectly with the overall aesthetic of the film, which was also well crafted.

American Hustle is a slow burn at first and misfires in a lot of places, ultimately leaving me pretty disappointed. I definitely plan on revisiting this at some point to see if it gets better, but for now, I'm kind of bummed out on it.

Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook
(2012) [Trailer]
Director: David O'Russell [IMDB]

I have a few friends who think this movie is the best thing since sliced bread, so I was pretty excited to see it. I really like David O'Russell's films and this was a title I wanted to try and get in before the end of the year... for the possibly of making my "Best of 2012" list, but alas... I could not.

Synopsis: Bradley Cooper comes home to Philly after a stay at the mental hospital and befriends Jennifer Lawrence who also has some problems of her own.

While I enjoyed SLP a lot, I didn't think it was top 10 material, maybe top 20. The cast is great and I thought everyone was really awesome in it... it was also nice to see Smokey back on the big screen. It's also an extremely well written film and the execution is top notch. I felt like there were some believability issues, especially with his doctor. I also thought the film was really predictable which kinda of made the ending seem a little lack luster. The scene where Lawrence wins the family over by making this bet to help get them out of debt didn't work for me and it felt cheesy. I know it may seem like I'm coming down hard on Silver Linings Playback, but honestly there was way more good than bad, I guess I had huge expectations.

This is the kind of movie that has strong re-watch potential, as I feel with most O'Russell films, so I'll probably pick it up on blu-ray at some point. I'd definitely recommend it, even with it's flaws. Just like the movie goes: none of us are perfect-- we all have our flaws, but still we're worth it.... or something like that.