Does anyone else hate AMERICAN HUSTLE? (1 Viewer)

The first time I tried to watch this film was on a flight to Athens. I really wanted to get into it because I had heard some good things and it had won the New York film critics award for 'best picture'. OK. watching an inflight movie is not under the best conditions, but after about forty minutes into this film I thought What a piece of crap.and what artistic value there was in this film was beyond me. When I came home, I thought I would give it another chance on HBO. After about another twenty minutes into it, I had to switch channels.I have always respected the choices of the New York Film Critics, but what were they thinking?

A lot of darlings of the Academy worked on this movie, but I found it forgettable.

Funny. My brother saw it first. He hated it. So, I understand
the negative opinions here.

I saw it soon after and I loved it.

It's a movie filled with odd characters but that's what I really liked
about it.

I didn't care for it.

I certainly didn't hate it, but it left me flat. I thought it tried too hard to be quirky and was too derivative of other, much better movies.

I certainly didn't hate it, but it left me flat. I thought it tried too hard to be quirky and was too derivative of other, much better movies.

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Maybe hate was a bit strong of a word, but I think you hit it on the nail.

It was my favorite film of last year. I thought the acting of all of the principal cast members really elevated the film. I can understand that the film isn't everyone's cup of tea, and I kind of agree with the critique of it being derivative. (It does feel a bit like a Paul Thomas Anderson film). Perhaps that is why I enjoyed it so much. (?) Growing up in that period I really appreciated the 'time capsule' aspect of the film and that is not something that will resonate with all viewers. Loved the period detail in terms of the fashion and soundtrack.

To each their own as is always the case.

- Walter.

I have it on my DVR recorded from Starz, but I haven't had time to watch it yet. Hopefully, I'll get to it some time this week. Having heard so much about it, I'm anxious to see it.

I liked it a lot.

TravisR said:

I liked it a lot.

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Same here!

I liked it better than "The Wolf of Wall Street", but that's not saying a whole lot.

A good movie...not great. Excellent acting and period detail. It was a little too long and the "twist" at the end wasn't that big a surprise. However, when most movies involve comic book characters, car chases, or explosions every few seconds, I am always going to root for a film that is actually trying to be a drama about people. They are becoming a rare creature in Hollywood so I was glad this film did well at the box office.

I knew I was going to buy this film after the first ten minutes at the cinema. It's one of my five favourite films of the past few years. But hey, different strokes...

I loved it. Pure character interaction and study. Meaty roles for a talented cast. Entertaining as hell, too. I wouldn't want to stick around someone who hates a comedy like this.

I thought it was OK, but not great. Perhaps I would have liked it better without all the hype raising my expectations.

^ Exactly. Not as good as I expected, but OK to watch once, maybe once again in several years. It had decent performances and such, but seemed shallow to me (I had read it was considered difficult to follow by many [??]).

Nothing I saw, released in 2013 (by the Academy's reckoning), stood up for me as much as from 2012 (IMO a decent year for compelling films). IMO American Hustle is no Silver Linings Playbook, but I like all Russell and expected a bit more "weirdness".

I liked it but didn't love it. I found the look and feel of it too cartoon-y for lack of a better word (or non-word according to my spell check). It caused me to be distracted. BOOGIE NIGHTS did a better job at capturing the period with humour without the cartoon-y feel. Which is strange considering how goofy the premise is in BOOGIE NIGHTS compared to HUSTLE.

There were good performances in Hustle, but they felt like caricature instead of people so I never really cared for them. It was weird, since I tend to like O. Russells films more than I did this one. Maybe it was high expectations letting me down. I plan to re-watch it in a few months, maybe it will grow on me.

I enjoyed it! Jennifer Laurence is in it what's not to like!

trajan said:

The first time I tried to watch this film was on a flight to Athens. I really wanted to get into it because I had heard some good things and it had won the New York film critics award for 'best picture'. OK. watching an inflight movie is not under the best conditions, but after about forty minutes into this film I thought What a piece of crap.and what artistic value there was in this film was beyond me. When I came home, I thought I would give it another chance on HBO. After about another twenty minutes into it, I had to switch channels.I have always respected the choices of the New York Film Critics, but what were they thinking?

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Thank you, Trajan. I'm not the only one. I also watched it on a flight (it was followed by SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK) and I missed the beginning by I-don't-know-how-many minutes because I was reading without the headset on and looked up and saw it was on the screen and so I immediately plugged in the headphones and watched from then on. I never understood what was going on. In the old days, if you missed the beginning of a Hollywood movie, you could usually figure it out after a couple of scenes, but not with this one. I never understood what anyone's motivations were or what they were trying to accomplish. What made it worse was all the fake accents and fake ethnic identities. I never believed any of these people were who they were supposed to be and most had terrible accents. At least in one character's case, it was revealed as a fake accent early on. But up to that point I was wondering why this character was faking that accent. Overall, some of the worst acting and directing in a critically acclaimed film I've ever seen.

The only exception was Jennifer Lawrence's performance. There's something quite watchable about her and I thought she worked really hard to make an unbelievable character at least compelling enough for the audience. It was the first time I'd seen her in a film and I was very impressed. She's got real movie star chops. The others? I'm sure they're good actors in certain roles, but in any other era they would never be considered stars.

And, for the record, I was out of college and in the working world by the time the events depicted in the film took place and I remember the news stories quite well. An actual historical drama about the real people involved might have made a worthwhile film--if it had hewed to the facts and cast appropriate actors. None of these actors looked or sounded, moved or behaved like the real figures in the case. It was all so Hollywood-phony.

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK was pretty bad also, but it had a few good scenes, such as the dance contest at the end. But it was all incredibly contrived, in an old-school Hollywood way, but without the charm and polish and seductive qualities old-school Hollywood melodramas had. But, again, J-Law was very good. She made it watchable.

There isn't a great film out there that someone doesn't like and there isn't a stinker out there that somebody doesn't love!

That being said I loved American Hustle but disliked Silver Linings Playbook intensely.