American Hustle

DRAMA

Hustle to Survive

8.0 out of 10 | Rental

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Rated: R Pervasive language, some sexual content and brief violence

Release Date: December 13, 2013 (limited)

Runtime: 2 hours 9 minutes

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Director: David O. Russell
Writers: Eric Singer, David O. Russell
Cast:  Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence, Louis C.K., Alessandro Nivola

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SYNOPSIS:  A con man, Irving Rosenfeld, along with his seductive British partner, Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild FBI agent, Richie DiMaso. DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia.

REVIEW: The Fighter director David O. Russell reunites with Christian Bale and Amy Adams for another period drama based on real circumstances. Written by Eric Singer (The International) and director Russell, Bale, Adams and Cooper try to grift their way to their biggest score.

Irving (Christian Bale) lives a different type of life, growing up in a way that eventually led him to a life of grifting. Even with legitiment businesses from his father, he gravitates to taking advantage of those circling the bottom of the barrel where the desperate and despondent live. At a winter pool party Irving meets a kindred spirit in a woman named Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) who incidentally elevates his con game. But even keeping the cons small enough to manage, Irving and Sydney get pinched by eager young FBI man Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). Forcing the pair into helping him make a name for himself, Richie promises to let them go if he is handed four significant busts. When Richie gets a taste for success he demands bigger busts from Irving and Sydney. Feeling way over his head, Irving must figure out how to balance his and Sydney's tentative freedom, the good name of the Mayor of Camden Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) who he has grown to respect, the wants of DiMaso of the FBI and a bunch of mobsters and congressmen who want to invest in the Atlantic City boardwalk.

Set in the Spring of 1978 New York and New Jersey, American Hustle is a great throwback to the con artist movies of the past. Con games and artists are entertaining to watch. It is one of the reasons why White Collar works so well on the USA Network and why Paul Newman and Robert Redford's The Sting is such a classic. It's also why an audience will sit through a 138 minute movie. An audience will put into the time as long as there's a great payoff at the end.

But it's not just the con game that keeps this film rolling. Filled with great dramatic and comedic dialogue delivered by great actors and actresses, as well as a paced plotline, American Hustle boogies down. Adams, Cooper, Bale and Lawrence create unique and nuanced characters filled up with their talent. Louis C.K. and Cooper do great work on a comedic side, making audience laugh at how ridiculous their work relationship is. Bale's Irving and Adams' Sydney are in constant jeopardy, pinning their well-being and livelihood on their grifting talents. The problem is that they have never worked on this large a scale.

The style is 70s tones and disco abandon, letting the characters loose with necklines that extend to the waistline, wide lapels, hairy chest and gold medallions. The real world of 1978 was wrought with a recession, a war that left a bad taste in America's mouth and skyrocketing interest rates. While American Hustle is a story about scamming the system, it is also a backdrop for the state of the union. The FBI was still young and not even thinking about crime at the white collar level. Because of that and people's desperation grifting was very lucrative indeed.

The cast is brilliant, the story is superb and well paced. American Hustle is worth the money to watch, not unlike watching a street hustler move the hidden ball move under the three cups of the shell game. 

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Man of Steel

ACTION/ADVENTURE, DRAMA, SCI-FI/FANTASY

Return to Greatness

8.5 out of 10 | Movie and DVD

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Rated: PG-13  Intense sequences of sci-fi violence, action and destruction, and for some language
Release Date: July 14, 2013
Runtime: 2 hours 23 minutes

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Director: Zack Snyder
Writers: Davis S. Goyer, Christopher Nolan, based on a character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
Cast: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane, Russell Crowe, Christopher Meloni, Antje Traue, Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne

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SYNOPSIS:  A young itinerant worker is forced to confront his secret extraterrestrial heritage when Earth is invaded by members of his race.

REVIEW: Zack Synder, the visionary director of 300, the Dawn of the Dead remake, and Sucker Punch, takes on a 75 year old alien super being that has had its own share of triumphs and failures. Based on a story from David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight trilogy) and Christopher Nolan (Inception) from the character created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, we are granted access to a familiar hero with a brand new look and feel.

On a planet name Krypton, scientific advisor Jor-El pleas with the council to save the planet's citizens by expanding out to the stars. When his words go unheeded and the planet continues to deteriorate, Jor-El and Lara fight to save their infant male child from the imminent destruction of the planet. General Zod (Michael Shannon, Premium Rush), in an attempt to take over rule, fails and is sentenced to exile in to the Phantom Zone with several of his officers. Infant Kal-El is jettisoned off-planet in an escape ship, making its way to Earth to be found by Jonathan (Kevin Costner, Hatfields and McCoys) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane, Secretariat) to be raised under the name Clark (Henry Cavill). As Clark grows up, the Kents realized that he is a special child and teach him that he must keep his powers and abilities a secret until such time that the world would come to accept and embrace him. 33 years later, Clark is searching for his heritage and clues to what to do next. Eventually Daily Planet journalist Lois Lane (Amy Adams, Trouble with the Curve) finds out about his alien nature and abilities. As Clark learns more of hi past from a hologram of his father, General Zod and his soldiers arrive on Earth and demand that the son of Jor-El be turned over to him or the planet will suffer. Clark must decide whether to give himself up for the sake of the planet citizens or fights against superior forces to save his adopted planet.

David S Goyer, Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder take the story of Superman in a new direction from the earlier more charming films by the Donner or Singer. What we have is a more grounded and realistic portrayal of the man in the red cape. Just as Nolan deconstructed and rebuilt Christian Bale as a more urban and tangible Batman, Snyder and Goyer creates a superman who is accessible and just this side of fantastic. As you watch Superman hover in midair with his red cape flowing behind him, you get a sense that his abilities are almost possible.

Coming in at 143 minutes, Man of Steel is a lengthy portrait of of Kal-El / Clark's genesis and journey of self-discovery. With clever use of flashbacks, the audience get glimpses of moments in Clark's childhood – including the manifestation of his powers, saving a school bus full of classmates with the repercussions that follow, and an adult Clark out on the road doing good deeds while staying in the background shadows.

Michael Shannon's Zod is as ruthless and driven as the Terence Stamp version in the classic Superman II. Shannon's Zod is not crazy by any stretch, simply driven to fulfill his genetic destiny. Several unknown cinematic myths about Kal-El and Kryptonian history is explained, including that all Kryptonians are genetically created for a specific role in the class system a la 'A Brave New World'. From the purpose and initial donning of the blue and red suit, to the planet's landscapes and animals, to the advanced sciences and technology that Kryptonians use to expand their colonization of the galaxy and the destruction of their own world, Man of Steel takes the superman in a different direction from the previous films.

With a stellar expanded origin that leads into a completely different adulthood of the man we know as Superman, the movie introduces other character in the middle of the film that tend to lag just a bit. But once General Zod and his soldiers come to the planet to claim their exiled citizen, the story and action rises to the next level. The batte scenes between Superman and Zod's henchmen - then Zod himself - seem to go on forever. Some of the action sequences look like they came straight out of the DC universe mass online role play game prologue. The level of mass destruction is epic as these two titans - Kal-El and Zod - fight in and above the Metropolis cityscape

Zack Snyder does a great job keeping the film seamless, adding an alien perspective to the films plot lines and making Man of Steel much more then a battle of brawn versus brains. Finally, we have a villain that does not include Lex Luthor at its core. Luthor's name only comes into play on the side of some gas tanker trucks.

The film could be a little tighter, meandering a while in the middle with some of the storyline development. And some of the dialogue and action sequences seem repetitive. But the actors are perfectly cast throughout. The storytelling, although trying to tell too much at times, is a breath of fresh air for the renewed franchise. In a word, Man of Steel is super!

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Trouble with the Curve

Low and Inside

★ ★ ★ ★ out of 5 buckets | Matinee and DVD

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Rated: PG-13 Language, sexual references, some thematic material and smoking

Release Date: September 21, 2012
Runtime: 1 hour 51 minutes

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Director: Robert Lorenz
Writers: Randy Brown
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Joe Massingill, Matthew Lillard, Robert Patrick, John Goodman

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SYNOPSIS: An ailing baseball scout in his twilight years takes his daughter along for one last recruiting trip. 

REVIEW: Robert Lorenz, longtime producing partner of Clint Eastwood and first assistant director on such films as Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, and Space Cowboys, moves into the director's chair for the first time to direct favorite actor Clint Eastwood as an aging and ailing baseball scout. Based on a story by new scribe Randy Brown, Lorenz continues with Eastwood's late career as the gristled old man with regrets and something still to prove. 

Atlanta Braves' veteran talent scout Gus Lobel (Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven) fights against the tide of modern technology to try and find baseball talent the old fashioned way - with decades of firsthand experience. But with a contract nearing its end and his eyesight failing, Gus must travel to North Carolina to scout out new prospect Bo Gentry (Joe Massingill, Glee) as a possible first round draft pick, keeping his failing eyesight a secret. Longtime friend and co-worker Peter Klein (John Goodman, ParaNorman), worried about Gus, asks Gus' daughter Mickey (Amy Adams, The Fighter) to meet her father on the road to help him with his work. A hard working lawyer on a fast-track to a firm partnership, Mickey puts her work partially on hold to help her father and to try to repair their fragile relationship. Back in Atlanta talent scout Phillip Sanderson (Matt Lillard, The Descendants) looks to undermind Gus' work and help push him into retirement with the help of computer models and statistical protection reports. Sitting on the bleachers with the other scouts is Johnny 'The Flame' Flannigan, a promising pitcher who was worked too hard, too fast on the way to a torn rotater cuff and a forced switch in careers, takes a shine to the man who originally signed him and a shine to the daughter who knows too much about baseball to be a lawyer.

Trouble With the Curve marks another in a long line of films by veteran actor Clint Eastwood. From the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns where he played 'The Man With No Name', to the iconic Dirty Harry with his .44 Magnum, to a couple stints with an orangutan, to a later prolific career as a boxing coach and a retired Korean War vet, Clint Eastwood's career has been varied and successful. His latest effort simply adds to his canon of quality films.

Like Gran Torino and Million Dollar Baby before it, Trouble with the Curve continues with Eastwood's gristled old man character just trying to deal with the concept of getting old while still being relevant. Eastwood's Gus Lobel realizes that his way of doing things, although a perfect mix of experience and historical significance, finds that he is becoming a relic in the new world of computers and statistical projection programs. But its not only the age of technology that is the problem. It is also the younger scouts with an reliance on those computer models without the 'feel' for the game. Sure, a computer can project whether a player can hit against left handers, but can it pick up the nuances of how a player fares and picks himself up after going 0 for 4 in the game the night before. Lobel considers the personal connection to the players and the game to be the pure experience.

Clint Eastwood is pure Eastwood. With a gravely voice and dialogue that barely registers over a whisper at times, Eastwood's Lobel says the most with his steely gray eyes and a rumbling growl. Amy Adams, Oscar nominated for The Fighter, continues to prove that she is a quality actress with talent beyond the crazy senator's daughter from Wedding Crashers. As a woman with a 'dysfunctional sense of taking care' of her father, Mickey just wants to reconnect with her father and expel the feelings of abandonment from her youth. John Goodman as Pete Klein anchors the film as Gus' gentle and concerned front office friend, ready to go to bat for Gus a moment's notice. Justin Timberlake, as the former superstar in the making turned talent scout turned possible future broadcaster Johnny 'The Flame' Flannigan, brings a hope and lightness to the film that balances Gus' harder edge. Both have an appreciation of the game and it history of the sport, while representing the polar ends of their careers. Rounding out the cast are Matt Lillard as Gus' main Braves scout nemesis who feels technology is the ultimate replacement for the old-timers traveling in the field. And the focal point of the film, first round draft prospect Bo Gentry, shows that the allure of the majors is sometimes less about the purity and love of the game and more about possible endorsements and all that comes with a superstar status.

Trouble With The Curve is a warm-hearted, bitter-sweet tale of aging, the regrets we endure for the semblance of the greater good, the fight for relevance, and the love for the purely American game of baseball. The story does have a few moments of predictability, but a stellar case hits this story out of the park. Eastwood may growl at the rest of the world, but he still loves the roar of the crowd. 

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The Muppets

It's Time to Play the Music

Director: James Bobin

Writers: Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller, from characters of Jim Henson
Cast: Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, Rashida Jones, Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, Dave Goelz, Bill Barretta, David Rudman, Matt Vogel

SYNOPSIS: Years after the height of the Muppets popularity, a young fan goes to Los Angeles to visit the deteriorating Muppets Studios. While there he learns of an evil plot to tear down the location and begs Kermit to come out of retirement for one last bid to get the gang back together for a studio-saving telethon.

REVIEW: The Flight of the Conchords and Da Ali G Show director James Bobin takes a turn to direct not only actors, but the famed Muppets themselves. Although I hear that some of the furry puppets with an M are divas and hard to work with, the rest seemed to quickly get back into the groove for their return to the big screen. Aided by a script from one of the film's own Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother) and established screenwriter Nicholas Stoller (Get Him to the Greek), we are treated with a reverent, relevant story with all of the charm of the original The Muppet Movie.

What happens when the light of your show business career dims and no one can really remember where they have seen it cast its glow? The Muppets takes a look at what happened to Kermit and his crew from the perspective of a Muppet-like young man named Walter. Knowing that he was different from the other kids and from his always supportive brother Gary (Jason Segel), Walter became glued to the television series with Kermit, Miss Piggy and the others, watching the show religiously while it airs and on VHS tape when it went off the air. Walter collected a Kermit watch and other memorabilia over the years, always hoping to make the trip out to the Muppets Studio lot. But, but the time Walter, Gary and Gary's girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams, The Fighter) make a trip out to Hollywood, Walter finds the Muppets Studios essentially shut down and in disrepair. While on the studio tour, Walter breaks off from the group to take a look at Kermit's office. When Statler and Waldorf come into the office with businessman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper, The Town) who looking to buy the property to convert it into a museum, Walter hides and overhears Mr. Richman's secret plans to demolish the site and start drilling for oil. Desperate to save the landmark studios, Walter gets Gary and Mary to help him to hunt down Kermit in an attempt to get all of the Muppets back together again for a telethon to raise $10 million dollars in order to buy back the studio.

Old fans and newcomers alike will enjoy the arm flailing antics of Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear, and the rest of the gang. Although wrought with contemporary personal issues, the characters do not ever change from what we remember. Kermit and Piggy are still have relationship issues, even after all of this years. Gonzo finds success in the plumbing and plumbing accessories business but still longs for the adrenaline rush of the limelight. Fozzie still tries to kill it with his jokes that die onstage in a Reno hotel lounge backed by a Muppet tribute group, the Moopets. Even beloved drummer Animal finds himself walking away from the drumsticks in favor of anger management sessions. Looking at times like a Behind the Music or Where Are They Now? episode, the situations breed silliness and self-discovery.

On the human side, Jason Segel and Amy Adams are perfect as the sweethearts in love ready to provide a helping hand to Walter as they leave their small town of... well,...Smalltown on the start of their own adventure to the big lights of Hollywood. Neither Segel or Adams are strangers to comedic singing and dancing. Adams is well-versed in boisterous theatrics from her stint as Giselle in the real-life fairy tale Enchanted, and Segel from at least one show tune episode of How I Met Your Mother.
The music is toe-tapping with a collection of classic tracks like "We Built This City" and "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard", Muppet-sung charters like Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by the Muppets Barbershop Quartet and Ceelo Green's "Forget You" by Camilla and the Chickens, movie originals like "Man or Muppet", "Party of One", "Pictures in my Head", and "Life's a Happy Song", and the always touching "Rainbow Connection".

Filled with zany characters adults have grown to love and children will come to love, The Muppets continues to be a beloved puppetry institution originally from the mind of Jim Henson. Guest star cameos abound from Neil Patrick Harris to Whoopi Goldberg to Emily Blunt, each and all clamoring for screen time with the Muppets. And with waka waka humor not much more rude than Fozzie's fart shoes (patent pending), The Muppets is fun for the entire family.

WORTH: Matinee and DVD

The Fighter

Powerful Truths

[Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Jack McGee, Mickey O'Keefe]

image from about.com

RANT: Today's trip to the movie house supports my theory that human nature is only half bad. On the bad side is the guy that keeps his phone on, gets a call, then takes the call in the theater itself. On the good side, a woman sitting two seats down from the phone call guy told him to take the call outside the theater. On the bad side, the same guy started talking louder on the phone when he was standing in the entry corridor. And on the good side, the same woman followed the phone call guy and told him that the entire theater can still hear his conversation. Hurray for making a stand for the greater good against the tyranny of rudeness.

SYNOPSIS: A small town fighter tries for a title shot, walking in the footsteps of his big brother.

Director Davis O. Russell, best known for I Heart Huckabees and Three Kings, brings the "based on a true" story of boxer "Irish" Micky Ward and his trainer/big brother Dicky Eklund to the screen. The story revolves around Micky's early career as he attempts a run at a welterweight title. A somewhat passion project for Mark Wahlberg, he plays "Irish" Micky Ward. Joining him is Christian Bale as his brother from another father, playing Dicky Eklund.

Running into a series of losses due to poorly planned boxing matches by his brother and manager/mother Alice Ward (Melissa Leo), Micky finds himself on the verge of quitting. While his brother has trained him from the beginning, Dicky has spiraled into a destructive habit of crack smoking, run-ins with the law and irresponsibility to Micky's career. Contemplating quitting, Micky takes up with bartender Charlene Fleming (Amy Adams) who helps Micky find his confidence to return to the ring. Torn between loyalty to his family and the success of his career, Micky painfully decides to break away to be managed by a local business man, his father George (Jack McGee), and trained by Lowell Police Department sergeant Mickey O'Keefe (playing himself). Finally putting together a string of wins, Micky finds himself the contender for the welterweight title in London.

The movie is more then about mere fighting inside the ring. "Irish" Micky Ward is a struggling boxer, fighting to live up to the shadow of the limited success of his brother. Dicky fought and knocked down "Sugar" Ray Leonard, and since has fought the habits of drinking, drugs and civil disobedience. Dicky and Micky's mother Alice fights against the knowledge of what Dicky has done to himself and fights against the certainty that Dicky will never make a comeback to the ring, thereby living vicariously through Micky to realize the dream of the failed title shot for Dicky years before.

Mark Wahlberg picks a great film and a great role. His performance as Micky, though, is almost secondary to the method that Christian Bale brings to the role of Dicky. And Amy Adams sinks her teeth into the role of Charlene in such a raw manner that Enchanted seems like a fairy tale. If one of them doesn't get a best supporting nod by the end of the awards season, I would be surprised. The rest of the cast is stellar, allowing us to laugh, cry and feel the pain and drama that the citizens of Lowell felt.

Worth: Matinee and DVD

I am also trying out a new rating system shown below based on reader reaction to my somewhat complex monetary rating scale. I will give both ratings and see what kind of reaction I muster. A movie can receive up to 5 popcorn buckets. Why popcorn buckets? Because I am a slave to the thousand + calorie delight! Enjoy!