How White Collar has ruined American Hustle for me...

[aragarna]

So, yesterday I went to see American Hustle (renamed American Bluff in France). So, this is the story of a con artist (Christian Bale, or his ugly twin) who teamed up with a cute girl (Amy Adams) to con people. And they're caught by an FBI Agent (Bradly Cooper with curls), smarter than he looks like, but less than he thinks. The FBI Agent then makes them work for him to catch bigger white collar fishes.

I really liked Three Kings, The Fighter and Silver Lightning Playbook (the later named Happiness Therapy in France...) by David O. Russell, and the reviews had been excellent. Plus obviously the topic was right in my league. It's totally a White Collar the movie, set in the 70's.
And the cast is just incredible: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.
So, I was really looking forward to it.
It was funny, really, but I don't know. It fell a little short.
All the characters were so ridiculous that it was distracting. And really, why hiring so handsome actors to make them look so ugly (palm goes to Christian Bale, who is 3 times bigger than in Fighter).

I felt the movie missed warmth, and real feelings. And class.
At times, it felt like O Russell was trying to make a Coen movie. Except he isn't the Coen brothers.
Plus, there's the obvious twist you're expecting and that doesn't come quickly enough and that is totally predictable. You actually see it coming from too far, and you know when it's happening. So, the reveal isn't exactly a surprise. (And if I see this kind of thing, everyone sees it.)
And of course, it hurts that the con artist betrayed the FBI agent! That's not possible, Neal wouldn't do that, and Peter wouldn't be so stupid! This is NOT White Collar! Give me some White Collar.... (yeah, I'm also in big withdrawal, that doesn't help)



Apparently, Byron worked in the laundry business with the con artist (I mean, real laundry business). I don't think we even actually see him. But hey, that was funny. ;-)

Comments

[leesa_perrie]

LOL! Sorry, probably shouldn't laugh, but I have a feeling that White Collar may have spoiled a lot of us for this sort of movie!! I haven't seen it, might catch it one day when it's out on DVD (and going cheap), just to see if WC has spoiled it for me too!

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

LOL well, it depends on the kind of con movie, but yeah, I find it harder to root for the bad guys and not for the FBI... Especially since I like Bradley Cooper more than Christian Bale.

And while watching the movie, I was actually thinking that really White Collar has spoiled it all for me, because I used to totally root for the thieves before!

[sg-lab.livejournal.com]

So that's what the movie is about. LOL. Every time I would see promos for the movie I couldn't figure out what it was about. But then I couldn't get past how bad they looked. Plus I was distracted with trying to figure out who some of the cast was in the promos because the way they looked was so different than how they really look.

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

yeah, I think they went over the top with the looks. I was really distracting and just ridiculous.
Christian Bale, in particular, was over the top, and I don't see the point. It's not like he really needed to be *that* ugly for the role.