American Hustle

American Hustle is the next film done by the Director of Sliver Linings Playbook and The Fighter. If you were to combine the cast of those two movies you would get the basic cast for this film. It stars Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Bradley Cooper in the main three roles. It also stars, my gir,l Jen Lawrence in a supporting role as well Jeremy Renner in a supporting role.

This film has a style all of its own. I loved the tone of this film. It was funny and it had moments where I was on the edge of my seat much like last year's Argo. David O. Russell basically took some pages from Martin Scorsese's playbook and applied them thought out the film. He also had his own style all over the film as well. It really worked for the film and I enjoyed it so much. The acting was so great. All the leads and all the actors did amazingly well in this film. The acting alone should get you in the door. Now that being said my two favorite actors of the film were Lawrence (was that a surprise people) and Bale.  Bale to say the least was amazing. He put on a hell of a show and did so much to his body for his role. Then Lawrence just steals every damn scene she is in. There was a moment in the film where Lawrence and Bale are arguing and I forgot who both were and just got lost in the scene which was easily one of my favorite scenes of the year. Something else that was amazing in this film was the writing. Some of the best lines of the year were in this film and I also loved the story.

Now my one and only fault is in the middle. I feel like it loses it focus and starts to slow down a lot. In it's defense however, it does pick right back up at the start of the third act. The film is a great ride and really funny. It is easily one of my favorites of the year. I don't want to get into spoilers but here is my final thoughts. If you like a Goodfellas feel mixed with a Sliver Linings Playbook feel then this is your film.

RATING
3.75 out of 4

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug is the follow up to the first movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected  Journey. It stars a ton of people. I mean, to list the cast would take about half of the review. It is directed by Peter Jackson of course, and follows the same journey to the lonely mountain to get  back the Dwarfs' home.  If  you read my first review of The Hobbit I thought it had a lot of issues that needed to be fixed. Did they fix them? Well lets get to the review.

Peter Jackson did a really good job of fixing a lot of problems from the first film. I actually really enjoyed this one. The pace issues were gone in this film. The action and story actually move at a very good pace and you don't feel like your just watching filler like you were in the first part. They fixed a lot of the CGI problems that I had with the first one. I felt like they used more practical effects in this film and then the CGI that they did use was very good. It felt like I was actually looking at a real thing instead of a CGI image. The acting for the film was good on all accounts. The story of course was still very good and very enjoyable. This was the hobbit movie that I have been waiting to see. The action was a lot better and very cool. Also they bring back some of the darker tones. Nowhere as dark as the LOTRs but it is a little darker then the first which really fit this movie. Also Smaug was one of the coolest looking CGI creations I have ever seen. And with the powerful voice of Benedict Cumberbatch behind him he became a very memorable character. 

I am going to get to the elephant in the room. There is a lot of added stuff in the film that of course is not in the book. So with that, if your a fan of the book you have been warned. Keep this in mind Jackson and the studio wanted to make this into 3 movies out of a 310 paged book. So I think they are going to have to add a few things. I personally who have never read the book thought all the added stuff was good and fun. Also even with the pace of the film being fixed you are still very aware that you're in the theater for about 3 hours. So remember, if you don't like long films this is one is not for you. So with that all said and done my rating for you guys is this 

RATING

3 out of 4 Ticket Stubs