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Tag: critics

  • American Hustle Performance Divides Critics and Audiences

    American Hustle has received many SAG ,Critics’ Choice and Golden Globe nominations. Now with the movie expanding its release, everyone has an opinion on it.  The last couple of years David O’Russell became a trusted director for making buzzworthy films. Both The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook did well critically and racked up many awards. Therefore, American Hustle is almost guaranteed critic success.

    Despite the Oscar buzz, the press has been heavily focusing on Jennifer Lawrence and her involvement in the film. She currently holds the  Hollywood ‘It’ girl status, because of the Hunger Game franchise success, and her Oscar win for Silver Linings Playbook. Though Lawrence’s role is more of a minor one compared to Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Renner, many of the films trailers heavily focus on Lawrence’s character, Rosalyn. A definite smart marketing strategy based on Lawrence’s proven box office success. Understandably this causes people to become more critical of Lawrence’s performance than others in the film.

    Most critics have praised Lawrence for bringing such an unlikable character to life in a believable way. She adds dimensions to a character who could have been cartoonish. The Boston Herald, RogerEbert.com and Louisville all have called Lawrence a “scene-stealer” in American Hustle.  However, some critics say that might not necessarily be a good thing. The NY Post says that Lawrence “badly over plays” her character. The Wire tried to tread lightly with its criticism of Lawrence’s performance but, eventually, had this to say about it:

    “Lawrence embarks upon a Zellwegerian Cold Mountain march to the sea, trampling all other scene partners in her path, towards what certainly looks to be an Oscar nomination, maybe even another win. Girl goes big, but despite whatever accolades come her way, it’s a miscalculation, and kind of an embarrassing one.”

    The audience of the film are even more divided. On the Entertainment Weekly‘s review for the movie, one user said, “she steals the scene due to some sloppy, brassy ‘look at me, over-acting.”

    On the positive side on an HItFix article, one user had this to say about Jennifer Lawrence’s performance:

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    American Hustle itself seems to be causing the same type of critical division. That’s expected with any major film.  Additionally, bad reviews of Lawrence’s performance  probably won’t deter fans of Lawrence, O’Russell, or any of the cast and crew, from seeing this film.

    For proof, look to Twitter, which is full of comments like these about Lawrence being in American Hustle: 

     

     

    Image via, Facebook

     

  • Justin Timberlake Has “Uncool” Second Half of 2013

    Justin Timberlake started 2013 with a lot of promise. His first album since 2006, The 20/20 Experience, debuted at #1 and was hailed by critics. He had a comeback show with Jay Z on the eve of the Super Bowl, hosted a week-long stint on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon known as Timberweek – five nights of quality sketch comedy and viral videos – all leading up to the release of the biggest album of his career in March. He hosted SNL for the fifth time, sang for the president, even reunited with ‘N Sync on stage for the VMAs. The first seven months of 2013 were golden.

    Then, Justin starred in Runner Runner, a flop of a movie that came out in early October. The film sparked a scathing article by Variety, telling the singer to give up on Hollywood or, to at least stick to cameo roles, like other musicians have successfully done. At the same time, part 2 of The 20/20 Experience was released to mediocre reviews, with Billboard saying that Timberlake he should have “left part 2 at home.” The mixed reviews shook Timberlake and left him angry. Even though he was named “Man of the Year” by GQ, Timberlake spends much of the magazine’s article griping about the bad reviews and admitting that he’s “not cut out for that sort of criticism.” He goes on to say that no, he doesn’t consider himself “cool,” citing that he’s too passionate to be “cool”:

    Timberlake, who has been in the spotlight since he starred in the Mickey Mouse Club in 1993, has seen mostly favorable reviews in his 20 year career. However, could it be that after the long absence from the spotlight, we’ve seen too much Timberlake this year? Is there a threshold we’ve reached? Instead of making reaction videos urging Justin to return to music, it’s finally the time to tell him no? We want to love Timberlake, we really do, but we can’t love everything he touches.

    Image via Facebook

  • The Lone Ranger Reviews Rip The Film A New One

    The Lone Ranger Reviews Rip The Film A New One

    Disney’s modern-day re-imagining of the classic radio-serial-turned-television-show “The Lone Ranger” is facing a gratuitous amount of harsh feedback from critics. The film, which released in theaters on June 22, is facing criticism for being too long, riddled with incomplete and unnecessary sub-plots, and for straying too far from the original source material. The film has a mere 26% rating on rottentomatoes.com, and other sources have not been much kinder in their judgments.

    Moria McDonald of The Seattle Times regards the movie as “off balance” and incomplete, stating that “Hammer is charming but bland, and Depp, hidden behind a mask of makeup, mostly gives Tonto a deadpan dignity; their often rote interactions don’t justify the film’s two-and-a-half-hour running time.” Peter Debruge of Variety seems to be in agreement, saying, “No longer simply the sidekick, Tonto gets top billing in Disney’s extravagant but exhausting reboot, whose vaguely revisionist origin story partners a heavily face-painted Johnny Depp with the blandly handsome Armie Hammer.”

    It seems that even the two leading men, full of potential, experience, and a relatively abundant fan base were unable to save a film where “There are so many bad decisions on display… that I feel… it’s a film worth studying, if only to see clearly how not to bring a beloved character back to the big screen,” as Drew McWeeny of HitFix none-to-gently phrases it.

    Overall, the film is a complete flop with critics who are certainly eager to tear it to shreds. One can only hope that Disney might take to the lesson from this film and learn to properly re-imagine classic, beloved characters and stories without completely destroying them in an attempt to milk them for all they are worth. Might this writer suggest that, next time, they start with not casting a white guy for the role of an American Indian?