Are the Critics Hustling Us on American Hustle?

American Hustle gets a 94 percent positive rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website, but I can't agree that it's really that great.

Christian Bale as a chubby hustler and his girl played by Amy Adams build exceptional character studies. Bradley Cooper as an FBI agent, Jennifer Lawrence as Bale's dumb-ish wife, and Jeremy Renner as the mayor of Camden, New Jersey turn in performances that are almost as good.

The problem is that the plot meanders along and the hustle the group plans isn't all that interesting. Perhaps that's because it's loosely based on the Abscam FBI investigation of the late 70s in which several prominent politicians actually did go to jail.

A little more fiction or creativity might have made this movie better. It seems to aspire to a Pulp Fiction kind of noir, but it lacks the twists and humor to pull it off.

All that said, this is an enjoyable film. Just keep your expectations in check heading into the theater.

**** out of ***** stars

The Best ... Best? ... Parts of The Hangover Part III

I'm not actually willing to say that The Hangover series should be laid to rest. After I named the original Hangover the best comedy of all-time and The Hangover Part II a solid 4 out of 5 stars, there's still a possibility more Hangovers wouldn't be the worst thing.

However, The Hangover Part III is a true stinker. While the Wolfpack is still somehow pretty cool, they can no longer command the same amount of laughs.

Here are the film's funny moments, in chronological order ...

1. The highway pileup created by the beheading of a giraffe, owned by one Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis).
2. Alan's singing at his father's funeral.
(A long stretch of a ridiculous and painfully unfunny kidnapping of the Wolfpack by John Goodman.)
3. Chow (Ken Jeong) and Alan's Tijuana kiss.
(At the halfway point, there had still only been three laughs. And that's being generous.)
4. The Melissa McCarthy lollipop/pawnshop scene.
5. The recurring Billy Joel soundtrack to Alan's life.
6. The Alan-and-his-son scene.
(Another very long unfunny stretch.)
7. The farewell scene when Chow tells Alan he's "cold as ice."
8. Alan's closing scene, when he announces he's leaving the Wolfpack.

So, obviously, Galifianakis still has what it takes to be brilliantly funny. But Ed Helms (zero laughs) is shockingly wasted and Bradley Cooper (maybe a half a laugh) is empty.

Galifianakis gets *** out of ***** stars, but The Hangover Part III itself spirals downwards for *1/2 out of ***** stars.

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence Psyche Out in Silver Linings Playbook

I'm not sure that all the Oscar talk is exactly deserved for Silver Linings Playbook, which opened today at the enjoyably artsy Charles Theater in Baltimore.

But it is an entertaining love story that follows the troubled psychological times of heartthrobs Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in hardscrabble Philadelphia.

Robert DeNiro touchingly plays a die-hard Eagles' fan, gambler, and father of Cooper, who comes home from a psych ward at the beginning of the movie. He runs into the equally "psyched out" Lawrence and the two improbably try to use dancing to find their way back to normalcy.

With Argo, Lincoln, Cloud Atlas, The Hobbit, and several others in the running, it would be improbable that this little flick could pull off the award for best picture. But it certainly shows that there's more to Cooper and Lawrence than just The Hangover and The Hunger Games.

**** out of ***** stars