utopia-00092
I have to agree with the reviewer who gave it an 8. I give it a 10. I caught this movie randomly channel surfing; on The Retro Movie channel. The listing gave it two stars; and I have to say it deserves a 4 stars out of 4 stars. I also, can't believe Comcast; or whoever rated the movie gave it two stars. It is Just a very intelligent movie; that works on many levels. It is a sophisticated movie; and that might have something to do with it getting such a low rating from a general American audience? I can see that in Europe it would have been appreciated more; for obvious reasons. There is a scene where the protagonist and girlfriend are in a cinema; watching "A Man an A Woman"; which is a French Film by the esteemed; French New Wave Director; Francois Truffaut; this right there is a good example of why an American audience would not appreciate this film; for what it is? A great film.
amosduncan_2000
Coming off their career high hit "The Longest Yard" Reynolds and Aldrich tried a highly stylized LA thriller. That was all She wrote for Roburt" productions. Even at a very young age I took a look at the reviews this film got and wassurprised how easy the critics went on it. Mostly it was ignored and allowed to die. Aldrich has done good work ("Flight of The Phenix" is among my favorite movies) but he is so out of his element trying to be stylish here. His efforts come off asa tasteless slob trying to be classy. Steve Shagen was slightly hot at the time, with his turgid "Save The Tiger" beingtaken seriously in some quarters. But Aldrich should have known this script neededsome serious work or better yet, should have been thrown out all together. The Dirty Harry/Death Wish element ( A double murderer somehow is let outout of jail for good behavior, you know, just like real life) is perhaps the worstbit of audience pandering. Then there is a consenting adults rape that probably wouldn't go over today. Visually ugly, terribly edited ( a sign of desperation and bad audience testing, the film still has a train wreck sort of quality, we all becomebad cinema lookie lous. A great partnership of Burt and Bob was notto be. Also, when something this cynical is this unconvincing, the resultis oddly upbeat.
JasparLamarCrabb
While not a complete failure, Robert Aldrich's neo-noir thriller is still not very good. Burt Reynolds plays a hard-bitten LA cop shacking up with call-girl Catherine Deneuve. He starts to question his home life while investigating the murder of another hooker. Surprisingly, there's little chemistry between Reynolds and Deneuve, and although they get into a couple of tussles --- physical and otherwise --- they're really not all that convincing as a couple. Would she REALLY stay away from Paris so long for HIM? Does he, a COP, REALLY find her aloofness so appealing that he would overlook her profession? HUSTLE is very slow going and the script by Steve Shagan is simply not compelling. Although Reynolds and Deneuve seldom rise above their respective movie personas --- he's the bad cop to partner Paul Winfield's good cop and Deneuve, in a VERY rare Hollywood film, is pure ice --- the supporting cast is terrific. In addition to Winfield, the film features Eddie Albert, Norm Crosby, Eileen Brennan, and, in a throwaway cameo, Ernest Borgnine. Ben Johnson is misused and grossly overacts as the dead girl's distraught father. Aldrich lets him run amok!Aldrich, who directed a lot of stylish movies in the 50s and 60s, lost his way by the 70s with movies like THE GRISSOM GANG and THE CHOIRBOYS. His direction here is flat, almost TV crime show level. At one point Reynolds and Winfield resemble Starsky and Hutch when they leap into action, jump into their car and screech away!
BOLTZ2U
Hustle is a terrific film with a a really nice performance by the always under used (the late great) Paul Winfield, he and Burt Reynolds work well together and Eddie Albert is scary as the low life "leo sellers". the stunt the one reviewer is talking about re: albino actor falling from high rise while blasting his pistol into camera is the late great, Dar Robinson from Reynolds' other film, "stick" in the early eighties. i'm glad this is on DVD now and finally a Reinold's' film that is letter boxed. i hope they can re-do the other films IE: "white lightning", "gator" and "shamus" in letterbox form especially "gator" cause it was shot in Todd A-O scope.
AD
