UPDATE: To put it simply, “Amsterdam” is a mess.
It juggles way too many characters and storylines. It does come together quite nicely in the end, but by that point it’s too little too late.
I did get a kick out of Christian Bale’s performance as a WWI vet — the comedic timing he has here is superb. However, I mentioned it in my “Tenet” review, and I’ll say it again, John David Washington just isn’t that good of an actor, the romantic subplot he has with Margot Robbie here is undercooked, there’s no passion or eroticism to their romantic yearning.
Chris Rock, the little scenes he does have, is excellent. Very dull color palettes get used in “Amsterdam,” you almost forget it was shot by Emmanuel Lubezki in what must be the most underwhelming work of his career.
EARLIER: They decided to lift the embargo a week earlier for David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam.” Not sure why they did that, the floodgates are now open for critics to bash it before its October 7th release.
On Metacritic, “Amsterdam” has a 44. Meanwhile, its Rotten Tomatoes score is at 20% approval. Ehrlich was particularly nasty in his review giving it a C- grade.
I’ll be watching “Amsterdam” this morning and will share my thoughts on the film in this post. The film is, by all accounts, dead. Maybe I’ll like it, who knows.
It’ll be interesting to see what the box-office is like for a film like this one, especially with a case that includes Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, John David Washington, Michael Shannon, Taylor Swift, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Zoe Saldana.
It’s not like he’s a bad filmmaker, Russell is a top-tier director with films like Flirting With Disaster, Three Kings, The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. Maybe he’ll try and dabble in television next.