The Hustle movie review

MOVIE TITLE: The Hustle (2019)

RATING: PG-13. The movie was originally rated R, but Rebel Wilson fought for a PG-13 rating, contending that it wasn’t any raunchier than a lot of other PG-13 movies. She won the argument, which proves how a PG-13 rating doesn’t mean it’s actually appropriate for your kids.

LENGTH: 1 hour 33 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: C

IN A NUTSHELL:

Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway are always fun to watch, but this disappointing comedy remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels isn’t as great or funny as it could have been. It was written by Jac Schaeffer and directed by Chris Addison. It seems they could have used some help to make it better.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Reference to the “Mile High” club in an airplane bathroom, if you know what I mean…
Some crude humor
Alcohol
Dishonesty. There are no positive role models or lessons for your kids to learn in this film, sadly.
Criminal behavior is glamorized.

THEMES:

So, the point of the movie was….???? Friendship? Competition? Being a criminal pays?

THINGS I LIKED:

Cute opening credits cartoon.
Alex Gaumond plays a waiter on a train at the beginning of the movie, but he’s actually an Olivier Award-nominated actor who played the Steve Martin role in the stage production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
The movie was filmed in beautiful Mallorca, an island in Spain.
Anne Hathaway plays the character that Michael Caine played in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Anne Hathaway has starred with Michael Caine in Interstellar and The Dark Knight Rises.
The “training” sequence features Rebel Wilson’s classic physical, self-deprecating humor.
There was some laughter in the audience, but critics and most viewers hated this movie.
Twists

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Most of the funny lines are just not funny.
I was surprised that there was very little marketing for this movie, especially considering the big name of Anne Hathaway and the crowd-pleasing factor of Rebel Wilson.
There are a lot of inconsistencies in the script and the characters.
Rebel Wilson pretty much plays the same character in every movie she does.
You kind of expect moments in a training session to come back at a crucial moment later on in the film, but that doesn’t happen. It’s as if the writers just threw things into the movie to try to make audiences laugh rather than actually design a clever comedy.
The advertisements for the movie say that these “two women team up”…..That’s not actually true except for about 5 minutes in the movie. The advertisements also say that they hustle men who have wronged them. That’s not true either. They pick random marks to scam rich men out of money. Their motivation isn’t revenge, just money. The movie poster is deceiving because the tag line makes it seem like they’re getting justice by getting back at “dirty rotten men.” Nope. Not true. The men are rich, but that doesn’t make them dirty or rotten. The two women are the ones who are dirty and rotten.
Forgettable

FUNNY LINES: