245.
Hustlers
7.5/10
After some decent success with Widows, I was ready to give Hustlers a chance. Who doesn't wanna see JLo swinging around a pole in her unmentionables? This time, the crime is based on a true story and a news article that is actually incorporated into the movie. The trailer is pretty handy with telling us exactly what story we are looking at. Some exotic dancers fancy a bit of extra money and who else to earn it from than Wall Street. Turning the tables on them may not be legal, but they don't care.
The events were really really good. The story is told through an interview with a journalist, who is played by Julia Stiles, one of the only people I recognise in the movie. Constance Wu plays our lead, Destiny, who is looking for an easy fix to pay for her Grandmother and herself to live. The Journo is after all the inside gossip and knows that Destiny is the one to spill the beans, in time. JLo plays the main dancer at the club, the ones the rich men come to see and the one who comes up with the idea of taking all they can get. Her name is Romana and the plans go a little like this. They bring the men into the club, they get them pissed and then use their cards to charge a crazy amount for the services at the club.
The men will keep quiet about it, mainly because they don't wanna show their wives where they have been. This all works for a while until some men catch on and don't repeat their custom. Onto the next plan, they head off to some high-end bars, meet some rich men and repeat it all. This becomes massive and after spending galore for years, Destiny leaves to have a kid with her guy, who then split up and she is left short of cash once more. The crash at Wall Street meant that no-one came into the club anymore and the girls were back onto their book of clients.
Shit starts to hit the fan when a guy loses his wife, who walks out on him and their special-needs child, he loses his house and with it being a corporate card, he also loses his job. He pleads to have his money back but Romana laughs it all off. Destiny knows this was the final strike for her. Problem was, this guy recorded the conversation and takes it to the police. Time for a montage of them all getting arrested.
Destiny is pressured into revealing all to the police otherwise her daughter is gone. She takes the deal and has to reveal that to Romana, who doesn't exactly take it well. She is more disappointed, knowing that their mother-daughter like relationship is at an end. Once the article hits the headlines, Destiny calls the interviewer, simply to find out what truths Romana actually said about her. She reveals that Romana still carries around a picture of Destiny in her wallet, like a proud mother and that she should really reach out to her. The movie finally draws to a close with some text, explaining exactly which dancer got sentenced with for their crimes.
Very interesting story of some sneaky bitches, that for sure. It definitely defines how dangerous and corrupt the seedy underworld really is. I'm sure many have a story of how they were made to buy a drink for a dancer one time and spent a bomb doing so but this is off-planet compared to those. I have no idea if anything was changed, as I have not read the article but surely, they couldn't have deferred from it too much. Seeing was sometimes believing in this instance and you were left wondering if they actually would get caught or where was the point that one would stop. As soon as that moment came, you knew the movie was drawing to a close. We had some flashbacks as the main story and with a beginning, ending and important parts throughout, we were thrust into present-day during the interview. Each time was quite significant as you could see Destiny express different emotions, depending on which part of the story she was explaining.
Moving onto the cast and it would be an understatement to say there was a mixture of talent and talentless. Constance Wu was great. I haven't a bad word to say about her as a lead in this, apart from the state on her fringe, but I'm not in any place to judge on hair. JLo also gave a good account for herself, considering the only other thing I have seen her in is Anaconda. Then we can move on to Cardi B. Her music is bad enough but to put her in here and making the audience listen to her speaking voice was very harsh on us. Halfway through the movie, I was wondering where I had seen a fella's face before. Just a random guy who fell for the dancers and it was Buzz! Not Lightyear but Buzz from Home Alone. The rest of the girls could have been expendable, just as the characters whereas the movie went on.
On the drive home, I looked into the true events, the pictures of the real-life criminals, just to have a look at how they compare. I have to say, I bet the woman who had JLo playing her was all sorts of happy. There were times in the movie that I got some enjoyment from, other than the dancing. The scene with Usher, strolling in, smashing so much money on the table and finding out that this actually happened, makes that scene even better! This movie had the tunes, it had the story and the execution to make this a decent watch for a crime movie from the criminal's point of view. What I can say though is that we are still waiting for a Female cast for a Magic Mike style story. We had some dancing but this movie wasn't about that, it was all about showing the women in charge.
The events were really really good. The story is told through an interview with a journalist, who is played by Julia Stiles, one of the only people I recognise in the movie. Constance Wu plays our lead, Destiny, who is looking for an easy fix to pay for her Grandmother and herself to live. The Journo is after all the inside gossip and knows that Destiny is the one to spill the beans, in time. JLo plays the main dancer at the club, the ones the rich men come to see and the one who comes up with the idea of taking all they can get. Her name is Romana and the plans go a little like this. They bring the men into the club, they get them pissed and then use their cards to charge a crazy amount for the services at the club.
The men will keep quiet about it, mainly because they don't wanna show their wives where they have been. This all works for a while until some men catch on and don't repeat their custom. Onto the next plan, they head off to some high-end bars, meet some rich men and repeat it all. This becomes massive and after spending galore for years, Destiny leaves to have a kid with her guy, who then split up and she is left short of cash once more. The crash at Wall Street meant that no-one came into the club anymore and the girls were back onto their book of clients.
Shit starts to hit the fan when a guy loses his wife, who walks out on him and their special-needs child, he loses his house and with it being a corporate card, he also loses his job. He pleads to have his money back but Romana laughs it all off. Destiny knows this was the final strike for her. Problem was, this guy recorded the conversation and takes it to the police. Time for a montage of them all getting arrested.
Destiny is pressured into revealing all to the police otherwise her daughter is gone. She takes the deal and has to reveal that to Romana, who doesn't exactly take it well. She is more disappointed, knowing that their mother-daughter like relationship is at an end. Once the article hits the headlines, Destiny calls the interviewer, simply to find out what truths Romana actually said about her. She reveals that Romana still carries around a picture of Destiny in her wallet, like a proud mother and that she should really reach out to her. The movie finally draws to a close with some text, explaining exactly which dancer got sentenced with for their crimes.
Very interesting story of some sneaky bitches, that for sure. It definitely defines how dangerous and corrupt the seedy underworld really is. I'm sure many have a story of how they were made to buy a drink for a dancer one time and spent a bomb doing so but this is off-planet compared to those. I have no idea if anything was changed, as I have not read the article but surely, they couldn't have deferred from it too much. Seeing was sometimes believing in this instance and you were left wondering if they actually would get caught or where was the point that one would stop. As soon as that moment came, you knew the movie was drawing to a close. We had some flashbacks as the main story and with a beginning, ending and important parts throughout, we were thrust into present-day during the interview. Each time was quite significant as you could see Destiny express different emotions, depending on which part of the story she was explaining.
Moving onto the cast and it would be an understatement to say there was a mixture of talent and talentless. Constance Wu was great. I haven't a bad word to say about her as a lead in this, apart from the state on her fringe, but I'm not in any place to judge on hair. JLo also gave a good account for herself, considering the only other thing I have seen her in is Anaconda. Then we can move on to Cardi B. Her music is bad enough but to put her in here and making the audience listen to her speaking voice was very harsh on us. Halfway through the movie, I was wondering where I had seen a fella's face before. Just a random guy who fell for the dancers and it was Buzz! Not Lightyear but Buzz from Home Alone. The rest of the girls could have been expendable, just as the characters whereas the movie went on.
On the drive home, I looked into the true events, the pictures of the real-life criminals, just to have a look at how they compare. I have to say, I bet the woman who had JLo playing her was all sorts of happy. There were times in the movie that I got some enjoyment from, other than the dancing. The scene with Usher, strolling in, smashing so much money on the table and finding out that this actually happened, makes that scene even better! This movie had the tunes, it had the story and the execution to make this a decent watch for a crime movie from the criminal's point of view. What I can say though is that we are still waiting for a Female cast for a Magic Mike style story. We had some dancing but this movie wasn't about that, it was all about showing the women in charge.
