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4K Ultra HD SteelBook Review: AMERICAN HUSTLE

Home » 4K Ultra HD SteelBook Review: AMERICAN HUSTLE

May 27 Posted by in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

The 2013 crime comedy/drama American Hustle comes from writer/director David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, Joy, Amsterdam) and was inspired by a true story. For the film’s 10th anniversary, Sony has released the movie on 4K for the first time in new SteelBook packaging.

It’s April 1978, and small-time con-man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) has his hands in all kinds of businesses, from his father’s legitimate glass business, to a few dry cleaners, to selling stolen/forged artwork. He has also been offering $50K loans for an application fee of $5K, but never actually paying out the loans. None of these ventures are doing particularly well. That is, until he meets Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), who helps him take the loan scam to the next level, by inventing a new British persona, Lady Edith Greensley, to add some fake legitimacy to the business. The two quickly fall in love, though Irving already has a wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) and a son that he loves—he loves the son, maybe not the wife. Rosalyn can be a bit of a handful. While she doesn’t know the details of Irving’s businesses, she does know that they aren’t completely on the the up-and-up.

Just as business starts pick up, Irving and Sydney find themselves pinched by low-level FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper), who catches them in the act of committing the loan fraud scam. He threatens to lock Sydney up unless they cooperate and help him nab four other white collar criminals. So they reluctantly decide to offer up New Jersey Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner), who is handling Atlantic City’s newly-acquired casino licenses, and is trying to revitalize the city as the newest gambling destination. In order to do so, he’s going to need some investments and to grease the palms of some politicians. They invent Sheik Abdullah (Michael Peña), a man from the middle east looking to invest, and start going after corrupt congressmen and senators. However, Richie wants to make a name for himself and sets his goals set even higher—he wants to take down mobster Victor Tellegio (Robert De Niro). This puts Irving in a very dangerous position—if Tellegio discovers what’s happening, it’s not Richie that he’s going to go after. So that he doesn’t end up sleeping with the fishes, Irving has to figure out some way to use his skills to get out of this situation. Meanwhile, Richie has his eyes on Lady Edith (he really believes Sydney is British, despite all the other lies), which is another situation that doesn’t sit well with Irving.

It had probably been about 10 years since I last saw this film when it was first released. I had forgotten much of the plot and most of the story’s unexpected twists and turns, so it was fun to watch this like it was the first time and be surprised all over again. I think I probably enjoyed it more this time around. It’s amazing that any of this could be true.

The characters are wacky, wild and over-the-top, and it’s fun to watch the actors fully embrace this. I had also forgotten just how stacked of a cast the film had. Christian Bale embraces the dad bod and terrible combover. Irving may not be the best looking guy, but he has confidence in spades (which is quite ideal if you’re a confidence man). Irving is always thinking two steps ahead, and even when it looks like he’s been bested, he always has a backup plan. He is also a family man. He may not be in love with his wife anymore, but he adores her son as his own, and would do anything to protect him. He is madly in love with Sydney, who is both a partner in business and in life. Speaking of Sydney, Amy Adams is fantastic, constantly putting on a ridiculous Lady Edith accent, and fearless in her character’s extremely-plunging necklines. Sydney is the other woman in Irving’s life, and while she does love him, she can’t help but be curious about the attention that Richie shows her.

Bradley Cooper is hilarious and over-the-top in his performance. Richie is desperate to make a name for himself, constantly changing the terms of the deal, trying outsmart the con-men, and expressing his feelings for Lady Edith. He still lives with his mother, has these ridiculous curls, and has a very unhealthy relationship with his co-worker, Stoddard Thorsen (Louis C.K.). He is constantly threatening Stoddard with physical violence when he won’t approve the resources he requests, such as cash or a hotel to make the trade. I know he has since been canceled, but Louis C.K. had me constantly laughing as this beleaguered colleague. Jennifer Lawrence is also a lot of fun as this mess of a woman that is Rosalyn, Irving’s wife. She’s obsessed with her looks and a particular nail polish. And when we first meet her, we discover that she practically set the kitchen on fire trying to use the microwave—and it pretty much goes downhill from there. The cast is filled with so many other recognizable faces, all with over-the-top hair and clothes befitting the film’s period setting.

While I enjoyed the film, I found it a little slow at the start, and way too long overall. But the film does a nice job of transporting the viewer back to a different era with the clothes and often-ridiculous hairstyles, and the general color palette of the film. Sony had previously released American Hustle on Blu-ray back in 2014, but this new 4K SteelBook release is the first time the film has gotten the 4K treatment. The previous Blu-ray already looked quite good (it was mastered in 4K), so I didn’t see a drastic difference between the picture clarity/detail of the Blu-ray and the new 4K disc, which is generally clean with a natural looking level of film grain. However, the 4K release features new Dolby Vision color-grading, which helps the film’s throwback, yellow-focused period color palette really shine. The Dolby Atmos audio track provides clear dialogue and a generally-immersive ambiance throughout, while also showcasing the film’s excellent soundtrack.

Sony’s 4K release features beautiful new SteelBook packaging, wrapped with a J-card providing details about the film and the disc contents. The 4K and Blu-ray discs reside on the right side of the case, while an insert provides instructions for redeeming a 4K Movies Anywhere digital copy of the film. The only new bonus material is 14 minutes of never-before-seen deleted/extended scenes, which can be found on the 4K disc. The rest of the bonus material is carried over from Sony’s previous release, and only resides on the Blu-ray disc. This includes over 22 minutes of deleted/extended scenes, plus a 16-minute Making Of featurette. While it’s nice that they added something for this new for this 10th anniversary release, it would have been great to get some kind of commentary or retrospective featurettes as well.



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Film: (2:18:03)

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