Tuesday’s Top Trailer: American Hustle

Welcome to a weekly feature here at Movies with Abe, Tuesday's Top Trailer. One of my favorite parts about going to see movies is the series of trailers that airs beforehand and, more often than not, the trailer is far better than the actual film. Each week, I'll be sharing a trailer I've recently seen. Please chime in with comments on what you think of the trailer and how you think the movie is going to be.

American Hustle – Opening December 25, 2013

It’s not hard to find the concept of “American Hustle” appealing. What Oscar-nominated director David O. Russell is doing is taking the casts of his two most recent films and merging them together, along with a few new faces, like Jeremy Renner, thrown in for good measure. Every cast member is outfitted with far-out hair, makeup, and clothing, and it looks like a fully immersive blast. The trailer wisely chooses just one scene on which to focus, in which Christian Bale brings Bradley Cooper to a painting and reveals to him that it is a forgery, setting the scene for what is sure to be an intellectual crime film that is more about people than anything else. Bale and Jennifer Lawrence are particularly big gets considering they won Oscars for their work in Russell’s films, and both Cooper and Amy Adams were nominated the last time around, so this is a cast that’s quite ripe for Oscar attention (Renner was also nominated twice in the past five years). The moments showcased briefly on screen indicate plenty of partying and presumable drug use, but also some more violent scenes with more lasting repercussions. Like both “Silver Linings Playbook” and “The Fighter,” this film has secured an undeniably terrific release date – December 25th – and given Russell’s track record, I can’t imagine this will be anything but a critically-adored smash success.