Critics have really outdone themselves in terms of their hatred towards David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam.” The film is, by all accounts, DOA. I mean, how can it not be? A 33% score on Rotten Tomatoes is usually reserved for Dolph Lundgren movies.
Russell has run out of social capital with critics. The movie isn’t as bad as the reviews entail, but it’s also not as good as it should have been. The convoluted nature of the plot makes for a very strangely conceived narrative. There’s a good movie hidden somewhere in there, but I don’t think Russell or his editor, Jay Cassidy, managed to find it.
Box-office projections for Russell’s $80 million movie keep going down as well. A month ago it was aiming at a $21 million opening, last week it went down to $17 million and today it’s at $11-12 million tops. In its second weekend of release, “Smile” might actually beat it at the box-office.
It’s not just the budget, but “Amsterdam” also features big names: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon and Taylor Swift. It just goes to show that reviews can really make or break a movie.
I imagine the folks over at 20th century are biting their fingernails right at this very moment.