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‘Amsterdam’ Review: A Madcap Mystery With Many Whirring Parts

Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington lead a crowded cast of zanies in David O. Russell’s latest screwball outing.

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By Manohla Dargis

For much of “Amsterdam,” the latest David O. Russell Experience, the movie enjoyably zigs and zags, rushing here and there, though sometimes also just spinning in place. It’s a handsome period romp, a 1930s screwball pastiche filled with mugging performers who charm and seduce as they run around chasing down a mystery, playing detective, tripping over their feet and navigating an international conspiracy that is best enjoyed if you don’t pay it too much attention — which seems to be the approach that Russell himself has taken.

Like all of Russell’s movies, this one is by turns loosey-goosey and high strung. At its center are three American comrades who met in Europe during World War I, formed a tight friendship and — as you see in an extended flashback — lived for a while in Amsterdam, where they recovered (more or sometimes less) from the war and rhapsodically played bohemians until reality called them back home. A dozen or so years and much personal drama later, it’s 1933, and the three have settled into their respective lives. And then Taylor Swift pops up in a fetching hat and red-alarm lipstick, sending everyone and everything scrambling.

The pieces click into place with Burt (Christian Bale), a down-and-out doctor with dubious habits who announces that he lost an eye in France. That’s also where he met a nurse, Valerie (Margot Robbie), and found his best friend, Harold (John David Washington), now a lawyer with a healthy practice and endless patience. Soon, the men are roped into an intrigue via Swift’s Liz, one of those mysterious dames who always stir up trouble. Her father has died under suspicious circumstances, and she’s enlisted Harold for help, which is why Burt soon performs an autopsy alongside Zoe Saldana’s Irma, another Florence Nightingale.

Bale also starred in Russell’s 2013 neoscrewball “ American Hustle ,” a dizzily funny comedy set mostly in the 1970s about a quartet of scammers. For that film, Bale’s good looks were obscured by a furry beard, a monumental gut and a doleful comb-over; for his role here, the actor has slimmed down and effectively come out of hiding, so you can see the planes shifting under his narrow, expressive face. Burt has a small web of scars under one eye and a nest of hair that at times rises to Barton Fink-esque tumescence, and while he slouches and hunches a lot, it’s the face that draws you in with its insistent brow-furrowing, head-bobbing and jaw-dropping.

It’s a suitably showy performance (with an accent that’s pure old-studio cabby) for a brash movie with many whirring parts. If you spend a lot of time scanning Bale’s face, noting how it slackens and tightens, it’s partly because the movie keeps inviting you to do so. It’s an engaging landscape, certainly, and you can feel Russell’s affection for the character (and actor) every time the camera cozies up to him. There’s feeling in Burt’s ravaged countenance, sadness and bewilderment and dark shadows, too. He has been wounded both in battle and in life, you are regularly reminded, even as the movie barrels deeper into nonsense.

“Amsterdam” is a funny movie, though more curious than laugh-laced, despite some energetic slapstick and soft-landing jokes. The humor can feel strained and overly worked to no particular end, as when Mike Myers and Michael Shannon pop up as a pair of tag-teaming spies. Like Robert De Niro’s upstanding, big-daddy general, who enters late to help tie up the messy loose ends, the spies belong to the least satisfying part of the movie, the political intrigue that ensnares Burt, Harold and Valerie. A lot of this really happened, the movie announces early, yet while that’s eye-poppingly true it tends to feel irrelevant.

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Amsterdam Review

A mystery that fizzles..

Amsterdam premieres exclusively in theaters Oct. 7.

There’s a very good movie simmering inside Amsterdam that might have flourished if writer/director David O. Russell had the discipline to keep a tight rein on the overly ambitious scale of his script. A period piece/dramedy/mystery/thriller/romance/satire, Amsterdam reminded me of listening to a 6-year-old trying to tell you a story that just rambles off into a ditch because of their unfettered hyper indulgence with convoluted asides. What starts out as a relatively compact and clever tale of two WWI veterans who get framed for murder devolves into a hodgepodge of connected tangents that includes everything from a triangular soulmate relationship to the surreptitious rise of facism in the United States between WWI and WWII.

Burt (Christian Bale) narrates the overall story, and the context of his life as a WWI veteran who lost his eye in battle. Nowadays, he either works tirelessly or sees his best friend Harold Woodman (John David Washington), a lawyer in an all-Black firm. Russell takes us on a lengthy flashback to show us how the two met in France, 1918, when they were assigned to the same platoon. Riddled with shrapnel and major wounds, they’re patched up by Valerie Brandenburg (Margot Robbie), an American expat volunteer nurse in France, and the trio become inseparable, relocating to Amsterdam. Their idyllic existence ends, however, when Burt goes back home to his apathetic wife, Beatrice, (Andrea Riseborough). Valerie and Harold realize their romantic relationship can’t survive in America, Val vanishes, and Harold follows Burt to New York to get his law degree.

In 1933, Harold and Burt are summoned in secret by Liz Meekins (Taylor Swift), the daughter of their former non-racist commander, General Bill Meekins (Ed Begley Jr.), to perform an autopsy on his recently deceased body, as she fears foul play. Burt performs the procedure with the help of mortician’s assistant Irma St. Clair (Zoe Saldana) and just as they go to reveal the results, Liz is brutally run over by a car driven by a scarred man (Timothy Olyphant), who then convinces the crowd that Harold and Burt pushed her. They go on the run and all hell breaks loose.

That’s a lot to process but there’s at least five other subplots not even mentioned. If Russell kept the story entirely focused on the trio of Valerie, Burt, and Howard, the movie would have been much lighter on its feet because of the rapport and comedic performances of Robbie, Bale, and Washington. They’re great together, and their halcyon remembrances of Amsterdam as their happiest and purest days of love and friendship are the most affecting of the film. They sizzle whenever they share the screen, as Bale’s manic energy, Washington’s dry wit, and Robbie’s wide-eyed idealism work in perfect synergy.

Who's your favorite actor in Amsterdam's star-studded cast?

And while they’re supported by some interesting performances by the likes of Saldana, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, and Chris Rock, most of the cast are operating within an impenetrable sliding scale of their personalities being “way too big” or “way too quirky.” There’s scenery chewing galore, especially as the machinations of the overarching plot reach their climax and there’s no shortage of scenes featuring arch fascists, corporatists, or moralists banging literal and figurative podiums. By the last 30 minutes, what should have been a lark-filled mystery unveiling instead becomes a pretty insufferable, verbose, on-the-nose conclusion that draws parallels to what happened then with today’s political discourse. How the movie went from a charming war friends pastiche to an ending that has Robert De Niro’s General character reading a speech next to actual footage of his real-life counterpart in history doing the same is exactly what’s wrong with Amsterdam. Russell just veers indiscriminately towards whatever he’s trying to say and hammers it home without any of the grace present in the first reel.

Strongest performances aside, Amsterdam is also an unequivocally beautiful film to look at. It’s like a Coen brothers feature procreated with a Wes Anderson movie and out popped Amsterdam’s aesthetics. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, production designer Judy Becker, and the costume and hair and makeup teams have recreated the time and places with incredible texture and gorgeous color palettes. Robbie and Anya Taylor-Joy are luminous. The men look dapper even if most are sporting some kind of post-war prosthetic scar or deformity. But in the end, none of the wrapping can save the film from the self-important nosedive it takes, which sadly sucks the life out of all of the early material that had such promise.

Amsterdam starts out strong but gets weighed down by David O. Russell’s heavy-handed script that devolves from an involving mystery into a preachy and overblown allegory about facism. Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington have fantastic chemistry but they get buried under the weight of a script that suffocates the humanity of their story and veers off into a ridiculously complicated plot that feels like it goes on forever and never regains its heart.

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Amsterdam Should Feel Intoxicating, But It’s Exhausting

How we deal with our brokenness is the idea not so secretly at the center of most of David O. Russell’s films. In Amsterdam , he’s conjured up perhaps his most overt treatment of the subject: It opens with images of physical wounds and scars, and as the film proceeds, we realize how spiritually broken the characters are as well. Our ostensible hero is Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale), a doctor who specializes in “fixing up banged-up guys like myself” — veterans of the First World War who struggle with missing limbs and faces, “all injuries the world was happy to forget.” The year is 1933, and a new war is on the horizon, but Burt will always be defined by the last one, whose marks he carries on multiple levels: He lost his eye and part of his cheek, wears a back brace, and now is constantly on the lookout for the latest advances in mind-altering medicine to get him through the day.

Many wounds loom over Amsterdam , but the film moves with the devil-may-care verve of a comic romp. Burt and his lawyer friend Harold Woodman (John David Washington) get yanked into a bizarre mystery involving the death of a senator and beloved ex-general, which the man’s daughter (Taylor Swift) suspects to be murder. Pulled into the shenanigans is gorgeous artist Valerie (Margot Robbie), whom Burt and Harold last saw in Amsterdam many years ago: In an extended flashback, we see the blissfully hedonistic idyll the three of them lived in the years after the war when Harold and Valerie were madly in love, Valerie was making beautiful shrapnel-art, and Burt had not yet returned to New York to resume his toxic marriage to the wealthy Beatrice Vandenheuvel (Andrea Riseborough). A yearning to return to the Eden of Amsterdam animates these characters.

It’d be easy to get bogged down with the story of Amsterdam , which manages to be heavily adorned with incident and character but not particularly elaborate, despite a couple of twists at the end. At its heart, the film wants to be a hangout movie. Russell loves to fill his casts with big names — this one includes Robert De Niro, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldaña, and Rami Malek, among many others — not because he needs them to get the movies financed (though I’m sure it helps) but because he clearly loves to give actors space to strut. And strut they do. Bale’s commedia dell’arte antics contrast nicely with Washington’s straight-man stylings, while Robbie seems to be in a constant state of transformation, from French nurse to American bohemian to New York socialite, perhaps embodying the existential restlessness of the period between the wars. Michael Shannon and Mike Myers show up as a couple of spies. Alessandro Nivola and Matthias Schoenaerts show up as a couple of cops. I could happily watch entire movies about some of these side characters.

Russell’s style is one I would call aggressive empathy : He insists on reminding us that everybody lives their own life, but his films aren’t patient or generous in the ways we associate with empathy. If Jean Renoir’s famous dictum that “everyone has their reasons” was, in that director’s eyes, a gentle but melancholy truth about the world, Russell seems to regard that same reality with alternating shockwaves of wonder and horror. His movies are both indulgent celebrations of and anxious nightmares about the fact that other people exist.

Amsterdam is filled with slapstick, wordplay, proto-musical numbers, and moments of broad, actorly abandon — so much so that, despite the fact that the story often feels like it’s on a predictable path, you never know if the movie itself will just stop and go in a completely different direction. Whenever it’s operating on that edge of uncertainty, the picture works marvelously. But the freewheeling freewheeling-ness can get to you after a while. As it accumulates running time (and characters and plot points), Amsterdam starts to get exhausting when it should perhaps feel liberating or intoxicating.

And Russell has difficulty tying everything up. For all its shaggy-dog qualities — and this should come as no surprise given the setting, the characters, and the premise — Amsterdam ’s tale is leading to something profound. It has big, timely points to make about spiritual injury, the specter of war, longing for lost utopias, and the rise of fascism. By the time the picture starts to lock back into its story, however, you might realize that it has become a totally different movie. A more serious movie but not necessarily a better one. Still, at least we had Amsterdam.

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‘Amsterdam’ Review: Three Amigos Try to Save America in David O. Russell’s Ungainly Period Dramedy

Truth is relative as Christian Bale, John David Washington and Margot Robbie stumble upon a plot to overturn democracy in this overstuffed social satire from the director of 'American Hustle.'

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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The film centers on a friendship between three Americans drawn into an elaborate political intrigue. The trio were never happier than when they lived together in Amsterdam after the Great War. Encouraged to enlist (and perchance to die) by his high-society in-laws, Dr. Burt Berendsen ( Christian Bale ) lost an eye and half his face in conflict, but gained a lifelong amigo in Harold Woodman ( John David Washington ), a Black soldier who — and this is among the film’s “this really happened” details — was obliged to fight in French uniform since American troops refused to integrate.

Valerie collects shrapnel from her patients, but instead of discarding these fragments, she keeps the twisted metal for artistic projects: teapots made of bomb parts and surrealist photo collages of the kind that Man Ray and Grete Stern produced in the 1930s. Burt’s also something of a sculptor — of the medical arts — rebuilding the faces of other disfigured veterans (while testing experimental painkillers on himself). For a brief, glorious moment in Amsterdam, the friends are spared the stresses of their lives — and wife (Andrea Riseborough), in Burt’s case — back in America, their shenanigans somehow sponsored by two ornithophile spies (Michael Shannon and Mike Myers, the latter heavily disguised and accented), who promise, “We’ll come a-calling at some point in the future.”

Alas, the trio’s carefree days of dancing the Charleston among the Dutch are numbered — and just as well, since this cutesy segment of the story feels overly indebted to Wes Anderson, and not in a good way (e.g., inventing a nonsense song around the French word that makes everyone laugh: “pamplemousse”). Most of the film takes place 15 years later, in New York (New Amsterdam?) in late 1933, as Burt and Harold agree to investigate the suspicious death of the superior officer who introduced them (Ed Begley Jr.), only to be framed for murder in the process. While the case doesn’t seem to be of terribly pressing urgency to the police (as detectives, stars Matthias Schoenaerts and Alessandro Nivola deliver broad character-actor performances), the pair are determined to clear their names, which brings them back in contact with Valerie.

Russell cooks up plenty of high-end kookiness (which is to say, comedic situations set in the hallways and drawing rooms of polite-society houses, like something out of a Howard Hawks or Ernst Lubitsch classic, as opposed to flat-out farce), but through it all, the bonds between these three characters are meant to be the thing that keeps us invested. Russell has miscalculated something there, however, since the 15-year separation between the friends is resolved before they even have time to miss one another in the movie, and whatever chemistry existed between Harold and Valerie’s characters never quite manifests on-screen.

Russell is right to remind Americans of this shameful moment in their past (skip this paragraph to avoid spoilers), as history books tend to downplay the amount of stateside support that Mussolini and Hitler had in the lead-up to World War II. In his novel “The Plot Against America” (adapted for HBO around the same time “Amsterdam” was filming), Philip Roth imagines an alternate reality in which Franklin D. Roosevelt was defeated by a Nazi-sympathizing Charles Lindbergh. Here, Russell spotlights more dastardly plans to actually remove the president from office. Production designer Judy Becker (who does terrific work on the film’s myriad period locations) drew inspiration from 1930s rallies, like the one Marshall Curry documented in his Oscar-nominated doc short “A Night at the Garden,” right down to the George Washington portrait hanging behind the dais.

Russell’s truth-will-out, think-for-yourself political message is ultimately what makes “Amsterdam” appealing, though the film is being marketed largely on the popular appeal of its cast. That’s a risky prospect for such an expensive picture, considering that hardly any of the stars delivers the thing that fans love most about their personas — except perhaps Chris Rock, who gets to crack wise about white supremacy. It’s beautifully shot by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, whose swooning mix of Steadicam and handheld techniques lent an almost godlike grandeur to recent films by Terrence Malick and Alejandro G. Iñárritu, though that fluid style combines rather oddly with Russell’s more erratic comedic sensibilities.

The result has all the red flags of a flop, but takes a strong enough anti-establishment stand — and does so with wit and originality — to earn a cult following. There’s too much ambition here to write the movie off, even if “Amsterdam,” like the history it depicts, winds up taking years to be rediscovered and understood.

Reviewed at AMC Century City, Los Angeles, Sept. 19, 2022. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 134 MIN.

• Production: A 20th Century Studios release of a Regency Enterprises presentation of a New Regency, Dreamcrew Entertainment, Keep Your Head, Corazon Camera production. Producers: Arnon Milchan, Matthew Budman, Anthony Katagas, David O. Russell, Christian Bale. Executive producers: Yariv Milchan, Michael Schaefer, Sam Hanson, Drake, Adel "Future" Nur. Co-producer: Tracey Landon.
• Crew: Director, writer: David O. Russell. Camera: Emmanuel Lubezki. Editor: Jay Cassidy. Music: Daniel Pemberton.
• With: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Alessandro Nivola, Andrea Riseborough, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Taylor Swift, Timothy Olyphant, Zoe Saldaña, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro.

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‘amsterdam’ review: christian bale and margot robbie head starry ensemble in david o. russell’s chaotic cautionary tale.

The 1930s-set comedy thriller’s stacked cast also includes John David Washington, Robert De Niro, Rami Malek, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Zoe Saldaña and Taylor Swift.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Every new movie from Russell now stirs up allegations of his abusive behavior on- and off-set for relitigation on Film Twitter. But that hasn’t hurt his ability to draw top talent. The phalanx of stars will be the main attraction with this long-gestating Fox project, going out through Disney, even if the cautionary note about history repeating itself doesn’t lack for contemporary relevance.

While Russell’s screenplay introduces them in a choppy flashback structure that starts in New York in 1933 before rewinding 15 years, a trio of fast friends forms the story’s core. They are Burt Berendsen ( Christian Bale ), a doctor experimenting outside the medical establishment with new pain treatments, particularly for wounded war veterans; his attorney chum Harold Woodman ( John David Washington ); and wealthy artist Valerie Voze ( Margot Robbie ).

They met in France in 1918, while serving in World War I. Burt was urged to enlist by the blue-blood family of his since-estranged wife Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough). Her snobbish parents (Casey Biggs, Dey Young) felt that becoming a war hero might paper over his half Jewish, half Catholic working-class background and make him a better fit for the family’s Park Avenue medical practice.

Their friendship was at its sweetest in Amsterdam, where Valerie introduced them to Paul Canterbury (Mike Myers) and Henry Norcross (Michael Shannon), intelligence officers for the British and American governments, respectively, as well as ornithological enthusiasts thrown out of the international bird-watchers society for stealing eggs from the nests of near-extinct species. Canterbury also manufactures glass eyes, allowing him to provide a replacement for the eye Burt lost in combat.

All this might seem a fussy overload of background detail, and indeed, the movie often feels like it’s piling on eccentricities in a bid to out-quirk Wes Anderson. The bond uniting Burt and Harold and Valerie is platonic, though tinged by hesitant romance between the latter two. But Russell’s screenplay is too manic to establish the three-way union forged during the Amsterdam idyll as the film’s true heart, despite its title.

The story becomes even busier with the 1933 plot, which bolts out of the gate when well-heeled mystery woman Liz Meekins ( Taylor Swift ) contacts Burt and Harold to ask for their help. She’s suspicious about the death of her father, the beloved former Army general Bill Meekins (Ed Begley Jr.), who oversaw the 369th and who died under murky circumstances during a recent return passage by ship from Europe. The general was scheduled to be guest speaker at an upcoming New York veterans’ reunion gala.

In case the character gallery isn’t already crowded enough for you, there’s also Valerie’s philanthropist brother Tom ( Rami Malek ) and his wife Libby ( Anya Taylor-Joy ). It won’t even have registered to most viewers that Valerie drifted out of Harold and Burt’s orbit after the war until they turn up at the Voze mansion while investigating Meekins’ death and find her heavily medicated for a supposed nervous disorder.

A related crime that occurs early on puts Burt and Harold on the radar of fellow WWI vet Detective Lem Getweiler (Matthias Schoenaerts) and his dimwit flat-footed partner Det. Hiltz (Alessandro Nivola).

I confess I found all this messy and exhausting until Burt and Harold’s investigation leads them to Meekins’ army buddy General Gil Dillenbeck (De Niro), living a quiet life in the leafy suburbs with his droll, doting wife (Beth Grant). Inspired by Armed Forces legend Major General Smedley Butler, who at the time of his death in 1940 was the most decorated U.S. Marine in history, Dillenbeck provides a welcome anchor to the story, while De Niro’s stern authority in the role helps whip the wandering tone into line.

That American conspiracy plot is rooted in history, tied to the rise of Fascism in Italy and Germany; it’s a fascinating story, withstanding Russell’s efforts to kill it with over-embellishment. The writer-director claims the film’s genesis dates back before the recent resurgence of the White Supremacist movement, the swirl of QAnon lunacy and far-right attempts to undermine the democratic integrity of the American government. But the parallels with our current reality are unmistakable, while the acknowledgment of shameful footnotes such as forced sterilization clinics touches on the evil of racial “cleansing.”

Although Amsterdam maintains a stubbornly hopeful belief that goodness will prevail, the film is also realistic about the resilience of hate in our political culture and the fact that the deep-pocketed instigators of jackboot menace are seldom punished. It makes for a stirring final act, even if the sobering message doesn’t always sync up with Russell’s chaotically cartoonish approach — a mercurial divide mirrored in Daniel Pemberton’s score, which veers between high intrigue and whimsy.

But this is primarily a character-driven movie, even if that field has so many people jostling for space that the material might have been better suited to limited-series treatment. Some of the performances don’t have much scope to stretch beyond caricature, but among the secondary characters that make an impression are Malek’s Tom Voze, an oily balance of charm and creepiness; Taylor-Joy’s similarly two-faced Libby, a climber who gets amusingly giddy around De Niro’s general; Saldaña, wise and grounded as Irma, casually discussing the finer points of love over a corpse; and Riseborough, a coddled Daddy’s girl still struggling to reconcile her affections with familial expectations.

As for the central trio, Washington exudes an easy charisma that hasn’t always been apparent in his previous roles, while Robbie melds old-fashioned movie-star glamor with modern intelligence, her bohemian spirit making her credible as a rebellious heiress, an idiosyncratic artist and a woman whose heart operates by its own rules. Valerie believes in love and art and kindness, making her the movie’s unofficial mascot.

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• AV Undercover

David O. Russell's shambolic Amsterdam cranks up the star power but still falls short

Christian bale, margot robbie, and john david washington, among others, do their best to make sense out of an overly ambitious political potboiler.

Amsterdam , David O. Russell’s 1930s-set caper film, zooms along unexpected narrative curves with a tremendous self-confidence it mistakes for grace. In actuality, it’s more of a shamble, like a sloppy guy at a bar telling a farfetched tale signifying not-too-much, but it certainly seems important, to the teller anyway. This does not mean the movie is not worth watching—indeed, much of it is rather funny—but like a return from the pub when a loved one asks if they missed anything, you can say, “Oh, it’s always fun to see the gang, but you didn’t miss much.”

The leader of this film’s gang is Christian Bale, working for the third time with Russell after American Hustle (a better film) and The Fighter (a better film still). Here he plays Burt Berendsen, a kind, doofus Doctor Feelgood who serves up painkillers to fellow World War I veterans. He wears a glass eye, has scars on his face, and (probably due to the frequent ingestion of his own wares) is seen making loopy faces, which Russell and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki are eager to shoot in close-up with long lenses, ramping up the cartoon nature of all of it.

His best buddy is a lawyer, Harold Woodsman, played by John David Washington. When Burt was the only soldier during WWI who would take the post leading an all-black division, the two of them forged an unbreakable bond. (Burt’s wife, a very amusing blue-blood Andrea Riseborough, and her father, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ’s Casey Biggs, sent him there, kinda-sorta hoping he’d get killed.)

Both men were wounded in the trenches, and as they convalesced in a French hospital they met an American nurse, Valerie, played by Margot Robbie brimming with joie de vivre and an unusual artist’s eye that teaches our boys how to truly embrace life. (She’s also incredibly connected to international spies—Mike Meyers and Michael Shannon, particularly—which no one questions.) The three quit for Amsterdam; Burt becomes a beloved third wheel to Harold and Valerie, whose love could never exist outside the bubble of bohemian interwar Western Europe. “Amsterdam” is a fondly remembered state of mind.

The scenes in the Dutch capital are all warmly lit interiors, with big windows and art. Alas, if the movie’s title had you hoping for shots of Margot Robbie strolling along canals or alongside windmills, you’ll have to take your Hollandophilic ass elsewhere. Besides, we only catch these moments in flashback, before things go sour into the 1930s, with poverty overwhelming America and a new threat looming in Europe.

Things heat up again when Harold and Burt are visited by a young woman (Taylor Swift!) who is convinced that her father—an important Army man who acted respectfully to the Black troops during the war—did not die by natural causes. Just when we begin to believe her, she too is killed, in a rather surprising manner. The death is pinned on Harold and Burt, prompting them to go scrounging for alibis from society folk who will vouch for them.

Things get messier as the two visit a grand suburban estate and encounter other weirdos like Rami Malek and Anya Taylor-Joy who seem to be involved in a side competition to see who can make wackier googly eyes in the camera. (Malek wins!) Valerie reappears, and as they try to clear their names (and unmask the killers), they discover a conspiracy based on a little bit of historical truth. (Familiarity with the old Humphrey Bogart film All Through The Night will foreshadow the ending a bit.)

Amsterdam is not a great movie by any shakes, although it looks terrific and all of the performances, including turns from Robert De Niro, Chris Rock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Ed Begley Jr., and Timothy Olyphant, are energetic, entertaining, and enjoyable. (Zoe Saldaña did not get the memo about this movie’s tone; she’s a snooze.)

The problem is that its grand conspiracy theory and unsubtle theme of history repeating itself is trying a bit too hard to be weighty. Yes, this is an important topic (one not need subscribe to too many substacks to know why fear of creeping Fascism is a genuine thing) but the tonal shift from exaggerated camera angles to political dread is a tough one to pull off. Not everyone can be Joel and Ethan Coen, certainly not David O. Russell, whose work continues to operate in their shadow. In Amsterdam , Amsterdam is fondly remembered as an ephemeral heaven on Earth. As the movie calendar marches on Amsterdam is not likely to be remembered by many at all.

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Review: David O. Russell’s ‘Amsterdam’ Is An All-Star Delight

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Amsterdam IMAX poster

Amsterdam (2022)

New Regency/rated R/134 minutes/$80 million

Written and directed by David O. Russell

Starring Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock, Anya-Taylor Joy, Zoe Saldana, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, Andrea Riseborough, Taylor Swift, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Rami Malek and Robert De Niro

Cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki

Edited by Jay Cassidy

Music by Daniel Pemberton

Opening theatrically courtesy of Walt Disney DIS on October 7

David O. Russell’s Amsterdam is a surprise delight, both in terms of a filmmaker whose star-studded concoctions generally leave me cold and in terms of the kind of ‘just a movie’ Hollywood popcorn flick that used to be the industry’s bread and butter. It is, commercial hopes and awards season potential be damned, an $80 million dramedy filled with game movie stars (Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, etc.) relishing the chance to tear into a big movie about important past = prologue subject matter that isn’t a franchise flick or stuffy year-end melodrama. It is light on its feet as it loosely retells a critical but mostly forgotten chapter of American history. It’s too long, and the third act becomes painfully redundant, but it mostly excels as a top-flight studio programmer.

Opening theatrically this Thursday evening, 20th Century Studios’ Amsterdam takes off with the momentum of a speeding bullet, plunging us into the lives of Dr. Burt Berendsen (Bale) and Harold Woodman (Washington). Both are World War I vets; the good doctor lost an eye in combat while his lifelong pal had to fight in a French uniform since the American forces remained unintegrated. Right now, Woodman is a lawyer while Berendsen fixes the disfigured faces of fellow veterans (while high on experimental painkillers), and an opportunity for a high-paying gig comes in the form of an autopsy request from the daughter (Taylor Swift) of a deceased U.S. senator. Things take a turn, our pals find themselves on the run, and the film dives back into the past to bring us up to speed.

(L-R): John David Washington as Harold, Christian Bale as Burt, and JMargot Robbie as Valerie in 20th Century Studios' AMSTERDAM. Photo by Merie Weismiller. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

The film never really regains the super-charged momentum of those first twenty minutes, even if it’s clear that O. Russell would rather take his time with these characters and this world. The prologue perhaps sets false impressions about how the rest of the film will unfold. This isn’t a thrill-a-minute mystery but a lazy river movie (think, offhand, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ). The pleasures are rooted in strong production values, a terrific ensemble cast (including a career-best Margot Robbie performance as a quirky, sympathetic wartime nurse who becomes a lifelong friend) delivering some top-shelf work. The characters remain the focus even as the slow-building plot evolves from simple whodunnit to global conspiracy. Not unlike American Hustle , Amsterdam concerns a few relative nobodies who find themselves becoming crucial figures in American history, which is partially the point.

Robbie pops in when the film flashes back to wartime, as Valorie Voze treats both wounded warriors and helps them hightail it to Amsterdam for a period of post-war nirvana. Valerie and Harold take a liking to each other, which makes sense since Robbie and Washington are both charismatic and drop-dead gorgeous performers. At the same time, Burt yearns for the approval of his wife (Andrea Riseborough) and her wealthy family. The film initially coasts on its character-specific pleasures. The plot kicks back in when the duo gets mixed up in a present-tense (early 1930s) murder. If you don’t know the history, you don’t need any more. The slow-building peril eventually concerns Robert De Niro as an esteemed Major General and various quirky characters played by Zoe Saldana, Chris Rock, Rami Malek, Anya-Taylor Joy, Michael Shannon and Mike Myers.

(L-R): John David Washington as Harold, Margot Robbie as Valerie, Rami Malek as Tom, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Libby in 20th Century Studios' AMSTERDAM. Photo by Merie Weismiller Wallace; SMPSP. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Amsterdam is a rollicking good time with good company amid Judy Decker’s scrumptious period piece production design. It’s a reminder of how big a Hollywood movie can look and feel when it has a big budget that isn’t mostly taken up with fx-driven spectacle, even if its budget would have made it commercially perilous in 2012, let alone 2022. Emmanuel Lubezki lends prestige and gravitas to the comic farce, while the film excels above all as an acting treat. It’s a blast watching some of today’s best and brightest flourish under one of the last directors who can still get this kind of movie made for this kind of budget in Hollywood. The film is unquestionably important without drowning in its present-tense relevance, excelling as an old-school, adult-skewing entertainment. Warts and all, I kind of loved it.

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Amsterdam Review: An Overcooked, But Entertaining Mystery

Starring christian bale, john david washington and margot robbie..

It will take individual members of the moviegoing audience only a few minutes to decide whether or not David O. Russell’s Amsterdam is a film that is “for them.” A manic tone is established from the outset as we are introduced to Christian Bale ’s Burt Berendsen, a Hunter S. Thompson-esque doctor and World War I veteran with a glass eye who operates a shady medical practice helping out fellow veterans in 1933 New York City. Voiceover from Burt quickly ushers us through his life and work before catapulting the character to a meeting with his best friend, John David Washington ’s Harold Woodman, a fellow veteran and attorney who proceeds to roll out a dead man in a box (Ed Begley Jr.) and introduce the corpse’s grieving daughter ( Taylor Swift ), who is certain that her father was murdered.

Quippy zaniness is the keystone of the madcap adventure, and that voice is relentless even as the film veers towards some of the most consequential subject matter in modern history. If it’s not your thing, you’ll check out immediately, but those who get onboard will find an entertaining, albeit overcooked mystery that is enhanced with what feels in the moment like a seemingly endless ensemble of talented actors who enter the picture with each new plot development.

The aforementioned dead man in a box is identified as General Bill Meekins, who not only has a close history with Burt and Harold (technically he was the one who introduced them), but was supposed to be the main speaker at a benefit that the two men are coordinating. They believe Meekins’ daughter’s claims, which then almost immediately results in more murder… and then, indicative of the movie’s weirdness, everything goes into flashback mode. We first see how Burt first met Harold during World War I in France 1918, but then we learn how the duo met Valerie Voze ( Margot Robbie ), an eccentric nurse who patches them up and saves their lives after they are nearly killed on the battlefield.

Amsterdam's manic style is matched well with an engaging mystery.

Amsterdam sports a lot of “stranger than fiction” energy (it opens with a non-committal based-on-a-true story title card reading “A lot of this really happened”), and it more than occasionally feels like it’s trying to do too much – such as with Valerie’s avant-garde artistic sensibilities making sculpture from shrapnel, and the trio coming up with a “nonsense song” comprised of random French phrases. It takes quirkiness into the red, but the film works because it’s all tied to an engaging and propulsive mystery.

Once the movie bounces back from the flashback – with Burt, Harold and Valerie’s lives becoming intertwined while they live together in the titular city after World War I – Amsterdam establishes proper stakes and keeps the narrative moving with Burt and Harold finding clues that get them closer to discovering the truth of what happened to General Meekins. It never gets particularly complex, but it also never gets stupid, and each progression in the plot keeps you wondering about what’s coming next.

Part of the fun of Amsterdam is wondering what famous face will show up next.

Said curiosity is both driven by the desire to know the answers to the movie’s biggest questions, as well as David O. Russell’s special brand of stunt casting. If I could make one particular recommendation going into Amsterdam , it would be that you should avoid looking at the film’s full cast list (and I’m actually going to stop naming names in this review beyond those I have already mentioned). Practically every line is delivered by actors who are headlining movies released throughout the year – and none of them are shortchanged. Each has a memorable part to play and a standout personality to go with it.

Of course, anchoring the whole thing is the trio headlining the adventure. Given that Christian Bale, John David Washington and Margot Robbie have proven themselves as three of the most consummate performers working today, their success should inspire little surprise, but that makes it no less wonderful. Chemistry in the triumvirate is essential to the story that David O. Russell is telling, and theirs is effortless and palpable. Between the three, Bale is given the most to work with and delivers one of his best comedic performances – rounding out his David O. Russell trilogy after making The Fighter and American Hustle – but they are all given memorable lines and moments from the writer/director’s script.

Their individual characters’ eccentricities and choices in their performances mesh impressively well together, and the movie clicks into high gear when they are all together – first in the World War I flashback, and then in 1933 when Burt and Harold are inadvertently reunited with Valerie while trying to solve the murder mystery.

Amsterdam walks a narrow tightrope line of being too much, and there are moments where knees bend and arms flail for balance, but it does stay upright and put on a show in the process. It has a distinct voice, an entertaining story to tell and a well-used phenomenal cast, which amounts to a fun cinematic experience.

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.

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Amsterdam Review

04 Nov 2022

At one point in Amsterdam , there is a scene involving (deep breath) Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington. Remi Malek, Anya Taylor-Joy, Robert De Niro, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Matthias Schoenaerts and Alessandro Nivola. Perhaps the single most stacked-with-talent scene in 2022, it points to one of the problems with David O. Russell ’s sprawling, intermittently enjoyable film: it is simultaneously over-stuffed and under-nourished. It proffers ambitious filmmaking, full of strong craft, great bits and big thematic swings but Amsterdam never really catches fire and fails to amount to more than the sum of its occasionally impressive parts.

Amsterdam opens with the title card: ‘A lot of this really happened’, mostly referring to a little-known dark chapter of US history — an elaborate political coup conspiracy — that emerges in the film’s second half. Before it gets to that, Russell’s script is a mash-up of different sub-genres — crime flick, Hawksian screwball comedy, two-guys-and-a-girl movie — that never finds the right tenor to unify its whackier and more sober elements. It’s at its most fun when, in a lengthy flashback, it etches the friendship between doctor Burt ( Christian Bale ), lawyer Harold ( John David Washington ) and nurse Valerie ( Margot Robbie ), evoking a freewheeling, capricious Jules Et Jim vibe.

Neither serious enough to be sharp satire, nor energetic enough to deliver exuberant farce.

This idealistic, sweet quality ultimately can’t survive in an over-complicated murder plot that blows up into something bigger. Russell wants to use it to make comments about contemporary America (clue: standing up to fascists) but it’s neither serious enough to be sharp satire, nor energetic enough to deliver exuberant farce.

The central trio are winningly played, if thinly drawn, Bale and Robbie’s characters boasting an over-abundance of quirks (him: a false eye that keeps falling out, a penchant for experimenting with meds; her: pipe-smoking, making sculpture out of shrapnel) whereas Washington is somewhat flavourless by comparison. The supporting cast, from Malek and Taylor-Joy’s social-climbers to Myers and Shannon’s bird-watching spies, register without being especially memorable. Taylor Swift gets an instantly meme-able moment. It’s left to Russell regular De Niro, playing a comrade of the murdered General, to provide an anchor for the wayward proceedings.

The Russell film it most resembles is American Hustle , sharing its flamboyance and broad scope, not to mention great costumes — take a bow J.R. Hawbaker and the legendary Albert Wolsky. From production designer Judy Becker’s recreations of ‘30s New York to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s gorgeous, fluid, sepia-tinged images, Amsterdam is a treat to look at. It is also a delight to listen to, Daniel Pemberton’s score adding lightness and much-needed urgency, mainly through woodwind action. It’s a shame, then, that such technical proficiency couldn’t align to better-judged storytelling. Amsterdam wants to celebrate love, humanity and kindness in the messy tapestry of life. It just needed more care and control in weaving the threads.

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Halle berry says blake lively asked if she would reprise storm character in ‘deadpool & wolverine’ but ryan reynolds “never asked me”, ‘amsterdam’ review: christian bale & all-star cast light up david o. russell’s timely blend of fact and fiction.

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For fans of David O. Russell, Amsterdam  was well worth the wait.

The writer-director’s first film since Joy  in 2015 is one of his best in a list that includes Best Picture nominees The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook and  American Hustle . Never an easy filmmaker to define — except his sharp-eyed talent for blending satire, some darker comedic elements and always the human condition — his latest movie takes a twisty and winding road to become perhaps his most heartening yet, even as its final half-hour takes us into some chilling territory as fact meets fiction in unexpected ways.

Yet all of this is wrapped up in an era-spanning murder mystery with complex layers that keep unfolding, as well as a moving story of love and friendship that transcends the worst impulses of the human race that oddly manage to give us some hope that life is indeed worth living.

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That would be a key theme for the journey Russell sends his uniquely conceived group of characters (as played by an all-star ensemble) on, particularly the three people at the center of his story — who, like others, are simply looking for home again, having lost it and hoping to renew themselves.

Opening in 1933, we meet Dr. Burt Bernedsen (Christian Bale) and his attorney buddy Harold Woodman (John David Washington), who were brought together years earlier serving in the same unit during WWI in 1918. Damaged physically, they emerged as friends for life with an optimism, despite the darker times they experienced together. Healing after the war they were, as we learn in flashbacks, brought together with artist/nurse Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie), who not only was able to extract shrapnel from injured soldiers but also to turn it into beautiful art objects, a unique talent for a woman with a zest for life as she leads them from a Belgian hospital to a grand time in postwar Amsterdam, a place where memories were made.

Their paths cross again as she recommends her old friends to a relative named Elizabeth Meekins (Taylor Swift), whose father Bill Meekins (Ed Begley Jr.), we learn in other flashbacks, was head of their Army unit in France, a person for which they have high regard. Summoned for a procedure, or so Dr. Burt thinks, he soon discovers it is the dead body of Bill, and he is asked to participate in an autopsy since Elizabeth suspects that he was murdered. After a startling incident out on the streets, Burt and Harold suddenly are thrust into the center of a complicated investigation and down a rabbit hole that brings them back in contact with Valerie, and a number of other richly drawn characters who may — or may not — offer clues along the way to an act of violence that has long tentacles.

The complex plotting allowed Russell, a magnet for actors, to deliciously cast this film with a who’s who of actors. They turn up to add intrigue to the unfolding, often comedic, mystery that also manages to explore the mysteries  of life, love and good friends as a must-have survival mechanism in a dark world getting darker by the minute. To say more would be to spoil the fun, and despite a movie with some deep things to ponder for these times, it mostly is a fun ride getting to know these characters and hoping the best for them.

Bale, as usual, disappears into his role as a good-hearted doctor who is caught up in a perfunctory marriage with wife Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough) brought on by a family who decided she should be marrying a war veteran just for the looks of it. He doesn’t really fit in, and that becomes abundantly clear when he meets the autopsy nurse Irma St. Clair (a lilting Zoe Saldana), who has her own relationship problems but really helps Burt see that love might be the answer to everything. Washington’s Harold shines a light on what African Americans suffered during wartime, as he also emerges with a brighter attitude despite many drawbacks, working with spirited associates including his No, 2, Milton (well played by Chris Rock).

Throw in Tom Voze (Rami Malek), the hard-to-read brother of Valerie, and his wife Libby (Anya Taylor-Joy), as well as birdwatchers/international spies (as the onscreen graphics tell us) Paul Canterbury (a terrific Mike Myers) and partner Henry Norcross (Michael Shannon). All figure in the ongoing mystery, as does the greatest of all generals, Gilbert Dillenbeck, who is played with grace and grit by perhaps the greatest of all living actors, Robert De Niro, who again finds a choice role in a Russell film. He too was a friend and colleague of Bill’s and also has his doubts about how he died. He accepts an invite to speak at a NY veterans reunion, which becomes a key moment of increasing suspense later in the film. Special shout-out to the wonderful character actor Beth Grant, who steals her scenes as Dillenbeck’s wife, expertly delivering some of Russell’s best lines. “Why do you call your husband the General?” she is asked after doing just that. “Oh, I only do that during the week,” she replies. “So what do you call him on the weekend?” she then is asked, and without missing a beat replies slyly, “That’s a personal question.”

Russell’s original screenplay actually has the feel of an adaptation of a novel, with its intertwining characters and situations they find themselves in feeling like a page-turning epic — a departure for Russell but one he accomplishes with relish. And by the end you will realize there is much to take away here if you give in to the ride and get it. A must-see for smart adult audiences.

Amsterdam  is equally impressive behind the scenes, with stunning cinematography from Emmanuel Lubezki (three-time Oscar winner for Gravity, Birdman and The Revenant ); superb production design from Russell’s longtime collaborator Judy Becker; excellent costume design from veteran Albert Wolsky and his associate J.R. Hawbaker; and a wonderful, pitch-perfect score from Daniel Pemberton.

A 20th Century production with New Regency, Disney will release the pic wide and, appropriately, only in theaters (where it should be seen) on October 7. Producers are Russell, Bale, Matthew Budman, Anthony Katagas and Arnon Milchan. Check out my video review with scenes from the film at the link above.

Do you plan to see  Amsterdam? Let us know what  you  think.

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‘Amsterdam’ Is a Throwback, a Warning — and a Beautiful, All-Star Mess

• By David Fear

Name an actor — almost any working actor you can think of — and there is a fairly good chance they are in David O. Russell ‘s Amsterdam. Christian Bale , the intense thespian who’s done his best work with the equally all-or-nothing-at-all auteur? No surprise that he’s front and center here. Ditto Russell rep-company regular Robert De Niro . Rising star John David Washington ? Yup, him too. Margot Robbie and Anya Taylor-Joy , both current candidates for “It girl” status circa 2022? Present and accounted for. How about Chris Rock , or Rami Malek , or Zoe Saldana, Michael Shannon , Mike Myers , Timothy Olyphant, Andrea Riseborough, Ed Begley Jr., Alessandro Nivola, and [ checks notes ] Taylor Swift ? They’re in the cast as well. This isn’t an ensemble film, it’s a SAG meeting.

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Cut to: 1918. A younger, more innocent (and dual-eyed) Berendsen has no sooner joined the effort to fight the Kaiser when he’s asked to oversee an all-Black squad of doughboys. They’ve been accused of insubordination because the brass doesn’t want them wearing American uniforms. This is where Burt meets Harold, both of whom end up convalescing in a French hospital after sustaining battlefield injuries.

There’s more — dear lord, a lot more — as Russell takes us down an American history wormhole of fifth columnists, political chicanery and the rancid rich. An opening disclaimer informs us that “a lot of this actually happened,” and it does not take a college professor to measure the distance between the past threats to the democratic ideals we hold near and dear and what our current future may bring in light of the past few years. (Homegrown Nazis — now more than ever!) You couldn’t be blamed for thinking the filmmaker might be mounting a call to arms cloaked in period duds, especially when the voiceover dips into the didactic during a third-act showdown between the clearly drawn good guys and the corrupt. (“What could be more American than a dictatorship built by American business?”) The commentary nudging is actually the least effective aspect of Amsterdam, not because it isn’t pertinent or that Russell doesn’t share the same concerns many of us do, so much as the fact that his heart clearly lies elsewhere.

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The generosity extends to the cast at large. Some have issues with Washington’s somewhat recessive take on Goodman, legal eagle and lover of Robbie’s aristocratic kook. But when seen in tandem with what Bale is doing, it fits the bigger picture better — he’s the ballast that allows Bale to boing off him and bounce around the sets. Robbie understands that her third party is one part daffy-dame screwball archetype and one part romantic ideal, yet doesn’t let herself be confined by either role. The supporting cast either gets to play very straight (De Niro’s patriotic military man, Swift’s grieving young woman), very broad (Riseborough’s elitist wife, Olyphant’s racist thug) or take part in wonderfully oddball double acts (Shannon and Myers intelligence-agency handlers, Nivola and Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts’ dim-witted cops; Malek and Taylor-Joy’s unscrupulous One-percenters). It would be unkind to note that not all performers are equal here. It would also be accurate.

And then there’s Amsterdam itself, the city that acts as a sort of symbolic title in the same way that Casablanca does for its classic ensemble drama. It’s the paradise lost, the moment before history and “the dream” repeats themselves. It’s what Robbie calls “the good part,” when these three can be what they call “their true selves.” It’s the geographical representation of a deep, lasting, sustaining friendship. And much like Casablanca, this movie will end with a sacrifice that attempts to right a handful of wrongs on both a macro- and a micro-level. There is no shortage of movies that still traffic in shameless, manipulative uplift (see: this year’s Oscar winner ). Yet Russell, to his everlasting credit, has made a film in which having cockeyed optimism, at this moment in the world, somehow feels like a radical act. For a movie that is all over the place, it’s determination to get back to a bygone moment isn’t just wishful thinking. It suggests, in own roundabout way, that a return to the past can also signal the beginning of a fresh start.

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Amsterdam (United States, 2022)

With its whiplash-inducing tonal inconsistencies and sloppily assembled narrative, Amsterdam often feels like a pastiche of (take your pick) Monty Python, The Coen Brothers, or Wes Anderson grafted onto a crime caper/espionage thriller with a strong allegorical message about fascism. This is more the freewheeling David O. Russell from American Hustle , which also spun its wheels early before settling down, than the disciplined filmmaker who made Silver Linings Playbook and The Fighter . It takes well over an hour before Amsterdam decides what it wants to be and, by that time, viewers may be exasperated by the film’s quirkiness and exhausted by its meandering, unfocused storyline.

Considering that talent involved, anything less than a home run would have to be considered a disappointment. One of the downsides of having so many well-known actors vying for screen time is that none of them gets a chance to shine (not unlike in 2021’s Don’t Look Up ). From a narrative perspective, the story (an opening caption informs us that “A lot of this really happened”), which fictionalizes a Depression-era conspiracy to replace FDR with a respected military man, is not uninteresting but it takes Russell too long to wade through the preliminaries. The movie doesn’t start building momentum until Robert De Niro shows up, and that’s more than an hour into the proceedings.

Russell’s attempts at screwball comedy are inexpert; he’s no Preston Sturges. One of the problems is that the lead trio – physician Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale), attorney Harold Woodman (John David Washington), and shut-in Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie) – are thinly drawn. They never become real and the romantic attachment between Harold and Valerie is stronger in Russell’s imagination than on the screen. By using a non-linear structure to establish the characters and their circumstances, Russell is more apt to confuse viewers than add multi-dimensionality to the characters. The first half is a muddle.

Burt and Harold are approached by Liz Meekins (Taylor Swift), the daughter of their former beloved commanding officer, General Bill Meekins (Ed Begley Jr.), to investigate the circumstances surrounding her father’s passing. Contrary to the official cause of death, Liz believes he was murdered. It doesn’t take much to convince Burt and Harold that she may be right but a series of bad breaks and coincidences have Burt and Harold on the run from the law trying to clear their names. This once again brings them into contact with Valerie along with her brother, Tom (Rami Malek), and Tom’s wife, Libby (Anya Taylor-Joy). Tom wants to help and has powerful connections but is unwilling to stick out his neck…unless Burt and Harold can convince the revered General Gil Dillenbeck (Robert De Niro) to speak out in their defense. Against Tom’s wishes, Valerie accompanies the men when they leave.

Christian Bale’s performance is delightfully loopy. Burt, with his glass eye and penchant for slapstick, is something out of a Mel Brooks movie. Bale is matched beat-for-beat by Margot Robbie, whose bona fides for farce go back to her eye-opening turn in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street . That leaves John David Washington as the straight man, the Bud Abbott to Bale’s Lou Costello – it’s a role that fits like a glove. The supporting ensemble is crammed with recognizable names. In addition to Rami Malek, Taylor Swift, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Robert De Niro, Russell (despite a checkered reputation) was able to attract Andrea Riseborough (as Burt’s wife), Alessandro Nivola and Matthias Schoenaets (as two detectives), Michael Shannon and Mike Myers (as bird-watching secret agents), Zoe Saldana (as Burt’s love interest – sparks fly during an autopsy), and Chris Rock. Of those, Saldana is underused and there’s a little too much Myers.

There’s no lack of ambition in what Russell attempts with Amsterdam but his goals outstrip his ability to achieve them. A lot of scenes and moments, taken in isolation, are effective, but the juxtaposition of so many conflicting elements creates an unwelcome tension between comedy, drama, and suspense that the filmmakers are unable to manage. The lack of chemistry among the leads doesn’t help the scattershot storytelling. In short, Amsterdam is a mix of good and bad – possibly the least imposing entry on Russell’s strong filmography but by no means unwatchable. It just requires some fortitude to wade through the first hour.

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Amsterdam review: An exhausting, overlong conspiracy thriller

Amsterdam could have been forgiven for being a lot of things, but dull is not one of them. The new film from writer-director David O. Russell boasts one of the most impressive ensemble casts of the year and is photographed by Emmanuel Lubezki, one of Hollywood’s premier cinematographers. Beyond that, its kooky premise and even wackier cast of characters open the door for Amsterdam to be the kind of screwball murder mystery that O. Russell, at the very least, seems uniquely well-equipped to make.

Instead, Amsterdam is a disaster of the highest order. It’s a film made up of so many disparate, incongruent parts that it becomes clear very early on in its 134-minute runtime that no one involved — O. Russell most of all — really knew what it is they were making. It is a misfire of epic proportions, a comedic conspiracy thriller that is written like a haphazard screwball comedy but paced like a meandering detective drama. Every element seems to be at odds with another, resulting in a film that is rarely funny but consistently irritating.

As its exposition-laden opening narration establishes, Amsterdam follows Dr. Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale), a doctor and war veteran who has grown used to living every day with a glass eye and back brace. Forever changed by his experience fighting in World War I, Burt has taken it upon himself to try to single-handedly care for all of the other wounded vets who have been left behind by the elites of early 1930s New York City. Unfortunately for him, it’s this philanthropic instinct that leads Burt into agreeing to conduct a covert autopsy on the body of his former commanding officer.

When Burt discovers that the man in question was, indeed, poisoned, he is forced to team back up with two of his WWI companions, a lawyer named Harold Woodsman (John David Washington) and Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie), the former combat nurse who saved Burt and Harold’s lives when they were injured in the war. Before long, Burt, Harold, and Valerie all find themselves caught up in a conspiracy involving several powerful businessmen, a celebrated American general (played by Robert De Niro), and the authoritarian political wave that’s simultaneously sweeping through Europe.

If that all sounds a bit messy and convoluted, that’s because it is. However, while Amsterdam ’s premise is loosely based on an obscure American political conspiracy known as the Business Plot , the film fails to coherently adapt its real-life story for the big screen. O. Russell’s attempts to stress the contemporary relevance of the Business Plot itself never come across as anything more than ham-fisted and hackneyed, either, and that’s especially true by the time that Amsterdam tosses out a lazy and obvious visual joke in its third act about the secretly fascistic design of one character’s hedges.

Amsterdam also saddles most of its cast members with some of the most inauthentic and cloying dialogue you’ll likely hear this year. Zoe Saldaña, for instance, is utterly wasted in a thankless role that would rather her espouse empty platitudes about the nature of love than contribute anything of real substance to Amsterdam ’s story. O. Russell’s script, meanwhile, buries Robbie, Washington, and Bale’s natural charisma beneath superfluous layers of eccentricities that add little to their characters, and the love story that binds Harold, Burt, and Valerie together is so thinly sketched and saccharine that it ultimately rings false.

There are a few performers who do manage to make the most out of O. Russell’s screwball swings — namely, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Alessandro Nivola, and Andrea Riseborough. Anya Taylor-Joy also makes an admirable attempt at bringing her obnoxiously narcissistic character to life in as satirical a way as possible, but the heightened aspects of her performance are drowned out by both O. Russell’s frequently odd editing choices and the sleepy performance that Rami Malek gives as her on-screen partner, Tom.

For his part, Lubezki’s cinematography imbues Amsterdam with a kind of warmth and sensitivity that its dramatically inert script lacks. Lubezki’s meditative, Malick-esque visual style does often seem to be at odds with O. Russell’s frenetic sense of humor, though, which only makes the disconnect between the way Amsterdam is written and the way it was brought to life that much more apparent. While J.R. Hawbaker and Albert Wolsky’s costumes only further reinforce Amsterdam ’s needlessly quirky style as well, the duo do manage to clothe the film’s stars in a number of memorable outfits. (This writer was particularly fond of the top hat-centric look Robbie rocks in  Amsterdam ‘s second act.)

The film’s visual achievements are not enough to rescue Amsterdam . The film is a creative and directorial miss that feels doomed from its tedious opening moments all the way to its emotionally hollow final frames. What could have been a messy but, at the very least, delightfully exuberant 90-minute conspiracy comedy has been rendered as a 135-minute wannabe prestige production. Every line of dialogue sounds like it was intended to be thrown out like a fastball but was instead read at half-speed, which leaves many of Amsterdam ’s scenes with the kind of dead pauses that only grind its momentum to an even greater halt.

Between this, Joy , and American Hustle , it seems safe to say that whatever goodwill O. Russell had accrued with The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook has since dried up. Much like the poisoned veteran at the center of its story, Amsterdam is simply dead on arrival.

Amsterdam is now playing in theaters.

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The Persuasive Potency of “Decision to Leave”

You’re a cop, on a rooftop, facing a guy with a knife. You have no weapon, so what to do? You reach into your pocket and pluck out a glove, made of fine chain mail, as was once used to cowl the heads and necks of medieval knights. Pulling on the glove, you grab—without fear of injury—the blade that your enemy thrusts at you, make a fist of your free hand, and punch his lights out. A nice move, and just one of the practical lessons to be drawn from “Decision to Leave,” the latest film from Park Chan-wook . Other tips: when interviewing a suspect at a police station, order in two boxes of premium sushi to feed the friendly mood. Also, as one of the characters says, “Killing is like smoking. Only the first time is hard.” Sensible advice, though I need to know how easy it is to quit killing. Do you wear a patch? Or chew anti-homicidal gum?

The begloved cop is Hae-joon (Park Hae-il), who, during the week, lives in the Korean city of Busan. On weekends, he goes home to his wife, Jeong-Ahn (Lee Jung-hyun), who works at a nuclear power plant in another town. Hae-joon is bright, polite, punctilious, fit (outpacing his young deputy during a chase on foot), skilled at cooking, and, you might think, difficult to fool. If only he could sleep. One day, Hae-joon is called to inspect a dead body, at the foot of a towering rock, and we are treated to a demonstration of the visual wit—frequently grand, yet etched with a cunning forensic precision—in which Park and his director of photography, Kim Ji-yong, like to deal. From a distance, we spot two tiny figures being hauled to the top of the rock, on an electric pulley; in closeup, we see the cracked face of a Rolex, its hands now motionless, and ants slaving over an eyeball. Something about this case is starting to crawl.

The widow of the fallen man, who was an experienced climber, is Seo-rae (Tang Wei), and she is far from prostrate with grief. “I worry when he does not come back from a mountain, thinking he might die at last.” At last? Is she relieved  ? To be fair, we shouldn’t read too much into her phrasing, because, as she says, “I’m Chinese, my Korean is insufficient.” Like Park’s previous film, “The Handmaiden” (2016), “Decision to Leave” is rich in linguistic slippage. At one point, on a snowy night, Seo-rae speaks Chinese into her phone, which, in turn, thanks to the dangerous miracle of Google Translate, talks in Korean to Hae-joon. He is standing in front of her, adrift in the blizzard of words.

Gadgetry is everywhere in the new film (how lonely Hae-joon looks, dictating his thoughts into the phone on his wrist), yet it’s only one cog in the ticking machinery of Park’s plot. The whole thing is engineered, we realize, to tell a tale of obsessive love. Thus, as Hae-joon, sitting in his car with binoculars, observes Seo-rae at work—she is a caregiver, who believes that “living old people come before dead husbands”—he magically appears in the room beside her, like Kirk beaming up next to Mr. Spock. The imagery answers to Hae-joon’s desire, granting him a proximity to Seo-rae that life, even the life of a prying detective, cannot supply. All the while, of course, he is supposed to be establishing whether or not she pushed her husband off that rock. The quest grows more urgent in the movie’s second half, as Hae-joon, “completely shattered,” gives up the job in Busan and goes home. You really think the case is closed? Open wide.

One way to size up this singular film is to enumerate all that it lacks. Of the nastiness that spattered Park’s early works there is no sign; any violence here is brisk and fleeting. As for the glistening carnality of “The Handmaiden,” forget it; Hae-joon does have sex with his wife, on the red-hot principle that, as she says, “new research suggests it’s good for cognitive ability,” but his rapport with Seo-rae is hilariously chaste. See her fumble through his raincoat and find a tube of lip gloss! Wait two hours for a kiss! Fans of Tang Wei, who recall what she brought to the erotic candor of Ang Lee’s “ Lust, Caution ” (2007), will note the demureness with which, as Seo-rae, she raises her skirt to display a mark on her thigh. Compare Lauren Bacall, in “The Big Sleep” (1946), scratching the itch on her knee.

Despite such restraint, or because of it, “Decision to Leave” bears the persuasive potency of true romance. It should be called “Love, Recklessness.” Having been twisted into bewildered bits by the convolutions of Park’s narrative, I was astonished, toward the end, to find it brushing against the tragic. The entire movie has swarmed, often farcically, with aquatic details; poor Hae-joon even had his finger bitten by a turtle. Now, however, he staggers alone along a beach. The sun, on the horizon, is ready to call it a day. Amid the crash of breakers, you can just about hear him crying out for Seo-rae. Whether she turns up, and what waves of crime have or have not swept her to this shore, I leave you to discover.

In another life, the director of “Silver Linings Playbook” (2012), David O. Russell , would have made disaster flicks in the nineteen-seventies. The purpose of that noble genre was to stuff as many stars as possible, exquisitely mismatched, into a confined space; on board the deadly-virus-bearing train in “The Cassandra Crossing” (1976), for example, were Sophia Loren, Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Richard Harris, and Martin Sheen, plus an unusual pairing of Ingrid Thulin, so often the purveyor of agony for Ingmar Bergman, and O. J. Simpson. Too much? Not by the standard of “Amsterdam,” Russell’s new film, which features Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Zoe Saldaña, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, and—hold the phone—Taylor Swift. If ever a cast cried out for a bug on a train, or a skyscraper on fire, it’s this one.

Bale plays Burt Berendsen, who is badly hurt in the First World War, as is his pal, Harold Woodman (Washington). In Belgium, their wounds are tended by a nurse named Valerie (Robbie); her surname shifts as we go along, and is best kept under wraps. Initially in hospital and then, once the conflict is over, in the gilded leisure of Amsterdam, the three of them form an unbreakable pact of friendship. Before long, needless to say, it is broken. Burt, sporting a glass eye, returns to New York, to the icy disdain of his wife, Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough), and to his career as a doctor, much of it spent relieving the pain of other ex-combatants. Harold, too, finds himself in the city, practicing as an attorney. But where, pray, did Valerie go? And what will connoisseurs of early-twentieth-century romantic threesomes learn from “Amsterdam” that they don’t already get from “Jules et Jim” (1962)?

Russell’s plot quickens, thickens, and stalls. Burt, at the autopsy of his old military commander, meets a fellow-medic, Irma (Saldaña), who views the death as suspicious. The trail leads to a mansion, home to the flighty but fearsome Libby Voze (Taylor-Joy) and her husband, Tom (Malek), who seems to be as pliably soft as his sweater. Appearances, though, are calculated to deceive, and Burt and Harold soon happen upon a hideous—yet unmistakably daft—conspiracy to inject Fascism into the American bloodstream. The fate of such an evil scheme depends on a speech, to be delivered to veterans by a retired general (De Niro). The latter stages of the film are chewed up, interminably, by the prelude to this major event.

“Amsterdam” is, or is meant to be, a caper: an easygoing endeavor, you might think. But capering is as tricky on the silver screen as it is on the dance floor, and the tone of the tale keeps losing its footing. To and fro we trip across the years. A couple of ornithologists-cum-spies (Shannon and Myers) pop up in postwar Europe, and again, in the mid-nineteen-thirties, in the U.S.A. The screams of bloody soldiers, on stretchers, are overlaid by a merry musical score. Burt describes his duties as “fixing faces, raising spirits, singing songs,” and the strain of that mingling tells on Bale, whose performance is unhappily redolent of late-period Al Pacino, complete with hiccupping speech patterns and loony stares. What we see in Bale is a tremendously serious actor proffering a considered essay in comedy—which is not, alas, the same as being a funny guy.

Only in its milder moments, when Russell is not trying too hard to be madcap, or to badger us with dark political portents, does “Amsterdam” stir and convince. An early conversation at the hospital, between Harold and Valerie, isn’t exactly a heart-to-heart, yet we do feel, by the end of it, that we have witnessed two people falling—calmly, not crazily—in love. She shows him scraps of art that she has made, from spent bullets; her later efforts include collages, photographs, wire sculptures, and X-rays, many of them created for the movie by the British artist Linder Sterling, and riffing beautifully, I’d say, on the work of Meret Oppenheim and Man Ray. In short, you should go to Russell’s film, but not for fun. Go for the art. ♦

An earlier version of this article misidentified the character who is married to Hae-joon and the actress who plays her.

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Review: ‘Amsterdam’ wastes incredible talent on a dull story

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows, from left, Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington in a scene from “Amsterdam.” (Merie Weismiller Wallace/20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows, from left, John David Washington, Margot Robbie, Rami Malek and Anya Taylor-Joy in a scene from “Amsterdam.” (Merie Weismiller Wallace/20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows, from left, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Christian Bale, Chris Rock and Robert De Niro in a scene from “Amsterdam.” (Merie Weismiller Wallace/20th Century Studios via AP)

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows, clockwise from left, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rami Malek, Christian Bale, Robert De Niro and Margot Robbie in a scene from “Amsterdam.” (Merie Weismiller Wallace/20th Century Studios via AP)

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The stars appear one after the other — a banquet of talent, a glut of inventiveness — and yet nothing clicks. Hollywood’s most famous squirm in a slog.

Welcome to “Amsterdam,” writer and director David O. Russell’s answer to the question: Can some of the top actors in the world manage to elevate poor material? The answer is a dull no. It becomes a slaughterhouse.

Just look at this lead cast: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington. Russell wastes them with pointless dialogue and tedious scenes.

Then imagine a second tier of roles with Alessandro Nivola, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Taylor Swift, Zoe Saldaña, Rami Malek and Robert De Niro. All are left powerless. They are in a charisma-removal machine.

Bale and Washington play World War I veterans and fierce friends — soldiers who crossed the racial divide in France — and Robbie plays an inventive nurse who treats them. This bonded trio stumble onto a plot to overthrow the U.S. government while being framed for murder in 1930s New York.

It uses these three fictional characters to explore a real event in the runup to the Second World War in which a cabal of wealthy American businessmen conspired to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt by duping a retired general popular among veterans into being their figurehead.

“Amsterdam” shifts from 1933 to 1918 as it fills out backstories and love affairs. After returning to the ‘30s, Bale has become a kindly doctor and Washington’s character becomes a lawyer, both helping fellow vets. The nurse is strung out on prescription drugs.

But unable to find a tone — screwball, noir, whodunit, rom-com, satire or thriller — the film plods along at its own airless, internal pace, leaving most of the actors so befuddled it’s not always clear they know what they’re aiming at either.

It’s a film where no one seems to answer a direct question, gruesome autopsies are performed on camera followed by whimsically sung ditties, and a script that tries for the profound when it says things like people “follow the wrong God home.”

“This is so strange,” says the good doctor at one point. “What does it mean?” Don’t ask us.

“Amsterdam” reaches for something contemporary to say about race relations, concentration of wealth, veterans and fascism but ends up with a plodding, mannerist noise. This is what dollar bills must smell like burning. One starts to wonder if it was all a tax write-off.

Take Bale, who already reached his glass-eye limit onscreen when he starred in “Big Short.” Somehow he agreed to another such role, this time with the eyeball popping out numerous times and spilling on the ground. He attacks his role with a weird “Columbo” thing going, tilting angularly and adopting a rich New York accent.

Washington and Robbie have apparently chosen to ignore Bale’s lead by acting as if they are in two separate and different movies — she plays a manic pixie artist who uses shrapnel to make sculptures and he makes his character stone-faced and passive. Everyone else seems to be badly mimicking old ‘30s films. (Swift sings at one point but otherwise she is marooned and wooden.)

It’s not just the cast that is taken down: Emmanuel Lubezki, a celebrated director of photography who wowed with “Gravity” and “The Revenant,” turns in a film that seems very brown and undynamic.

Russell, the director of such taut dramas as “Three Kings” and “American Hustle,” has clearly vanished here. You can almost hear the collective rejoinder from the real city of Amsterdam: Why’d you do us dirty, man?

“Amsterdam,” a 20th Century Studios release exclusively for movie theaters starting Friday, is rated R for brief violence and bloody images. Running time: 134 minutes. No stars out of four.

MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Online: https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/amsterdam

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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Amsterdam Reviews

This film misses the mark so often, but at least the leads salvage as much as they can, along with some other elements that keep it from being among the worst films ever made.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 29, 2024

I have to wonder how a film full of great stars and such a compelling story (on paper) could result in such an uninspiring mess, but that’s what happens when a filmmaker prioritizes star power over writing.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 25, 2024

A moralizing version of [a] great political thriller ... I suspect that sounds like an ill-advised way to spend an evening.

Full Review | Jul 16, 2024

Amsterdam is noise and nothing more.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Jul 3, 2024

David O. Russell’s latest outing is a glibly entertaining caper completely undone by its self-importance.

Full Review | Nov 2, 2023

While there has been some criticism about the plot being too busy and trying to say too many things, part of Amsterdam's charm is its "everything, everywhere, all at once" vibe.

Full Review | Oct 4, 2023

Despite being based in fact, the story ends up being rather bland and the movie becomes more about being a way to spotlight the actors.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 9, 2023

It's not just the wonky pacing, but that it forever feels like none of it lands the way it's supposed to. It's like a song with a beautifully formed melody played over a rhythm section that can't keep even basic time.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 7, 2023

While Amsterdam was undoubtedly enjoyable to film for its many costars, the merriment doesn't quite translate to the screen. The plethora of side characters and celebrity cameos becomes confusing for a plot that is already too elaborate.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Really dug the friendship element & honestly if it wasn’t for Bale, Robbie, Washington & Joy I probably would have dipped out on the film as the direction/story itself was all held together by strings

David O Russell's latest - a shaggy dog mystery with a deliberate air of penny dreadfuls - could do with more straightforward narrative and fewer screwball convolutions

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 17, 2023

The down-your-throat optimism at the end of Amsterdam is certainly not the vehicle this film needed for any sort of entertaining climax. I've got plenty of other places to be preached to.

Full Review | Feb 15, 2023

Amsterdam wastes its immensely talented cast and a hefty budget on an unconvincing script and meandering storytelling.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 10, 2023

A disappointment of epic proportions.

Full Review | Jan 31, 2023

Amsterdam presents itself as a work of collaborative trust (thematically, but also formally, but also philosophically) so that discrete sections which threaten to strain credulity on their own, feel woven together with care and thoughtfulness.

Full Review | Jan 30, 2023

It’s by no means a perfect movie and has plenty of forgettable moments, but Amsterdam is certainly entertaining and that’s enough for me.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 4, 2023

Although the production, costume, hair and makeup design are outstanding, the material never rises to the superb level of its all star cast.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2023

I wouldn’t have missed the pro-democracy speeches that overwhelm Amsterdam in the end, had they been tacked back, but despite Russell’s strenuous efforts, you actually can’t have everything.

Full Review | Dec 24, 2022

The nearly impossible narrative is not quick witted let alone charming enough to be in the same vein as Preston Sturges or Ernst Lubitsch.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Dec 10, 2022

A kooky piece of messy Americana, but it’s enjoyable enough to make you appreciate the cast and craft.

Full Review | Dec 6, 2022

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‘Amsterdam’ movie review: A brilliant, busy, and bizarre David O Russel outing

While there has been some criticism about the plot being too busy and trying to say too many things, part of ‘amsterdam’’s charm is its “everything, everywhere, all at once” vibe.

Updated - December 18, 2022 04:48 pm IST

Published - December 17, 2022 01:17 pm IST

Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington in a still from ‘Amsterdam’ | Photo Credit: 20th Century Studios

David O. Russell’s latest outing, Amsterdam , seems like a reflection of his style — brilliant, busy and bizarre. The mercurial director behind critical and commercial successes including The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle , has reunited with Christian Bale for this conspiracy thriller/period drama/comic caper/social satire.

Written by Russell, Amsterdam , set in 1933 New York, is based on the Business Plot, an alleged bid to put a military dictator in the White House in place of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Narrated in part by war veteran and experimental doctor Burt (Bale), Amsterdam finds him in Europe at the tail end of World War I in 1918, where he meets fellow soldier, Harold Woodman (John David Washington). When the two are grievously injured, they meet the unconventional nurse Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie), who according to Burt is “brilliant and nuts, but our kind of nuts”.

The three strike up a close friendship and move to Amsterdam. Valerie and Woodman start a relationship while Burt continues to hold a candle for his estranged wife Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough), even though it was her parents who encouraged him to enlist as medals would help him “fit in” with their snooty crowd.

Missing Beatrice, Burt returns to the US and gets into all sorts of trouble. Woodman follows Burt to get him out of jail and also to study to become a lawyer. Valerie vanishes without a trace. Burt and Woodman work together to help veterans with whatever medical and legal help they can.

Life putters on for fifteen years till Elizabeth Meekins (Taylor Swift) asks Burt to do an autopsy on her father, senator Bill Meekins (Ed Begley Jr.), as she suspects his death was not due to natural causes. Burt and Woodman served under Meekins in WWI. The autopsy sets off a chain of events that has the three friends uncover a gigantic, global conspiracy.

Amsterdam’s greatest strength is its ensemble cast with the period details coming a very close second. Apart from virtuoso performances by Bale, Robbie and Washington, there is Robert De Niro as the decorated general Gil Dillenbeck, Rami Malek as silky, silly Tom, Valerie’s industrialist brother, and Anya Taylor-Joy as his wife Libby, with tightly dressed hair and a huge crush on Dillenbeck. Chris Rock is Burt and Woodman’s smart-talking Army buddy Milton, Zoe Saldaña plays the quietly determined autopsy nurse Irma, and Timothy Olyphant is the hitman who inconveniently pops up at inopportune moments.

Michael Myers and Michael Shannon, as the part-time glass eye manufacturers (they give Burt a supply of hazel-green ones) and ornithologists, and full-time spies, are a hoot as are Alessandro Nivola and Matthias Schoenaerts as the detectives in charge of the case.

While there has been some criticism about the plot being too busy and trying to say too many things, part of Amsterdam’s charm is its “everything, everywhere, all at once” vibe.

‘Amsterdam’ is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar

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Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, borderlands.

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I have spent hundreds of hours in the worlds of Gearbox Software and 2K Games’ “Borderlands,” enraptured by its addictive structure, one that encourages exploration, teamwork, and a constant pursuit of new weapons to unleash on waves of enemies (I've written about it here and here , among many other places). While these games are undeniably repetitive – like any titles based on what they call loot farming, which means looking for better and better gear that you can call your own – they also exist in a massive world of truly memorable characters like Claptrap, Mad Moxxi, Tiny Tina, and Handsome Jack. The most common setting, the planet of Pandora, is populated by everything from dragon-like creatures to masked enemies who look a lot like the suicidal maniacs in “ Mad Max: Fury Road .” And all of this comes with creative design choices and clever plotting that often includes jokes and twists that harken back to an old-fashioned, almost Vaudevillian sense of humor. It’s not unlike Mel Brooks meets George Miller . 

All of this is to say that my biggest concern after watching Eli Roth ’s abysmal “Borderlands” is that it will now tarnish the legacy of a pop culture franchise that deserves better. Nothing that works about the games has been adapted intact in this ugly, boring, truly inept piece of filmmaking, a movie that was mostly shot years ago and should have been shelved even longer. Like, maybe forever.

Cate Blanchett (who made this before “TAR” and before Roth made " Thanksgiving ," to give you some idea how long it’s been gathering dust) stars as Lilith, one of the beloved Vault Hunters from the video game that has made the jump from console to screen. In this version, Lilith is a bounty hunter, approached one night by employees of the all-powerful Atlas ( Edgar Ramirez ), who has a high-paying job for the tough-talking mercenary. When Lilith is swayed by the amount of money that Atlas is willing to pay for the gig, I laughed, thinking (hoping) that Blanchett also got a life-changing amount of cash to star in a project that’s this far below her talent level.

The job is to find Tina ( Ariana Greenblatt ), the daughter of Atlas, who has been kidnapped by another classic video game character named Roland ( Kevin Hart ), a soldier who has gone rogue and escaped to Pandora with the girl and a “Psycho” named Krieg ( Florian Munteanu ). She may be the answer to a legendary vault on Pandora that has created an entire industry of treasure hunters trying to find it. 

On returning to her home planet of Pandora, Lilith runs into a robot named Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black ), who serves as a sort of comic relief. This, of course, would imply there's actual comedy in this film. There is not. Just endless rambling. Fans of the game will notice some other familiar personalities like Moxxi ( Gina Gershon ) and Tannis ( Jamie Lee Curtis ). According to some published credits, Scooter and Hammerlock also make appearances. But blink, and you’ll miss them. I must have blinked.

Lilith, Roland, Tannis, Claptrap, and Krieg should be an obvious variation on the Guardians of the Galaxy, outcasts on a distant planet who have to use their different strengths to save the day as a team. But the script by Roth and Joe Crombie is flatly uninterested in giving them memorable traits. Blanchett is such a great actress that she sells a little bit of this defiantly shallow screenplay with a smirk, but Hart looks visibly bored at times, perhaps swallowed up in the reshoots that led to a lot of the delays on the release of this film. 

On that note, the script for “Borderlands” was once credited to Craig Mazin , the genius behind “ Chernobyl ” and “The Last of Us,” but he’s taken his name off the film now after the reshoots. When a film goes through that much turmoil, one can usually see where the final product has been Frankenstein-ed back together, but even that game is hard to play here. One can imagine a Mazin version that puts a bit more love and care into the world-building than this version, but so little of that has made it to the final cut.

Part of the reason it fails in that department is that Roth, a director I’ve defended in the horror genre a few times, is remarkably inept at directing action. When the film bursts into gunfire, to call these sequences incoherent would be polite. I’m not sure if cinematographer Rogier Stoffers and/or editors Julian Clarke & Evan Henke deserve some of the blame, but the fight scenes are baffling in their construction. They're cut in a way that makes it impossible to know the geography of an action scene, or really to care about what happens in them. It may sound picky, but a movie based on an action video game needs at least to provide visceral, escapist entertainment in the guns-and-punches department. There’s not a single memorable action beat in this movie. Not one.

After decades of being considered poison for creative artists, video game movies have earned something of a commercial and critical reappraisal in the last few years. A critical darling like “The Last of Us” and a commercial one like “ The Super Mario Bros. Movie ” means that Hollywood has found a new vein of beloved IPs to tap and they’re going to make ALL of your favorite games into movies. As my mind wandered in the mid-section of “Borderlands” to other games I love, and how similar projects could ruin my affection for them, I had a vision of Eli Roth’s “Elden Ring.” I almost started to cry.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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The 10 Best Siskel and Ebert Movie Reviews, Ranked

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Before audiences had access to innumerate voices and professed authority on cinema via the internet, they relied on the thumb gauge of film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert . It might surprise some fans to learn that the passionate pair were journalists, not movie buffs. The non-cinephiles began their movie-reviewing careers as rival critics at Chicago newspapers, with Siskel writing for The Chicago Tribune and Ebert for The Chicago Sun-Times . Though Ebert had loftier career plans, in 1975, he was the first critic to receive the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, sealing his fate.

The unlikely duo became the definitive voices (and thumbs) on whether audiences tuned in or out. They were first featured on PBS from 1975 to 1986 in Opening Soon at a Theatre Near You , followed by a revamped weekly series called Sneak Previews . Frustrated by the overproduced structure of the PBS shows, a more authentic series, Siskel & Ebert became their home base until Siskel died in 1999. Ebert continued to review films alongside guest critics, selecting Richard Roeper as his new co-host in 2000, but the show's essence was never the same. Here are some hot takes, chaotic pivots, heated disagreements, and cinematic love-fests from the thumbs who started it all.

Sneak Previews

This groundbreaking TV show features film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert reviewing the latest movies. Known for their passionate debates and "thumbs up, thumbs down" ratings, the show influenced generations of moviegoers and set the standard for televised film criticism.

10 'Speed 2: Cruise Control' (1997)

Siskel: thumbs up, ebert: thumbs up.

In the sequel to the Keanu Reeves / Sandra Bullock blockbuster Speed , Speed 2: Cruise Control trades an unstoppable city bus for an unstoppable luxury cruise ship. The ocean liner is overtaken by a delusional villain named Geiger ( Willem Dafoe ), and it's up to Bullock and her boyfriend , LAPD officer Alex ( Jason Patric ), to row the boat ashore safely. The movie was a box office dud, grossing $164 million worldwide, barely breaking even.

Both critics thoroughly enjoyed the "ocean liner adventure," but Ebert noted that he "showed up to see the star" (Bullock) from the first movie. Siskel argued that "there were three stars, Patric, Bullock, and the ship," and they were all very good. Despite their heated fervor during the review, the sparring critics were surprisingly positive regarding director Jan de Bont 's action movie. The Cruise Control review hysterically concluded as Ebert held fast to his assertion that the movie needed more Bullock, stating, "My point is still an excellent one." Shaking his head in disagreement, Siskel clapped back: "Only in your head."

Speed 2: Cruise Control

Not available

9 'The Silence of the Lambs' (1991)

Siskel: thumbs down, ebert: thumbs up.

At the Boston Psychiatric Hospital for the Criminally Insane, FBI trainee Clarice Starling ( Jodie Foster ) interviews the incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter ( Anthony Hopkins ). Starling is tasked with extracting practical methodology from the mind of one killer to catch an active killer on the loose. The young FBI agent intrigues the silver-tongued Lecter, and a game of cat and mouse ensues.

Siskel was not impressed by Silence of the Lambs . He slams director Jonathan Demme for choosing a "trashy project" and thought Hopkins' performance was "overplayed." Ebert praised the film, noting that Starling and Lecter represented "one of the most peculiar and fascinating relationships on film he's seen in a long time." Additionally, Ebert praised both Hopkins and Foster's performances and accused Siskel of "shortchanging the skill and art" that went into the film. Siskel thought Hopkins didn't need the dramatic score and an organ playing in the background, to which Ebert exclaims, "Gene, this is the movies! What do you want?" Given the opportunity, Lecter would've totally eaten Gene.

The Silence of the Lambs

A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.

8 Blue Velvet (1986)

Siskel: thumbs up, ebert: thumbs down.

David Lynch 's neo-noir thriller Blue Velvet stars frequent collaborator Kyle MacLachlan as Jeffrey Beaumont, a man who returns home and finds a severed ear. He joins forces with Sandy ( Laura Dern ) and begins to spy on a mysterious lounge singer, Dorothy Vallens ( Isabella Rossellini ), who is somehow tied to the ear. Amid Jeffrey's amateur sleuthing, he encounters Frank Booth ( Dennis Hopper ), a drug-dealing maniac who answers to no one. Since its release in 1986, Blue Velvet has appeared on numerous 'Best Films of All Time' lists but never impressed Roger Ebert.

After referring to the film as a "sick, depraved masterpiece," Ebert acknowledged Lynch's talent but said, "The more he thought about Blue Velvet , the less I liked it." He felt strongly against scenes depicting humiliating sexual scenes, stating that "Rossellini was asked to do what few actresses have been asked before." Ebert said witnessing Rossellini on-screen pained him , and Lynch's film was "cruelly unfair to its actors." Siskel countered by agreeing that Blue Velvet challenges the viewer's reaction in a good way and that "Rossellini consented to do what she did." He affirmed that Lynch aimed to play the audience like a piano. Ebert replied, "If somebody's going to play me like a piano, he better get some music worth listening to."

Blue Velvet

The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.

7 Broken Arrow (1996)

Siskel: thumbs up before thumbs down, ebert: thumbs down.

On a secret mission involving stealth bombers, Major "Deak" Deakins ( John Travolta ) and Captain Riley Hale ( Christian Slater ) become midair enemies. Deakins hatches a plan to extort the government using B83 warhead missiles, framing Hale in the process. However, Deakins underestimates Hale and his new Park Ranger ally, Terry ( Samantha Mathis ), as director John Woo releases his trademark doves into the sky.

"I don't think I've done this on this show in 20 years, but I'm going to twist my thumb down."

Siskel begins his assessment of Broken Arrow by praising Woo's colorful action scenes, though he admits it gets tedious. Still, Siskel says that he liked the picture for what it was trying to accomplish. Ebert joins the conversation by noting that Travolta was "not convincing as a villain" and "the movie isn't interesting." Siskel starts to agree with Ebert, admitting that "it didn't work" because Travolta is "a sweet guy," which leads to one of the most remarkable moments in their reviewing history. Siskel says, "I don't think I've done this on this show in 20 years, but I'm going to twist my thumb down." While Ebert is amazed at the turn of events, Siskel seizes the opportunity to ask Ebert to change his appraisal of Cop and a Half . Not a chance.

6 Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

Siskel: thumbs down, ebert: thumbs down.

A hungry great white shark meanders into the shallow waters of Amity Island in Jaws , the 1975 masterpiece by young Steven Spielberg , a prolific visionary and singular talent. After the monumental success and exhilarating thrill of Jaws , several sequels followed. In Jaws: The Revenge , a fourth toothy aquatic beast returns to the shores of Amity Island to finish what began many sharks ago.

Siskel and Ebert have fun poking plot holes and technical errors in their review of the fourth installment of the Jaws films. The renowned film critics weren't alone in evaluating the movie, as Entertainment Weekly selected Jaws: The Revenge as one of the worst sequels ever made . Siskel amusingly emulated shark-speak via a bizarre plot to murder all members of the Brody family and was so annoyed by a dream sequence that he "wanted to punch a hole in the (film) screen." However, Siskel and Ebert agreed that the most egregious error was awarded to Michael Caine 's dry shirt after he had emerged from the water. Ebert offers final commentary with a rapid-fire aquatic conjecture by playing "Which shark is this?" Easily one of their funniest reviews.

Jaws: The Revenge

In the fourth installment of the Jaws series, Ellen Brody believes a great white shark is seeking revenge on her family. When her son is killed, she heads to the Bahamas, where the shark follows, leading to a final, deadly confrontation.

5 'She's Out of Control' (1989)

While away on a business trip, Doug Simpson's ( Tony Danza ) fifteen-year-old daughter, Katie ( Ami Dolenz ), participates in a glow-up with the help of Doug's girlfriend. The previously unremarkable teen goes from drab to fab , to her father's chagrin and everyone else's delight. As his baby girl turns into a woman seemingly overnight, Doug struggles to maintain composure and refrain from attacking would-be suitors.

"Siskel began the review by declaring She's Out of Control a "depressing experience." "

Siskel began the review by declaring She's Out of Control a "depressing experience." He further stated that after seeing the movie, he "considered quitting his job as a film critic." Ebert echoed Siskel's reaction, adding that "hours of his life had been stolen," and moviegoers would've had more fun conversing in the lobby. Fans of Siskel and Ebert know how greatly the pair care for cinema, and their review and profound disdain for the Danza flick was a wild, unforgettable moment on the show.

4 'Fargo' (1996)

The Coen brothers' frozen caper, Fargo , stars William H. Macy as anxious car sales manager Jerry Lundegaard, who has amassed an enormous debt he cannot repay. Jerry devises an ill-conceived extortion plot involving the kidnapping of his wife, which backfires like one of the Cutlass Ciera sedans on his father-in-law's car lot. In a star-making turn, Frances McDormand arrives on the scene as Police Chief Marge Gunderson, proving that you catch more flies-- or criminals with mid-western honey.

Ebert begins by gushing about Fargo directly, calling it a "just about perfect" movie. He then continues to praise the film, calling it a "quirky, infectious, American masterpiece." Both Siskel and Ebert considered Fargo the best film of 1996, with Siskel taking it a step further, citing it as one of his all-time favorites. The enthusiastic critics bubbled with a shared, excited zest reserved for special, agreeable occasions. Fans of the show witnessed Siskel and Ebert's appreciation for Fargo after its initial release and once again during their "Best Films of 1996" episode. Their disagreements are fun, but their unbridled love of great cinema is a joyous spectacle.

Minnesota car salesman Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson.

3 'Benji: The Hunted' (1987)

Like Jaws: The Revenge , Benji: The Hunted is the fourth iteration of the adventurous canine film series . While working on a movie, Benji evades his trainer and ventures into the forests of Oregon. Benji encounters various wildlife species and a trigger-happy hunter during his time lost in the wilderness. Several rescue attempts via helicopter fail to recover the lost pup, but Benji is more invested in caring for a couple of orphaned cougar cubs.

"Audiences might've skipped the movie, but the review was immensely entertaining."

After mocking the movie's misleading, serious title, Siskel advises audiences to arrive ten minutes late to avoid the brutal slaying of a mother cougar. Ebert counters with a surprising acerbic takedown of Siskel's take, describing his fellow critic's review as a "Blasé, sophisticated, cynical review" he would expect from an adult. The problem is that Benji: The Hunted is a children's movie . Siskel accuses Ebert of "wrapping himself in the flag of children," which provoked a louder, voracious rebuttal from Ebert, who doubled down on his previous comment regarding Siskel's critical pretense. Dodging that right hook, Siskel shouted, "Boredom! Boredom, with all the running," concluding that the film was "garbage." Ebert remained undeterred, ending the heated Benji debacle by saying, "I think kids will enjoy it." Audiences might've skipped the movie, but the review was immensely entertaining.

2 'North' (1994)

North is a movie about a gifted child named North ( Elijah Wood ) who decides to divorce his neglectful, unappreciative parents. Following a judgment by the court, North embarks on an adventure to find parental replacements. The movie was a box office disaster and can be found on numerous lists featuring the "Worst Movies Ever Made."

Ebert referred to North as "one of the most thoroughly hateful movies in recent years," further stating that the movie "made him cringe just sitting here thinking about it." He said he "hated this movie as much as any movie we've reviewed in the 19 years we've been doing this show." Ebert's evisceration of the movie didn't end there: he listed all the ways he hated the movie, including director Rob Reiner 's contribution, calling North "an aberration in his career." Siskel is in Ebert's corner, referring to the film as "deplorable" and its use of ethnic stereotyping as "appalling and embarrassing." Siskel goes as far as to say that audiences "feel unclean" watching the film and that "it's junk. First-class junk." Yikes. Please tell us how you really feel, guys.

Sick of the neglect he receives from his mom and dad, a young boy leaves home and travels the world in search of new parents.

1 'Hoop Dreams' (1994)

Hoop Dreams is a 1994 documentary chronicling the lives of two inner-city boys from Chicago, William Gates , and Arthur Agee , over five years as they attempt to fulfill their dreams of becoming NBA players. Though the film runs nearly three hours, there are over two hundred forty-seven hours of unused footage audiences would line up to see. Free-throw shots have never been so compelling.

Following a special preview screening, Siskel opened the January 22, 1994, review by imploring audiences to consider a documentary called Hoop Dreams . Siskel's enthusiastic recap of the film, which he called "very special," is a winning endorsement. Ebert builds on Siskel's zeal by declaring it "one of the best films about American life" he's ever seen. The palpable excitement emanating from the famous critical duo during their initial Hoop Dreams report is partly responsible for the documentary's buzz. When Siskel and Ebert unveiled their unanimous choice for the best film of 1994, they went against scores of critics who had selected popular films like Pulp Fiction , The Shawshank Redemption , and Forrest Gump . The pair didn't always get it right, but their blessing of Hoop Dreams was a slam dunk.

Hoop Dreams

Hoop Dreams is a documentary that follows the lives of two African-American teenagers, William Gates and Arthur Agee, from Chicago as they pursue their dream of becoming professional basketball players. The film captures their struggles with family, education, and the harsh realities of inner-city life, highlighting the profound impact of sports on their futures.

Next: The 12 Best Movie Critics of All Time, Ranked

• Roger Ebert