<em>The Hustle </em>Is a Lazy Gender Swap
What is the opposite of inspiration? I refer not to a simple lack of inspiration, mind you, but to a quality antithetical to ingenuity and originality. Whatever that quality is—I presume there must be a word for it in German—The Hustle is brimming with it. The movie is not merely uninspired, but sub-inspired, de-inspired, anti-inspired. It feels at times like the consummation of some wicked dare.
Which is not to say that there are not worse movies out there. There are, alas, a great many. But is a remake of a remake, and and its excellent 1988 update, . The latter, in particular, is a classic of mismatched-buddy cinema, two protagonists who loathe yet admire each other in precise balance. That the current film takes such sturdy cinematic bones and uses them to build something so feeble is a true embarrassment.
