Amsterdam (2022)

_Amsterdam_ does nothing to reinvent the wheel but does everything well enough that I had a pleasant time in the theater. The performances all around were excellent. Christian Bale was brilliant in this film, every new role Bale finds himself in he knocks out of the park, and I continually ask myself what can't he do? Margot Robbie was really great too. In many of her roles, her Harley Quinn mannerisms creep in and while I find that fun it was really refreshing to see her get away from that in Amsterdam. John David Washington was fine in his role, I never really find him to have great performances, but always does enough to get the job done, that can be said again with his performance here. The supporting roles were all fine too Raimi Malek and Anna Taylor-Joy did well and had funny chemistry together. Mike Myers and Robert De Niro did fine as well. While the story was not overly original, I had a blast following it to its finality. There are many fun twists and turns along the way and found a way to keep me gripped and entertained throughout it's near two- and half-hour runtime. While many critics are giving these harsh reviews, I think it is a good film that is fun watch despite its flaws.
**Score:** _68%_ |
**Verdict:** _Good_

**Amsterdam's uneven pacing and erratic story mishandled its amazing potential and left me wondering when it would finally end.**
Amsterdam comes roaring out of the gate with a fast-paced, quirky, charming, and unique mystery of the likes of Sherlock Holmes or Knives Out. The list of celebrities and actors continues to grow as almost every face in this movie is another a-lister making an entertaining appearance. I was so excited to see what happened next and was surprised when the story suddenly screeched to a halt for a very long slow flashback that didn't offer much to the plot. I hoped the exciting pace would return when the story returned to its original narrative, but the risk and urgency had been replaced by a scattered collection of arbitrary dialogue and scenes that lingered much longer than needed. The pacing lagged almost an hour before ramping back up in the final act. Amsterdam had so much potential but floundered in its attempts to be whimsical and unique. The film's best part was Michael Shannon and Mike Myers' quirky bird-loving spies. Every time they were on the screen, I couldn't help but laugh. Christian Bale logged another amazing performance, as expected. But even with entertaining characters, great performances, and an exciting opening and conclusion, Amsterdam fumbled all its fantastic elements and ended up making my eyes heavy and my heart yearn to go to bed early.