Amsterdam

Amsterdam

In the 1930s, three friends—a doctor, a nurse, and an attorney—witness a murder, become suspects themselves and uncover one of the most outrageous plots in North American history.

  • Released: 2022-11-04
  • Runtime: 120 minutes
  • Genre: Crime, Drama, Thrillers
  • Stars: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Zoe Saldaña, Anya Taylor-Joy, Robert De Niro, Michael Shannon, Andrea Riseborough, Alessandro Nivola, Timothy Olyphant, Taylor Swift, Matthias Schoenaerts, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, Leland Orser, Beth Grant, Christopher Gehrman, Shiree Nelson, Tom Irwin, David Babbitt, Mike Azevedo, Martin Harris, Christopher Kager, Donovan Hurst, Jarrett Johnson, Kawan DeBose, Deon Sams, Mel Fair, Vaughn Page, Bonnie Hellman, Max Perlich, Jessica Drake, Ed Begley Jr., Colleen Camp, Gabé Doppelt, Lauren Shaw, Brandon Davis, Casey Biggs, Dey Young, Sean Avery, Gigi Bermingham, André Tardieu, Casey Graf, Rebecca Wisocky, Daniel Riordan, Steven Hack, Floyd Armstrong, Leonard A. Tucker Jr., Baxter Humby, Richie Harrington, John Pirkis, Shedell, Kindsey Vaughn, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini
  • Director: David O. Russell
 Comments
  • RealCJHopkins - 25 May 2024
    A movie of what could have been!!
    It really felt like that David O. Russell was trying to create a funhouse here instead of a real movie, something so idiotic that it just ends out ruining (Amsterdam) with how they never really let you get into the movie, because every time that you finally gets gripped by the movie and you begin to understand it and like it then, they just make a sharp U-turn towards the most utterly useless side-plot, that just ruins everything (Amsterdam) had build up-until that point.

    They should have known where to stop, because they got us way too much of the good things, that just ended out ruining the movie.

    David O. Russell should have known where to stop, because then this movie could have been a great and original experience that you could feel good about, but it did the exact opposite. Acting is great though, but nothing more really.

    I cant really recommend this movie to you, since i don´t really know if i could recommend it to myself, so that is why i rate it a sad (6/10)
  • HLEYE - 21 January 2024
    Nice enough but as usual with many US movies full of caricature and too-much-ness
    Someone wrote: "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."

    Ja, and all of these kind of US films suffer from the same thing: caricatures in stead of people, over the top in stead of really smart or witty. Its never above the level of a 6-7... US actors are usually that way, for (educated) Europeans rather unreal, comic book like, effect driven, too much...

    "The list of celebrities and actors continues to grow as almost every face in this movie is another a-lister making an entertaining appearance."

    Which doesn't equal 'great acting'. Great acting is, in my opinion, that the actors make u forget there is acting going on - in many US movies, one always sees the acting (especially with the likes of mr. Rock, a standard caricature, like his role in Rustin...)

    too bad, the movie is watchable, sometimes funny, or creative - the artwork is nice enough... but great movie? No. An 8 or 9, hilarious....

    " Amsterdam had so much potential but floundered in its attempts to be different and unique. The film's best part was Michael Shannon and Mike Myers' quirky bird-loving spies." Yeah, that was funny, in an american way....

    Christian Bale logged another amazing performance, as expected.

    I agree, he was on a role...

    oke, enough about this. Gonna watch KIN - a great series with real acting as i like to see it...
  • kaustubhshinde - 17 December 2023
    Beautiful!
    I did not check rating of this movie before watching it.

    Was hugely surprised to find this is so underrated and am compelled to write a review myself.

    It is hard to categorize this movie into a genre. That could perhaps explain the underwhelming response.

    It seems to be a combination of art, comedy, suspense and love. I personally found aesthetics of this movie very beautiful. Performances are top class. As the movie mentions in the beginning, a lot of events in the movie actually did happen.

    This will not get you an adrenaline rush or moments of shock and awe. But for those who appreciate a bit of abstraction, artistry, free sprit and wild imagination combined with feel good moments, this is worth a watch.
  • user-35583 - 10 January 2023
    Reach exceeds grasp
    There's a lot going on here. So much potential. The cast is marvelous. Maybe too marvelous that nobody can truly shine and anchor the movie for the viewers.

    There are really brilliant individual scenes. Wonderful dialog, set pieces and costume design. We are immersed in both post WWI 1918 and the rise of fascism in 1933. The film moves between these time periods and unfortunately it only adds to a confusing plot. There is an extended flashback near the start of the film that felt overlong and jarring in its placement. But once you get to the 2nd half of the film, things start to come together more coherently. The obvious political statements regarding parallels with current political strife are not surprising but sometimes heavy handed.

    Director O'Russell had considerable ambition here but in the end, fails to pull it all together. Enjoyed the individual performances.
  • brownandrew4 - 5 January 2023
    Excellently composed, creative and yet familiar
    This movie starts out with exactly the energy that it maintains throughout. It weaves a multi-dimensional story in such an elegant and novel way-moving through time and space using a combination of old-school cutaways as well as deeply creative theatrical blocking and musical interlude. The shots are spectacular, the acting is fantastic. The characters really shine. Robbie, Bale, De Niro, Washington, Meyers, Malik, and Olyphant are knock outs. Honorable mention to Taylor Swift, I thought her role might be a gimmicky but she actually nailed it. I am sad that this movie is receiving negative reviews, I wish more projects like this would be encouraged. But I am glad it did get made and that I watched it!
  • AnonymousFilmLover26 - 4 January 2023
    Really not as "bad" as I expected...!
    I know this movie did poorly at the box office. Despite all its big names, it flopped upon release last year, to the tune of almost $100 million dollars - pretty much a total loss.

    That said, I don't know exactly why "Amsterdam" was so unpopular. (Was it the scandal that David O Russell was embroiled in years back?) I actually really liked it, though I had no idea what to expect from "Amsterdam" going in. The movie isn't exactly fast-paced, but it does contain flashbacks and heavy/important dialogue. There is humor peppered throughout, but it's the quirky, quiet, dry kind so maybe audiences just didn't quite get it?

    I'll admit, the plot did lose me a little toward the end, but I mostly found my way back. It kicks off with a dead person, and then another abrupt (non-gory) murder, before Christian Bale's character flashes back to give more context. He is oddly charming as Burt Berendsen, a Park Avenue doctor-turned-reluctant-soldier/veteran who is forced into war at the suggestion of his wife's wealthy family. Burt quickly forms a friendship with a fellow (Black) army member, John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman). Margot Robbie, beautiful and talented as ever, meets these two later as the nurse tending to their extreme battle wounds. I thought all three of the main stars had great chemistry as they try to solve the many layers to the two deaths at the beginning...but Margot Robbie's character flitted in and out of the story a little.

    I didn't like this one as much as "Joy", or "American Hustle", but I do still think it's worth a watch. It's a star-studded period piece loosely based on actual events (key word: loosely) and I for one, think it's pretty interesting and fun, despite some political undertones.

    Great performances by Christian Bale and John David Washington, and the dynamic between Margot Robbie's Valerie and Anya Taylor-Joy's Libby is truly entertaining.

    Keep an eye out for all the stars here, there are a fair amount!
  • JumpingCineFile - 31 December 2022
    Beautiful to look at, drags on too much
    Firstly, I thought the production design, the costumes and the cinematography were really great.

    Christian Bale was good, but it did feel like I was watching an Al Pacino impersonation at times. Margot Robbie felt too gorgeous, first as a nurse in World War One, and then fifteen years later she doesn't appear to have aged at all, her acting never broke through the facade of her beauty. John David Washington felt one dimensional and so withdrawn that he has impossible to relate to.

    The story was interesting enough, and the concept of investigating one death, leading to witnessing another and then being framed for it, only to unearth and even more insidious evil is a good one, but the pace of reveals took too long, and the gravitas not correctly positioned for me.

    Such a huge support cast, who were fun to watch, but they all felt one dimensional, with the exception of Remi Malek.

    Watched this to see if it was truely terrible, but it wasn't too bad, just could've been so much better with a lot better editing.
  • theholyone-39264 - 26 December 2022
    It's a great movie!
    I really enjoyed this movie as I felt that this movie utilized the cast well. With the star studded cast they utilized the cast as well as they could with the plot and the storyline. The story telling was excellent as you can relate to a few of the characters in the film. The movie is a movie that leaves you feeling good and like you want to rewatch it. The movie definitely doesn't deserve the 6.1 as I felt that the movie was just so much more than that. The only thing I didn't like was the lack of fleshing out some characters as I felt like I could've been a bit more attached to the characters as a whole. Overall this movie has great rewatch value and I would definitely recommend it!
  • brad972823 - 23 December 2022
    So a wind blows through a window and scatters the script..q
    They have to start shooting in 30 minutes. None of the actors have seen the script until just before they shoot. Can the fix it all in editing? Nope.

    Seriously, that's the only excuse I can see for this dreadful mess. That or maybe they shot two scripts separately with different plots and endings and just cut those together.

    This is a beautifully filmed mess, lovely cinematography. That was the only area of this production that delivers any value.

    We could just write this off as a pandemic production disaster. Closed set, no location expenses, and a budget blown on a cast that needed the check.

    All I know is I watched the whole thing because I didn't want to give one star to a film I didn't watch all the way through.
  • roller-20 - 19 December 2022
    Good for ordinary people, shames the elite right wing fascists
    The movie has an important message. It had to have all the side show antics, AND the pre WW2 setting otherwise no one would have allowed it to be made. Great actors. Good message, very relevant to today, to many many countries. Good story.

    Down with Fascism everywhere, even North American fascism. Down with dictators who stir up the violent army trained mobs, in any country. So many great stars in this film took scale pay. Could have had more editing. A lot more editing. Reminds me of the important American plays of the early 20th century that stuck up for workers and called. Glad it got made.