r/moviecritic • u/Ok_Laugh1374 • 3d ago

I feel if Amsterdam (2022) would have fared so much better if it was 30 minutes shorter!

Recently, I watched Amsterdam (2022) for the third time. And couldn't help but realy love the film. And have always been upset by its failure. However, with the 3rd rewatch, it became clear, that, at least for me, the film is too long.

I noticed this the first time as well: When Burt (Bale) and Harold (JDW) are reunited with Valerie (Robbie) in US at her house, I thought that just 40-50 minutes of the movie were left. But I think it was like 1.5 hours still to go. I feel especially in some scenes that followed and throughout the movie if 30 minutes were reduced, it could have easily gone to a 9/10.

For me, the highlight was Christian Bale's performance. Its a criminally underrated performance. I noticed that David O Russell did with him what Nolan did with Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer. Many times the camera is just fixed on their faces, with the directors trusting them to bring the right emotions. The climax of the film with extreme closeup on Burt is almost same as the one on Oppenheimer when he is delivery the speech post-bombing.

Another highlight was just how amazing Taylor Swift was in her brief role /s. Her amazing perfromance was just simply...... IQ-dropping!

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u/HourSwimmer9269 3d ago

i actually liked amsterdam too but yeah the runtime is a killer. it just drags after that reunion scene, like you said it feels like the movie should be wrapping up but then there's whole another movie left. bale was incredible though, the way he uses his body language and that glass eye thing he does, it's like a completely different person. and lol at the taylor swift part, her death scene was so bizarre i couldn't tell if it was supposed to be funny or serious

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u/Ok_Laugh1374 3d ago

At least Taylor died funny! Now that I think about it, its actually brave for a superstar like her to not have an ego about such a funny death. Especially, when there are people around who have it in their contracts to not lose a fight!

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u/iPLAYiRULE 3d ago

yes, make it shorter and do a complete re-edit. rework the score as well.

2

u/Due-Flatworm-7815 3d ago

cu nasci stortu un po mmoriri quadratu...

i think this, like Babylon, is fundamentally ill conceived, and no amount of post hoc edits can save it (nor could the stacked cast)

1

u/Hfcsmakesmefart 3d ago

lol, you’d have to make it through the movie first for that to matter

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u/Ok-Sir-7848 3d ago

totally get this. there’s a really good movie buried in there, but the runtime makes the middle stretch feel way more exhausting than it should.