Welcome to another edition of the “The Valero Verdict” movie review. In this I will give you a quick movie review with a couple of bullet points of which I either liked or disliked. I will end the review with rating of the movie and a short overall thoughts.

On the docket today: highly anticipated movie based on the New York Magazine article, Hustlers.

• Plot: Inspired by the viral New York Magazine article, Hustlers follows a crew of savvy former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients.

• Directing/Writing: Lorene Scafaria
  
  The writing of this really stood out for me, it was the perfect heist movie.
  
  I appreciated the pacing of the film, they came out the gate swinging and caught your interest and as they reeled you in, they started to let you down a little and just in time to set you up for the big finale.
  
  Another part of the writing that stood out was how this movie was built on relationships, these girls formed a bond early and stuck together (for the most part) throughout the film.

• Acting: Jennifer Lopez & Constance Wu
  
  J-Lo: She demands your attention from the moment she is on the screen, not everyone can command the screen the way she was capable of doing in this role. I can see why people think she would be in award conversations because (outside of Enough) this was easily one of her best performances of her career.
  
  Her chemistry with Wu was a highlight of this film. They just worked, from the first moment on the roof top until the end, they were amazing together.
  
  Wu: I will say all the talk of J-Lo, Wu isn’t getting enough talk about who great she was in this film. I don’t think she will be nominated but she should at least be in the conversation. She showed a wide range of emotion in this film and stood toe to toe with J-Lo in several scenes in which left me saying wow.

• Score/Soundtrack: I thought this was fantastic, obviously you had some stripper style music in the film but I got to witness J-Lo sing Britney Spears, my life is complete.

• Favorite Scene: The drug making scene.

The Verdict:

**** out of ***** gavels

It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s sexy, it’s a whole lot of fun. I love Heist films and this did not disappoint one bit. They built a story on a foundation of a friendship and ran with it.

The acting stood out, the writing for J-Lo and Wu was phenomenal and their relationship on-screen made the film that much better. You had a fun story but if their relationship doesn’t work, the film wouldn’t have worked.

One tidbit I loved the most about J-Lo was how she was really the villain of this movie but you couldn’t help but root for her throughout this film.

This movie was broken down into three different acts. Act one was masterful, Act two was a bit slow but I think after how uptempo that first act was they needed to slow it down a little, the third Act really was the icing on the cake with a fast paced ending that was beautifully written.

A good friend of mine said this, but this was the best movie with the worst trailer!!!!

The movie landscape is filled with all these remakes, reboots and this brought a breathe of fresh air to the big screen. I just loved this film.

Should You See It?: YES!!!!! Please see this. This is the perfect date movie, the perfect go by yourself movie (I did that), its fun relationship based film in which you enjoy the ride from start to finish.

Subscribe to the Valero Verdict podcast on all your favorite Podcasting apps. Check it out here: https://anchor.fm/thevaleroverdict

Tell me what you thought of the movie, hit me up on here or talk to me on Twitter@RickyValero_