‘Amsterdam’ review: Worst movie of the year makes Oscar winners look like amateurs

The new movie Amsterdam has been in theaters for just one week, but it’s already been deemed a massive failure due to its disappointing box office performance.

There’s abundant magic still in The Piano Lesson, August Wilson’s grand, 1987 Pulitzer Prize winning tale of a Black family torn between legacy and ambition, the past and the future, and, it’s not an overstatement to note, between life and death.

“Every movie needs a rabbi,” the great and grumpy Robert Altman once warned fellow filmmakers. “You need at least one important critic to champion your cause.”

While tentpoles resuscitated moviegoing this past summer with pics like Top Gun: Maverick, it’s true that the more, adult-skewing fare is having a much harder time now. No where was this more true than with David O. Russell’s Amsterdam which rivals believed had a shot at opening to $12M-$15M this past weekend based on the period absurdist comedy’s glossy ensemble of Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, Anya Taylor Joy, Taylor Swift, Michael Shannon (the list doesn’t stop…).

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter David O. Russell’s star-studded period drama “Amsterdam” collapsed in its box office debut, earning an anemic $6.5 million from 3,005 North American theaters. The movie, which cost $80 million to produce, couldn’t overcome bad reviews and minimal buzz and is shaping up to be one of the biggest misfires of the year. This weekend’s other newcomer “Lyle Lyle Crocodile” also fell short of expectations with $11.5 million from 4,350 cinemas in its opening weekend. However, Sony’s animated family film, an adaptation of the popular children’s book about an  anthropomorphic reptile (who sings!) voiced by Shawn Mendes, won’t be as painful for the studio given its $50 million price tag.

A humbling moment. Christian Bale thought he and costar John David Washington were doing a great job singing while filming Amsterdam – until director David O. Russell had Taylor Swift step in to set them straight. 

Christian Bale has played Batman in three “Dark Knight” movies, battled lethal machines in “Terminator Salvation” and assassinated gods in “Thor: Love and Thunder”, yet the one thing he’s yet to do is appear in a movie set in a galaxy far, far away.

Christian Bale’s Burt Berenstein character says he “left his eye in France” in David O. Russell’s fanciful, murder-mystery/ larger-conspiracy comedic thriller, “Amsterdam,” a movie named for the city where the films lead trio spends their halcyon years, living, loving and laughing together.

problematic uncle in the industry family, certain to entertain and disturb in equal measure, depending on what one is willing to overlook when the sausage is being made (or even, considering some reports, when he’s away from the factory).That the Oscar-nominated writer-director is in the mix again with the period comedy-adventure “Amsterdam” after seven years away (since 2015’s lumpy “Joy”) indicates a willingness in Hollywood to endure the reminders of his behavioral issues and to bet on the recipe of star power, emotional smarts and provocative farce that forged “Flirting with Disaster,” “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle.”Only the first ingredient is in evidence with “Amsterdam,” however, and no amount of wattage from Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Zoe Saldana, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rami Malek or Robert De Niro — or even an A-list B-team of Taylor Swift, Chris Rock, Andrea Riseborough, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Mike Myers and Michael Shannon — can lift this flat, unfunny genre-fluid whatsit from its performative stumbling toward contemporary relevance.At first, when it’s 1933 New York, we sense an eccentric buddy-picture in the making, centered on themes of integration and the treatment of veterans. Bale’s character (and semi-narrator) is Burt Berendsen, a scraggly, half-Catholic/half-Jewish doctor focused on new medicines for wounded Great War soldiers like himself (he lost an eye) and estranged from his status-conscious Park Avenue wife (Riseborough).

Chris Rock may be too funny.

EXCLUSIVE: Paul Bettany his set to join Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in Miramax’s Here, with Robert Zemeckis directing and Eric Roth adapting the script. Zemeckis and Jack Rapke’s ImageMovers will produce alongside Miramax’s Bill Block. Sony Pictures will release the film in theaters in the US with Miramax holding international rights.

Ethan Shanfeld Frequent method actor Christian Bale typically has no problem morphing into his characters on set. But on his latest film, David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam,” he ran into an obstacle: his co-star Chris Rock. Bale says the director had Rock tell him some stories while on set, but “Chris is so bloody funny” that it prevented him from getting into character. “I remember his first day, I was excited to meet him, I’m a big fan of his standup,” Bale told IndieWire. “Then he arrives, and he’s doing some things… David [O. Russell] told him to tell me some stories that I didn’t know he was gonna tell me, which is the way David works often. And I was loving it.”

Christian Bale revealed the reason why he had to stop speaking to Chris Rock on the set of their upcoming movie, Amsterdam.

Margot Robbie "clung" to John David Washington on the set of Amsterdam because she was "scared" to work with director David O. Russell. The Australian actress stars as Valerie Voze in the upcoming period mystery comedy, which follows three friends who become the prime suspects in a murder in the 1930s.

Love Island rubbed shoulders with some top Hollywood A-listers at the premiere for Margot Robbie’s new film in London. Luca Bish, as well as Andrew Le Page and Tasha Ghouri were invited along to the premiere of Amsterdam in the capital’s Leicester Square on Wednesday night. The mystery comedy boasts a massively star-studded ensemble cast, including Margot, Christian Bale, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Mike Myers, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro and even Taylor Swift.