Kurt Loder Reviews The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, American Hustle, and Saving Mr. Banks

The Desolation of Smaug is actually a lot livelier
than the first Hobbit installment, An
Unexpected Journey. For one thing, there’s nothing in it
as fun-smothering as the endless hobbit-hole chow-down that opened
the previous film. There’s a lot more action this time, and at
several points director Peter Jackson exceeds even his own very
high standard in designing and executing it. Yet, Kurt Loder
marvels that a story so simple should take nearly three
friggin hours to tell it. For its part, American
Hustle is a wannabe Scorsese movie, while Saving Mr.
Banks is light on its feet and cleverly constructed.

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