Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Hustlers

 

Hustlers is a 2019 film starring Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Lilli Reinhart, Keke Palmer, Lizzo, and Cardi B. It is about a group of strippers who drug their clients (mostly wealthy Wall Street types) and run up their credit cards. Lopez stars as Romona, the ringleader of the crew, and Constance Wu plays Destiny, a stripper that Romona takes under her wing. It is basically a story about greed, friendship, and family, blending a mix of drama and comedy. Despite being a movie about strippers, all the main characters keep everything covered. Cardi B and Lizzo have a couple of shots where they are in pasties, and Jennifer Lopez has sported some major cleavage throughout the movie and has a couple of shots of her in a thong, but that is really the extent of the nudity.

The 4k set is a two-disc set with a UHD disc and a regular Blu-Ray disc. The UHD disc has just the movie and the commentary track with the director, Lorene Scafaria. The only other bonus material is two trailers for the movie, which are included on the regular Blu-ray disc. It is really quite weak in extras, so if you only get the physical discs when there are a lot of bonus features, then you will probably want to just stream this. Overall, it is a good movie with a decent story. Despite being almost two hours long, the movie flows well and never seems to drag on. It is quite funny in parts, and the outfits they put Jennifer Lopez in (who still looks phenomenal at 50) are not bad either. It is definitely worth checking out.

Bly-Ray/Movie Review: Crazy Rich Asians

 

Crazy Rich Asians is a romantic comedy from 2018 adapted from a popular series of novels. The movie stars Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Michelle Yeoh, Awkwafina, and Ken Jeong. The last two are definitely the scene-stealers of the movie. The story itself is relatively simple. A teacher goes to Singapore with her boyfriend for a wedding in which he is the best man, only to find out that he comes from an obscenely rich family, and goes on to tell a fish out of water kind of story, with her trying to fit into that world. It has the distinction of being the first movie where the entire main cast is made up of Asians. It is a pretty basic love story about will the two main characters stay together or be split up because of his family. Michelle Yeoh is great as the disapproving mother whom Constance Wu's character is trying to impress first and then stand up to. The movie ranges from comedy to drama to love story. It is able to balance all those well and is very well written and acted.

The A/V quality of the Blu-Ray is great and it includes a handful of bonus features. The main extra is a commentary track on the film by the director and the author of the books. There is also a short making-of featurette, a gag reel, and some deleted scenes. Not a ton, but good for what is there. I don't know how closely the movie sticks to the first book. From what was said in the commentary, it was changed somewhat to put the focus on Rachel's story. So if you are a fan of the books and can accept that the movie may not follow the book exactly, you will probably find it enjoyable. If not, you will probably not. For those who have not read the books but just like romantic comedies that can mix a bit of drama in, then this is definitely worth checking out.