The Hustle
United Artists | Release Date: May 10, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
35
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
13
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 9, 2019
A watchable, unnecessary re-do that works hard but lacks the charm to really zing. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 9, 2019
Yes, this remake is old fashioned, and maybe the “mark” (Alex Sharp of “How to Talk to Girls at Parties”) is a tad green and less interesting. But sometimes, it’s fun watching two wildly different stars mix it up in sumptuous settings, and seemingly have a ball doing it. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshMay 9, 2019
The Hustle nods to its predecessors and feels at times like “To Catch a Thief” meets “Absolutely Fabulous.” But what makes “The Hustle” work is its stars. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 9, 2019
Comedy is in a weird place right now, and The Hustle deserves some credit for fulfilling its own modest, escapist ambitions. Unlike a lot of what we see these days, in movies and elsewhere, it doesn’t feel like a rip-off or a scam. It’s downright innocent. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 9, 2019
The Hustle, fun as some of it is, is a tall fizzy drink in which the fizz never completely rises to the top of the glass. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandMay 9, 2019
When The Hustle succeeds — in fits and starts, and with occasional big laughs — it’s wholly thanks to the dedication of Hathaway and Wilson, who throw themselves into thinly written roles (the film somehow required four screenwriters) that they spice up by bringing their A-game to material that’s beneath them. Read full review
50
ConsequenceBlake GobleMay 10, 2019
While the movie’s a letdown in the remake and modernization departments, it’s at least a modest success in terms of ebullient talent and frothy farce. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireMay 10, 2019
It is the kind of movie you watch on an airplane — perhaps on the way to someplace luxurious and relaxing like the South of France, the film’s setting — while falling in and out of naps. Read full review
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiMay 9, 2019
A loony con-job that comes up short on being convincing. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubCaroline SiedeMay 9, 2019
While The Hustle is more overt when it comes to discussing gender, including a monologue about why women are better suited to “the con” than men, it doesn’t really have all that much to say. Not about gender, not about con artistry, and definitely not about how to craft a satisfying studio comedy. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMay 9, 2019
There are a few legitimately great throwaway lines, and a few vaguely offensive ones. But the movie feels so fast and cheap that it’s hard not to wonder why they’ve made it at all, other than to jump on a small and so-far underwhelming trend in gender-swapping ‘80s remakes (see also: Ghostbusters, Overboard). Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMay 9, 2019
Though the 55 year-old plot's bones are sturdy and its new performers gifted, moviegoers hoping for a mercilessly funny post-Weinstein revenge fantasy (its poster declares: "They're giving dirty rotten men a run for their money") will walk away feeling conned. Read full review
50
TheWrapCandice FrederickMay 9, 2019
The new film is ripe for big laughs with Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson as, respectively, the snobby British bombshell with sticky fingers and the rough-around-the-edges though equally cunning con artist, but neither actress is given rich enough material to bring the film’s most interesting ideas to the finish line. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Simran HansMay 14, 2019
Clearly, it’s intended as a vehicle for Wilson, who is credited as co-producer, but it’s Hathaway who steals the show. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleMay 10, 2019
It never manages to overcome its weak jokes and tired plot points. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMay 9, 2019
Hathaway and Wilson, instead of exuding odd-couple comic chemistry, seem to barely be in the same movie; they don’t click, with each other or with a bland Alex Sharp as their tech-bro mark. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Anne T. DonahueMay 9, 2019
The Hustle should’ve been a comedy that served equal parts wit and social commentary – otherwise, why gender-swap? It should’ve given Wilson and Hathaway a means through which to shine. These are talented, seasoned, capable women. And for their experience to be wasted in a production that is below them, below their director’s filmography and below the original material is tragic. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 9, 2019
Well, it’s a dud. Nothing quite clicks. Read full review
38
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonMay 9, 2019
Wilson and Hathaway don’t click. The characters feel as if they were workshopped separately, and efforts to combine their comic energy on screen fall flat. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineDerek SmithMay 9, 2019
Like other gender-swapped films in recent years, The Hustle plays the identity politics game as an end in itself. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 9, 2019
When the end finally arrives, it brings no sense of completion, just a sort of numb awareness that the pain has stopped. Read full review
20
EmpireElla KempMay 10, 2019
The Hustle buckles under the overbearing weight of its own vulgarity. Avoid the dirty rubble by all means. An embarrassment to the heist genre, an insult to all existing comedies, a disgrace to feminism. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 9, 2019
The switch from male to female leads has been done with so little apparent regard for how it might actually affect the plot that entire tracts of the film, including its finale, now land like poorly tossed pancakes. Read full review
20
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMay 9, 2019
Seriously missing the memo in a cringe-inducing way, The Hustle takes a perfectly fine premise from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels—two predatory men get played by a savvier woman—and obliterates it by swapping genders and ultimately selling out its feminist credibility. Read full review
20
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 9, 2019
They say it’s all in the timing, especially when it comes to funny business. But in The Hustle everyone’s inner comedic clock is calamitously off. The setups are flat, the jokes don’t land and the actors don’t — or won’t — connect. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 9, 2019
Anne Hathaway detonates a megaton blast of pure unfunniness in this terrifying film. Read full review
16
The PlaylistKimber MyersMay 9, 2019
The Hustle is profoundly stupid and it treats its audience as though they’re even less intelligent than it is. Read full review
0
The Film StageJohn FinkMay 18, 2019
Like Holmes & Watson proved late last year, two comedic giants is just not enough to save terrible material that should have been fixed long before the film went into production. Read full review
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