MBunge This film has Robert Wagner, Stephen McHattie, a hot naked chick and a bunch of non-American actors trying desperately to suppress their accents. I'll give director Stuart Cooper credit in that he realizes he can't do much about that fourth thing, so he tries to get as much mileage out of the first three as he can. That's still not enough, though, to salvage a plot that's so stupid that even soap opera writing staffs would have turned their noses up at it. And yes, that includes the doofuses who were writing Days of Our Lives when they made Marlena get possessed by the devil.Maya (Bobbie Phillips) is a surprisingly inhibited con woman who seduces men so her boyfriend Tony (Benjamin Sadler) can rifle through their wallets and siphon money out of their bank accounts. Then, before the poor guys can whip it out, Tony busts in playing the jealous husband and runs them off. It's not the most successful scam in the world, as evidenced by the aluminum trailer down by the river where Maya and Tony live.A smarter and much more violent criminal named Pierce (Stephen McHattie) then recruits them for a bigger scheme. It seems a rich woman wants to divorce her husband and needs compromising photos of him. Maya is supposed to compromise him while Tony takes the pictures. The husband, Martin (Thomas Heinze), proves surprisingly resistant to Maya's charms, prolonging the scam until Tony is nearly climbing the walls in jealousy.Martin and Maya eventually fall into bed, but that's when she finds out he's got his own agenda. It turns out that Maya is a dead ringer for Martin's rich wife, so he wants Maya to impersonate her and change the pre nup that will leave Martin with nothing after a divorce. To do that, Maya will eventually have to fool Felix Baumgartner (Robert Wagner), the lawyer who's known Martin's rich wife all her life. It all leads to a string of double crosses and a couple of killings, none of which make a lick of sense, before wrapping up with a scene where you can practically see screenwriter David Howard trying and failing to explain all the holes in his story until he collapses from exhaustion.As I mentioned before, not everything about Hustle is horrible. Robert Wagner is always nice to see. Stephen McHattie looks mean enough to make any character seem threatening, even when Pierce displays a frat boy's sense of sexual humor. Bobbie Phillips is also a proficient B-movie actress who looks better nude than clothed. Director Cooper also keeps you waiting until the film is half over before showing off Phillips' form, so at least there's some anticipation up 'til then.The rest of the movie is fairly bad and after Phillips takes it all off, things go even more downhill. To start with, Benjamin Sadler hasn't got a clue what to do and at times resembles nothing so much as that Will Ferrell character from Saturday Night Live who couldn't modulate the sound of his own voice. I don't know what nationality Thomas Heinze is, but it was almost uncomfortable watching him struggle with every syllable he spoke to keep his accent from leaking out. The whole "impersonate someone to change a pre nup" thing is so dumb it'll make you want to stick thumb tacks into that little web of skin between your forefinger and thumb. The dialog includes not one, not two, but three uses of the word "frickin". And topping it all off is an incessant saxophone riff that will have you regretting the instrument was ever invented.A nice as Phillips looks in her birthday suit, she's not naked nearly long enough to make this film worth anyone's time.

The_Void I bought 'The Hustle' as a part of a 'but 3 for £5' sale, so it cost me roughly £1.67, and even though I wouldn't say I'm happy with the purchase; the film is just about worth £1.67. I'm actually a big fan of films where people get conned, and that and the fact that the rest of the films in sale were even worse were what made me decide to buy this one. However, films about con men have seen a lot better days; and Stuart Cooper's film is one part useless, one part extremely unlikely and three parts boring; and all this stuff combines into a film that isn't worth bothering with. The script takes influence from the Demi Moore miss 'Indecent Proposal' as well as a number of other films about grifters, and follows the fortunes of a pair that box describes as 'a modern day Bonnie and Clyde'. Personally, I'd say they're more like those cheats on 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'. Anyway, their scam is for the lady to take a man back to her room, while the boyfriend drains the credit card. This is all well and good, until someone pulls a gun on them and offers them a chance at a bigger scam. Sorry, I mean 'score'.The script makes sure it gets all the terminology right; 'mark', 'score', 'hit' etc; but forgets to tell an interesting story with characters worth remembering. Bobbie Phillips is sexy and seductive in the lead role, but everyone else is awful. Benjamin Sadler is phoney and boring, while it's easy to forget that Thomas Heinze and Stephen McHattie are even in the film, despite the fact that they have big roles. Robert Wagner rounds it all off with a small appearance near the end, and like the rest of the cast; isn't worth remembering as he clearly only took the role for the money. The plot features a lot of surprises, but many of them are extremely unlikely and silly - the main plot involving Bobbie Phillips is a big culprit in this respect. The silly plot is offset by a distinctly serious tone, and perhaps the worst thing about this film is the fact that the cast and director obviously thought that they were making a good piece of drama. The score over the top and irritating as well, and while this isn't a complete dead loss; it certainly isn't very good. Avoid, unless you're getting it for £1.67.

Jen c I thought Bobbie's performance was wonderful throughout but, I was not impressed with the two male actors. Robert Wagner was good,as usual. As were most of the supporting actors. I must say though that there was not a lot of believability in the 'Martin' character. He just yelled through the whole film. The 'Tony' character was better but, came off weak next to Bobbie's presence. The film had an interesting plot but,overall had a tv movie of the week feel. Especially the music. I would say,any fan of Bobbie Phillips' will be happy to see her wonderful performance. But will probably think, "When will Bobbie get a film worthy of her talent?".

snwmate I rented this film because it starred Bobbie Phillips. I wasn't even sure what to expect as I've seen Bobbie in martial arts and comedies, so I didn't really know what category this film was. It was kind of a drama/comedy. This film was unique to me in the way the story was told. It would be dark and kind of sad but then it would have funny moments or reactions from the actors. Like life! I thought Bobbie did a marvelous job. It was a side I hadn't seen of her acting. Also, the other characters were interesting. It was hard to figure out who the bad guy was. I would recommend this film highly. Especially given the fact that it is on video and there are limited copies which would make you think it wasn't as good as it is.