Oh boy, this was a rough one.

I was very excited for Pain Hustlers. A new movie from Wizarding World legend David Yates and with a pitch perfect trio of Chris Evans, Emily Blunt and Andy Garcia sounds fantastic…on paper. However, this movie really puts the “pain” in Pain Hustlers. From shamelessly ripping off other films to a bad script and cringey moments, this was a chore to get through and a massive letdown.

Let’s get the good out of the way, Chris Evans and Emily Blunt are fantastic in this. They absolutely carried this movie and Blunt in particular takes the story of Liza Drake, makes it her own and is actually somewhat of a character I’m willing to root for. Evans plays a typical snarky yuppie and even has his own little Kendall Roy moment (you’ll know it when you see it) and while he’s great, he’s not enough to save this movie. I wish these two were given a better script because their acting talents are unbelievable and could’ve put them in award contention if the rest of this movie was better.

David Yates is a fine director, that is known. However, his best work is on Harry Potter films and outside of that, he hasn’t done much and it shows here. Once you strip away good acting, visual effects, and writing, issues in his direction become glaring. An awkward framing device that is seemingly forgotten throughout parts of the film and the pacing are two of my biggest issues.

The script for this one is absolutely terrible. It rips off The Wolf Of Wall Street and Succession more times than I would like to count, it’s got so many weird monologues and interactions, it forgets about characters entirely, you get the point. I don’t understand how they could take such an interesting concept and make it so boring but here we are.

Pain Hustlers is another mundane addition to Netflix’s Original Movies catalogue. Even the all star cast can’t make this one worth the watch, as literally everything is a rip-off of something better.