'Amsterdam'- this movie is billed as a comedy drama, however there are few laughs to be found.

Director David O. Russell has an A list cast but his script is confusing and scattered. Based on true events two American soldiers (Christian Bale and John David Washington) bond with each other while stationed overseas. After both become injured they are treated by a quirky nurse (Margot Kidder) who falls for Washington's character.

The nurse convinces the soldiers they should go to Amsterdam for fun and adventures. Once there they make contact with two men (Micheal Shannon and Mike Myers) who help them with their 'adventures' with a caveat: one day they will come calling for their help.

This buddy movie goes off the rails after that. I wouldn't going into any more details other than to say the 2 veterans become accused of a murder of someone they knew and eventually involves the nurse to help get evidence of their innocence.

I think the director would have been better off by cutting this movie down by 30-40 minutes (it's 2 hours and 14 minutes long) and leaving out some of the fluff not central to the story.

The 3 main stars are good in their roles (finally saw a film in which Washington was actually good in) and there are many more stars in this film (Chris Rock, Timothy Olyphant, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rami Malek, Robert de Niro, Taylor Swift, Ed Begley Jr.) which makes this one bloated affair.

This also could have been a two movie arc... The first movie about how they met and the second about the murder and their adventures after being accused.

The director stuffed everything into a meandering mess that started with the potential for great entertainment yet ended up with a 2.25 hour box office dud (looks like it will lose over $100 million dollars). I nearly fell asleep in the last 50 minutes of the movie and I actually liked the ending.

When this movie comes to streaming I'll pause it after 90 minutes and then watch the rest of it another day to see if my opinion about it should have been a two parter rings true for me.