J-Lo steals the screen, then all your money in “Hustlers”

But can the movie really live up to its awards ambitions?

It’s 2019 and I think we can be honest with each other about why we may or may not be interested in this movie. The people who created this thing know too. It’s going to make this movie a hit, the same way it made Magic Mike a hit in 2012, not on the merits of the movie itself but on a quality that can be sold in a two minute trailer.

Beautiful people stripping their clothes off and dancing suggestively.

So the multi-million dollar question. Does it work here?

Let me put it to you this way.

The moment Jennifer Lopez appears on screen, pole dancing in what I can only describe as two bedazzled pieces of fabric tied behind her head and between her legs, my fellow audience of probably 80 percent women reacted in what can only be described as worship. “Oh my god,” one lady beside me mouthed. “Jee-zus” another lady behind me said incredulously. Two more to my right just gasped, jaws dropped so low they couldn’t speak if they tried. Yeah, I’d say it works.

Lopez is a force of nature in this movie, possessing the kind of animal magnetism that transcends gender or sexual preference. It’s pure “Jenny from the Block” energy, a…