9. "Chances of this being legitimately good are not high..." In response to Reply # 0 Mon Apr-27-15 02:12 PM by The Analyst
I'll see it because I'm from the Boston area and shitty crime movies like this are kind of my guilty pleasure genre, but I'm giving less than 50-50 odds that it's actually good.
11. "So like I said this is good. Johnny Depp back." In response to Reply # 10 Fri Sep-11-15 08:29 AM by bwood
Depp is actually super menacing throughout this film b. The scenes of intimidation are more cold than the scenes of violence. He might be getting a Best Actor nom b.
But, my nigga Joel Edgerton will mos def be getting that Best Supporting Actor nom. He put his foot into his role as Agent Connolly b.
Jessie Plemmons aka Landry does great work here. As does Corey Stoll, Dakota Johnson and Peter Sarsgaard do incredible work in very minor roles. Benedict Cumberbatch's Boston accent was a bit cartoony but he did well with his small role as well.
Scott Cooper and his DP made this movie pop throughout and visually, it was always interesting. As a matter of fact this is Cooper's best film and it probably has to do with the fact that he didn't write it.
But yea will see how Awards Season goes as this could be a major player or a minor player depending on how strong the rest of the films are.
23. "RE: So like I said this is good. Johnny Depp back." In response to Reply # 11
>Depp is actually super menacing throughout this film b. The >scenes of intimidation are more cold than the scenes of >violence. He might be getting a Best Actor nom b.
he gets a nom for putting on all that makeup and that accent. But, he'll lose to an actor who has a role with WAY more depth (Michael Fassbender in Macbeth and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant STOMP all over Depp's performance just by name ALONE though....)
> >But, my nigga Joel Edgerton will mos def be getting that Best >Supporting Actor nom. He put his foot into his role as Agent >Connolly b.
Joel was the *BEST* thing about the movie.
> >Jessie Plemmons aka Landry does great work here. As does Corey >Stoll, Dakota Johnson and Peter Sarsgaard do incredible work >in very minor roles. Benedict Cumberbatch's Boston accent was >a bit cartoony but he did well with his small role as well.
Agreed on all this. Julianne Nicholson was pretty good as well in her brief ass role as Joel's wife Marianne... > >Scott Cooper and his DP made this movie pop throughout and >visually, it was always interesting. As a matter of fact this >is Cooper's best film and it probably has to do with the fact >that he didn't write it. > >But yea will see how Awards Season goes as this could be a >major player or a minor player depending on how strong the >rest of the films are. >
Scott Cooper is a hack ass writer/director: That shitty ass rewrite he did of Brad Ingelsby's The Low Dweller which turned into Out of the Furnace.
Like I don't give naaan a shit that they shot it in shitty ass Braddock, PA the movie was trash....
But Scott might be best directing OTHER people's screenplays because his writing is horrible.
18. "It is worth seeing for Depp alone" In response to Reply # 0
The rest of the movie is alright. I am from Boston area and grew up hearing about Southie and Whitey so it was cool to see, other than that, nothing too outstanding in the flick. Depp tho is barely even recognizable, crazy intense.
20. "Movie felt too much like a procedural...." In response to Reply # 0
or one of those History Channel docs where they dryly cover all the facts and throw in reenactments.
The cinematography is great. Depp and Edgerton are great. The dialogue....not so much. Outside of a few scenes where a few small conversations spill out into something bigger, nothing really popped.
Depp really sells a lot of the scenes that are quiet because he's so focused on reading whoever's opposite of him. He pretty much earned a nomination from those dinner scenes alone.
The action is very matter-of-fact. Nothing stylistically flashy. Also nothing tense. Things just happen....and the film just moves on.
Also, I wish Scott Cooper cut all of the interrogations from the film. The film starts off as if they'll be used as a framing device to explain the exploits of Whitey but nothing notable is ever said in those scenes...just henchmen staring.
And the scenes with the FBI starting to catch on to Connolly felt really rushed and tacked on. Like I said before, there's no tension.
Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86643 posts
Fri Sep-25-15 01:37 AM
21. "Not a good movie. It's a lifeless wax statue." In response to Reply # 0
Performances are all fine. Movie is without a POV, a gritty and colorless checklist of Whitey Bulger events that has absolutely no end goal, has absolutely no interest in how Whitey got this way or why he did what he did, has no interest in most anything other than the bare essentials. It's like this movie never got past the log line. Upsettingly bad.
24. "Yep. A shame that this was the Bulger movie to be made" In response to Reply # 21 Mon Dec-21-15 03:34 PM by SoulHonky
Completely agree on this take. I wish we had gotten Matt Damon's version instead as this had no point and nothing to stay and doesn't even seem to have any more insight than a collection of headlines.
I'm a sucker for Mob movies so I never got bored but man, it'd be hard to recommend this movie to anyone. And a lot of the reviews seemed to go out of their way to like it. I get that for Star Wars or for Tarantino but surprised that Depp and Cooper got that treatment.