Review of Black Mass (2015) by Shadiac1985 — 23 May 2016

This movie tries real hard to come off as a decent mob flick, but almost misses its point. One major problem is casting an actor like Johnny Depp to play a mobster. Another is the blatant inaccuracy of the portrayed 1970s and 1980s Boston life. I won't debate on either because I think it's rather a case of personal appreciation, just mentioning that taken aside, these are two problems worsening the overall enjoyability of this film.

What struck me completely, though, is how it takes its viewers for complete idiots. First, they're showing us a cartoon-cardboard cutout "cop" supposedly too soft on Bulger, who ends up torn apart between two worlds. The guy, however, is a total goof, as to wonder how he even managed to get that job. He has 0 way of talking to criminals, he treats Bulger like some grand persona (translating it to "family" by the numbwitted scriptwriters), then he ends up being screwed (wow, what a surprise!). Then there's that scene where Depp asks his partner how he cooked up the chicken, and even though the guy first says "it's a secret", he ends up revealing it and then Depp makes a scene. The whole thing is laughable at best. I mean, only a moron would be intimidated by words like "you just sold me your secret, so you're unreliable". LMFAO. This guy is "friends" with Depp's character, that's one thing, another is he can actually stand up for himself and call Depp a diffamator. He doesn't He just sits there with a stupid facial expression. Depp then proceeds upstairs and starts hitting on the idiot's wife for some reason, and again, she just takes it. C'mon, have you no balls? Or is Bulger supposed to be portrayed as intimidating at this point in the film? Because I didn't see him evolve like this a single bit even since his obnoxious peanuts remark.

So yeah, this movie may have been an okay addition to something Godfather-like, instead, it puts too much emphasis on something that's never there, misses the point and come off raping the viewer's brain. No clue how it ever gotten such a high score...