Review of Black Mass (2015) by Stuart P — 28 Mar 2016

Review:

I quite enjoyed this film because I did find Johnny Depp's character, James "Whitey" Bulger, quite intriguing and there is a sense of intensity throughout the movie, but it wasn't in the same league as Goodfellas. Johnny Depp played the leading role quite well and his brother, Billy Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch) was a weird choice but he still put in a good performance but it did seem like Whitey bullied his way into the underworld, more than using an intelligent mind to get to the top. Don't get me wrong, he did fool the FBI by giving them old information, so they could get away with there brutal and vicious behaviour but they done a lot of there murders in broad daylight and none of Whitey's team were that loyal. After the death of Whitey's son, he seemed to go a bit of the rails and he was killing random people for any reason. His close friend, John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), who worked for the FBI, was literally letting Whitey get away with murder and I honestly can't believe that he never thought that he would get caught. What also amazed me, was that everyone became a "rat" towards the end and no one seemed to try and hold back any information. Anyway, the make-up department really did give there all, by totally transforming Johnny Depp into a 70's thug. Some of the scenes are very brutal so it's not a movie for the squeamish but there is a lot of political footage, which I found uninteresting. The fact that Whitey was on the run for 16 years whilst being on the FBI's Most Wanted list, is truly amazing and with so many people turning against him, he will be living the rest of his life behind bars as a lonely man. His close brother Billy was an inspiring senator who everyone looked up to but when the FBI found out that he had been in contact with his brother, he sadly lost everything that he had worked hard for. All of his fellow criminals also had to pay the price for Whitey's action, by getting hefty jail sentences, so the question remains, was it really worth it! I suppose the buzz of having loads of power and money can get to your head but when your living on the edge, especially when you don't know when Whitey is going to turn on you, I'm not surprised that they all took the easy way out by confessing to there crimes. Anyway, it's definitely a watchable movie which I found quite interesting but I have seen better films in this genre. Enjoyable!

Round-Up:

For Johnny Depp's preparation for this movie, he asked Whitey's lawyer if he could have access to the man himself but he didn't want any connection to the book, which is the basis of this film, so I'm just wondering, how much of it is true. The director, Scott Cooper, did have access to some of Whitey's fellow work mates, who actually showed up on set and the movie was made in Boston, we're a lot of the real events took place, so that will explain the realism that is felt through the film. Anyway, Scott Cooper has only directed 3 movies in his career, including this one, and I must admit, they have been pretty impressive. He first hit the scene in 2009 with the Academy award winning Crazy Heart and he also made Out of the Furnace which starred Christian Bale and Casey Affleck. After playing the leading role in Donnie Brasco and playing John Dillinger in Public Enemies, I'm not surprised that Scott picked Depp for the leading role and you can tell that he was fully committed to the movie but it still felt like there was something missing. It is put together well and the various characters were great but I was left feeling that it could have been better.

Budget: $53million.

Worldwide Gross: $100million.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their biography/crime/drama movies starring Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard, Adam Scott, David Harbour, Corey Stoll, Juno Temple and Julianne Nicholson. 6/10.