Review of Lawless (2012) by John C — 16 Oct 2016

Too unoriginal and leisurely paced to be fully enjoyable or engaging, Lawless attempts to capitalise on the strength of its star power, while not fully utilising any of its cast members. Tom Hardy mumbles his way through the proceedings with an expression of mild indifference, and Jessica Chastain is given nothing to do other than look pretty and stare in concern.

Shia Labeouf and Guy Pearce give the stand-out performances but no amount of impressive acting can save this film from being just another dime-a-dozen historic gangster flick. There's some really fun action set pieces, and some nice cinematography, but even the movie itself doesn't appear to care about what's happening, since many of the scenes ends with little to no closure, and the story is far too thin to justify the near 2-hour runtime.

It has not 1 but 2 boring romances, near-inaudible dialogue and offers up no real reason to care about the protagonists. Strictly for die-hard gangster fans only.