Review of Live by Night (2016) by Saintdecky — 02 Feb 2017

Live by Night, in a few words, is a bit of a mess. There are multiple, multiple problems with it, many branching from Affleck's ambitious idea to direct, write, and star in it, and not releasing a satisfying result. One problem with doing all three of the above, is that there wouldn't be as many people to say "uhhh Ben, the screenplay for this scene doesn't really work," or "act like this," or "maybe the shot should look more like this," since he made many of the decisions.

Characters/Acting: Despite the all-star cast, there were too many people to keep track of, and most of the characters I just forgot about or didn't care for. A bunch of characters just kind of die; Loretta, a key character in the movie, shows up for about 5 scenes and then dies off-screen. The worst part about the death was the treating of it. The scene addressing her death basically goes, "Hey Joe, that girl who you seemed to care for and gave you some insight on life and was the daughter of the cop you're working with died." "Oh. That's too bad." Aaaand cut, move on to the next scene. Ben Affleck, in my eyes, isn't the most talented actor to go around, but he can deliver when needed. This was not the case, though. His accent's all over the place, as well as Zoe Saldana's, and he fails to make any facial expressions to show how he is feeling at many given points. Many of the actors just exist, and that's it. Brendan Gleeson was in a few scenes (before dying off-screen as well), and didn't really get to do much, along with other performances that were not given justice. Almost every character falls flat and fails to make you care for them too much. There was only one character I liked, since he had an okay sense of humor compared to the rest of the movie, and he was only in a few scenes.

Humor: Almost all the humor falls flat in this movie. Many scenes that were obviously trying to be funny jumped off a cliff and did a belly-flop onto a pool of hot lava. Again, there weren't as many people who could offer advice for Affleck's screenplay.

Plot: The plot of the movie didn't feel consistent, and there were too many scenes that were unnecessary and added to the already too long runtime. Affleck also gets shot halfway through the movie for absolutely no reason, and then heals and goes back to business. The movie doesn't even tell how much time passed, which was a problem for other instances of the movie as well. The motivations of Affleck's character are also unclear and muddy. He doesn't seem to have a clear, solid reason to do what he does, he just does.

Cinematography: The cinematography isn't too bad, but there are a few artsy shots that didn't seem to fit in the rest of movie, and seemed to be an excuse for Affleck to get some recognition.

Action: The trailers promised a good amount of action, but despite the long runtime of the movie, it's not delivered. The few minutes of action there was though, mostly towards the end, was relatively boring and didn't feel exciting or new.

Editing: The editing was boring, and there were a few scenes that were strangely cut. For example, Joe's buddy is telling him about this guy's name, Gary L. Smith. The two are in the underground tunnel things when Joe's buddy begins telling him the name. Suddenly, it cuts to the two at an empty bar, and Joe says something like "wait, is it Gary L. Smith, or Gary Elsmith?" to which Joe's buddy replies with something like "no it's L. Smith, like the letter. He wants to be called that," and then they cut back to another set that I don't remember. The car scene at the beginning was also poorly done. There were 2 cop cars and Affleck's car, but the cars were all black, so it was difficult to determine which car was which, with the shaky-cam and fast paced editing. When one car drove off the road a bit, I wasn't sure if it was Affleck's or a cop's. Music: The music is as bland and boring as I ever thought a high-budget movie could get. It felt like the creators completely forgot music exists and is important for movies, and just said "ah, just get some royalty-free music online, no one will notice" and quickly stuffed it into the movie right before they released it.

Overall, the movie was poorly done, with multiple things wrong with it. There are other specific details I could pick apart, but I've already spoiled much of the movie. But there are plenty of specific realism issues and other things wrong that would make more sense if you saw the movie, which I don't recommend doing.