Black Mass

Looks good.

This is probably the first time in a long time that a Johnny Depp trailer hasn't annoyed me.

Looks very promising

After having a little read about it, I'd probably rather re-watch The Departed.

moby2101 wrote: »

Not a patch on the departed

Which in turn wasnt a patch on Infernal Affairs.

Just seen an ad for it, in cinemas November 25th, looking forward to seeing it.

Thought Depp was pretty good, but agree with other criticisms that it was just a bit drab and mundane.

The makeup on Bulger was pretty distracting I found, he looked slightly vampiric at times and there was something off about his eyes - contacts too big or something? Took my attention away from what was going on too often

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Which in turn wasnt a patch on Infernal Affairs.

Your joking right?

disappointing ****ee

Yeah I have to add my voice to the chorus of disappointment that's accompanying talk of the film. It's just....Meh.. I just can't help but feel a little short changed by that result. There were so many ingredients in there that should have yielded tastier results; the cast is good, the real life story is blackly fascinating and the production values and overall tone of the thing is, at times, pretty alluring and evocative. So for everything to come out so forgettable and half-baked is a bit of a mystery. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece but I was expecting something. Something with a bit more oomph to it, that could grab you a little, even if it wasn't perfect. There's a real feeling of "I've seen this before" throughout the entire film.

You know when you go on a short break to a foreign city and you set yourself an itinerary, for, let's say two days. It's the whistle stop tour, right? It can be a wonderful experience, but sometimes you just wish you had that extra couple of days to do the four day tour. You'd really get to know a place that little bit better. Well, I think the good gangster movies - Scorsese, Coppola etc, etc - are the equivalent of a full satisfying tour of the sights of a place called Crimeland, whereas Black Mass is definitely more of the wham-bam variety. It shows you all the sights you'd expect - the rise to power, the turning away from the light into the darkness, the murder, the goddamn Feds - but it's all done so stop-start and elliptically that it never feels more than a skin deep and derivative portrayal of the actual history. It's hard to care and especially so when you're given no real insight into characters motivations or physiological make-up. The script is weak. Some of the violence is harsh, but it has no real impact because it doesn't really mean anything. It's just gangsters murdering people, cos that's what they do. And, like most other events in the story, we just kind of arrive at bloodletting randomly from time to time. I would have my suspicions that there's a much longer version of this film in some studio vault. I wonder if the final cut was subjected to some severe trimming. The cast is unbelievable, but yet so many good solid actors are barely utilized. How many lines do Kevin Bacon or Adam Scott have? Corey Stoll has two scenes. I find it hard to believe that they signed up just to be glorified extras. I feel like they may have been trying to go for a prestige picture, but ended up with something that had to be butchered into shape.

Depp is pretty good here. A lot of people won't go near it just because he's in it. I wouldn't say that should be your foremost reason for turning your nose up at this. It's a good menacing and magnetic performance, in search of a better script and fresher dialogue. I think he can really act, he's just been sidetracked by rubbish for the last decade. If Matthew McConaughey and Ben Affleck can stage credibility renaissances, then I still have faith in Johnny. Still though, I wish he would stop with the outlandish make-up nonsense. The way he looks in the film is unnecessarily distracting and pointless. Just be yourself guy. You can convince me with your acting. It's like the star performer in a football team taking to the field and doing his best, but deciding to wear a really ostentatious jock-strap the whole time. Not required.

Wailin wrote: »

Your joking right?

He's bang on the money. The departed is a decent adaptation, but nothing close to the original.

Wailin wrote: »

Internal Affairs....the one with Richard Gere right?

Nope, the Asian film

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338564/

Edit, I just watched The Departed now as it was mentioned here and I haven't watched it in years. Jesus Jack Nicholson hammed his way thought this film, and Ray Winstones accent was awful.

Black Mass, while having its problems (Count Deppula for example) is a lot more believable

Did people rate Donnie Brasco?

fin12 wrote:

Ya I thought it was quite good, is that the one with Al Pacino and Johnny Depp?

Yeah that's it, i thought Depp was very good in it.