Black Mass

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by coltlacey1, Sep 18, 2015.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. coltlacey1

    coltlacey1 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Kenai, Alaska
    Go watch it! great film! I went to the 7pm showing yesterday and it was very very good. All actors did a fantastic job, the movie was quite brutal which I honestly wasn't really expecting but the way they did it really put you there. It was very powerful. Hope you guys get to go see it!
     
    wavethatflag and junk like this.
  2. lbangs

    lbangs Senior Member

    I'm heading that way tonight. I'm glad to read you liked it!

    Shalom, y'all!

    L. Bangs
     
    coltlacey1 likes this.
  3. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    Will be checking it out this weekend. Love gangster movies.
     
    coltlacey1 likes this.
  4. coltlacey1

    coltlacey1 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Kenai, Alaska
    same here! I really enjoy the sopranos series aswell, this of course is not Italian haha
     
  5. Just from thr trailer I'm throwing Johnny D an oscar nod.
     
    coltlacey1 likes this.
  6. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    So Johnny Depp finally made contact? It's been awhile.
     
    joelee and townsend like this.
  7. vamborules

    vamborules Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    I have been fascinated by the Bulger story for a long time so I will definitely see this.
     
  8. neo123

    neo123 Senior Member

    Location:
    Northern Kentucky
    Just got back from seeing it and it is a very good film. Best thing Johnny Depp has been in in a long time. Nice to see him portray a character in a serous role, instead of his usual eccentric roles. If you didn't know it was Johnny Depp, you wouldn't recognize him. Great makeup from the makeup artists. The actor who played FBI agent John Connolly did an outstanding job as well. Going in, I didn't know Benedict Cumberbatch and Kevin Bacon were in it. They had small supporting roles but did their parts well, as usual. Cumberbatch played Bulger's younger brother and Kevin Bacon played an FBI director. A few other familiar faces were in the film too. One of the actors from the TV show Friday Night Lights was in it, who I didn't recognize at first (took me about half the film until it hit me who he was.)

    Depp shines in these type of movies. I wish he would do more of these types instead of the ones he has been doing lately. You could tell Depp probably did a lot of research on Bulger to portray him via method acting.

    Two thumbs up for both the movie itself and the actors' performances. Also, it was interesting to learn stuff about Bulger, his brother, his gang, and even John Connolly that I already didn't know.
     
  9. mikeyt

    mikeyt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    I thought it was solid but an almost by-the-numbers gangster movie. Great performances, though.
     
    DLD and TeacFan like this.
  10. I see Depp getting an Oscar nod for this portrayal of Whitey.

    The screenplay went easy on the Boston FBI. They were much more involved in turning a blind eye than how they were portrayed.

    Cumberbach did a good job playing Billy Bulger -but he is about 8 inches too tall.
     
    coltlacey1 likes this.
  11. neo123

    neo123 Senior Member

    Location:
    Northern Kentucky
    Yep. I think so too.
     
  12. wavethatflag

    wavethatflag God is love, but get it in writing.

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    I really liked this film, which was much better than I expected. Depp was great. I had read a few reviews where critics had trouble with his makeup and blue contacts, but I didn't at all. It was a great performance and I think Depp should get an Oscar nomination. I grew up about an hour and 15 from Boston during the time period of this movie, and saw Billy Bulger on the news a lot. So, I didn't think Cumberbatch would pull it off, but he really did. (Although I agree with the comment above that BC is too tall to be Billy Bulger, but whatever, it's a movie.) I also thought Kevin Bacon was very good, the brief time he was on the screen. The man has been a "go to" minor character actor for years now.

    The only arguably weak scene in the film was the
    "family recipe" sequence, which was too much like the "how am I funny?" scene in Goodfellas. The scene works fine, but that was the only part of the film that I thought was obviously (and maybe needlessly) derivative of another gangster pic.

    But I'd give it an 8.5 or maybe even a 9 out of 10. Even after having seen the very good Whitey documentary you can find on Netflix, Depp is Bulger in this movie.
     
    Pete Puma, coltlacey1 and neo123 like this.
  13. coltlacey1

    coltlacey1 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Kenai, Alaska
    I can agree with your opinion on the spoiler. I thought it was odd to be in there and nothing come of it, wasn't really needed. I just thought more would come. now the portion right after that was intense....
     
    wavethatflag likes this.
  14. townsend

    townsend Senior Member

    Location:
    Ridgway, CO
    I saw this movie yesterday and thought it was entertaining. I like the gritty feel this movie had. Cumberbatch, who was terrific in The Imitation Game, was miscast in this movie in general, and specifically as Bulger's brother (and I'm not talking about him being tooo tall, which I didn't know about). But his screen time is rather minor and this is not a distraction (Cumberbatch is a great actor -- blame the casting director, not Benedict).

    I liked the systematic way Bulger questioned the blonde dingbat whore in the back seat of the car. Smartly written dialogue. This movie is not for the feel good, timid of heart type. Bulger was a cruel unpredictable sociopathic, with intimidation and violence as his MO. This is the first really good movie in a long time. A good start to the adult fall movie season. See it now; don't wait for the Disney animated version. Not sure why a movie entitled "Black Mass" was about a main character whose nickname is "Whitey.":confused:
     
  15. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    Agree about the title. Will see it tonight.
     
  16. The movie title is from the best selling book of the same name. I always thought it was derived from "black"=dark, sinister, and "Mass" = common abbreviation for Massachusetts. I have the book but don't recall if the title was every explained. Obviously there is no actual black mass in the story or movie.

    One minor factual error that I think the movie makes that us locals picked up on was the how they explained the beef between the Winter Hill gang and the North End Mafia (Patriarca Family underboss Gerry Angiulo). In the movie it states that South Boston ("Southie") was up for grabs, but I am pretty sure the Italians had given that up to the Irish by the early 70s. The struggle was for control of other Boston areas, such as parts of Roxbury and Dorchester and other areas in Eastern Massachusetts.
     
    Last edited: Sep 21, 2015
    townsend likes this.
  17. Master_It_Right

    Master_It_Right Forum Resident

    I saw it yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Anyone else notice The Rolling Stones "Slave" around halfway through the movie? I didn't recognize it at first until I listened to my SHM Pt CD of Tattoo You on the way home and was like "hey that song was in the movie."
     
    2trackmind likes this.
  18. Jackson

    Jackson Senior Member

    Location:
    MA, USA
    It's already one of my favorite gangster films, and i've seen them all, The whole cast is great, especially Johnny Depp who is scarily GOOD.
     
  19. Mark Nelson

    Mark Nelson Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Thought it was fairly dull myself. Went in knowing nothing about Bulger, and felt like the film didn't give me enough context/background
    on why he was being presented as evil incarnate, how he rose to power, etc. Felt like some of the performances were a bit cheesy, and that overall
    this likely works better if you go in with some knowledge of the story beforehand. Kept wishing I was watching GOODFELLAS instead, or the Bulger
    doc.
     
    Complier, Ghostworld and bopdd like this.
  20. I wouldn't call it "dull", although I'd agree that it had some pacing and tone issues even though I enjoyed it overall and was impressed at how well Depp disappeared into the character. I knew a bit about Bulger going in though, so maybe that helped. I also watched Joe Berlinger's documentary Whitey last night, and might have to watch it again tonight just to untangle all the relationships. The doc is a bit slanted, but it certainly makes clear that the extent of corruption in the FBI and Justice Dept goes way beyond what's depicted in Black Mass.
     
  21. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    I saw it yesterday and really liked it...

    Great performance by Depp. Didn't really know much about Bulger going in. Didn't realize Dakota Johnson played his son's mother and did a good job.
     
  22. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    Saw it last night and learned things I didn't know. Enjoyed it.
     
  23. antoniod

    antoniod Forum Resident

    What's the FBI doing in City Hall? Wouldn't it be in a Federal building?
     
  24. lbangs

    lbangs Senior Member

    Great cast.

    Still, Scott Cooper continues to make movies that might have be great if Scott Cooper hadn't have made them.

    The Goodfellas Thefts weren't too embarrassing until the recipe scene mentioned above, but man, the slow sink into the melodrama of the final hour made me want to put a hit on the string section.

    Not awful, but this should have been much better.

    Shalom, y'all!

    L. Bangs
     
    Complier likes this.
  25. antoniod

    antoniod Forum Resident

    OK, the FBI is in a similar looking building across the street from City Hall. Still.............
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine