Black Mass

Whitey Bulger was a one man crime wave. He killed, stole and extracted a horrific toll on South Boston. When the FBI saw a chance to connect a gangster with the clean up of the Italian mob in the area, they turned to Bulger and literally gave him carte Blanche to kill and steal his way to the top. When this all came to light, he vanished and was not found for almost 15 years.

The Departed was actually almost completly about the story of James 'Whitey' Bulger. That film was excellent and though not Scorsese best it was a stand out. This film is a dog pile of rubbish. The film flaps about like a fish. Where that other film had great foundations and structure, this film feels like an adoration of the prior with almost all talent taken out. We have no intellengence or character of story telling. We have a splash of violence here, some empty dialogue there and then some weak composition here. It has poor handling in terms of directing. Conventional blah and it could be taken striaght out of a film form book on the film making process.

The cast are for the most, dull versions of the people they represent. Real life can be hard to portray and here it becomes almost unbearable to watch. There is in some respect a little light. Johnnie Depp however is electric and deserves to have the praise as without him the film would sink without trace. He adds tension, force, engaging presence and great delivery to a film that has none of this. Rory Cochrane is also very good and adds a kind of hard but resigned edge to a role that like the film sadly does, become conventional and dull.

The Disc is also pretty empty. Take it from me and think about other alternatives before buying this one. It is Depp at his best but he has only one other person giving anything worth watching.