BLACK MASS is a crime thriller that strives to hark back to the 1990s era of similar filmmaking, with movies like DONNIE BRASCO and GOODFELLAS ruling the day. This one stars Johnny Depp as a feared and infamous assassin who worked alongside corrupt cops while taking down a string of victims during his violent career. He managed to evade the authorities for many years, no mean feat in itself. The film's plot is packed with murder and violent incident, but it feels like an attempt to return to glory days rather than being anything new or fresh. The profanity irritated me a bit and the endless parade of familiar faces have little to work with. There's no sense of era, really, just more and more time spent in the company of hateful or corrupted characters. I enjoyed it to a degree, but is it one I'd keep coming back to? Not particularly. In addition, Depp's prosthetics - and in particular contact lenses - are too distracting.

Had a less talented actor taken the lead in 'Black Mess', it wouldn't have been half the film it is. Johnny Depp completely carries this film, elevating what is some very average material and a generic script to something that is at least engaging and occasionally entertaining. His portrayal of notorious gangster James 'Whitey' Bulger is brilliant, and is the sole reason that 'Black Mass' is worth watching.Depp aside, this film doesn't have much going for it. As someone who watches a lot of crime/dramas, there's nothing about the storyline or script of 'Black Mass' that makes it stand out. It's dominated by scenes of blood and violence and often gets carried away with itself, but beyond the high level production and Depp's excellent acting, 'Black Mess' is just a standard gangster film.

I remember liking this a lot when I first saw it, but on watching it a second time, there are a couple of problems. Depp's great here, there's no denying that, in fact the majority of the cast is great here, the main problem is focus. The film really has no plot, it just jumps from moment to moment, without any real connection. It's obviously about Bulger being an informant, but I feel like this could've been handled better than this. Scott Cooper has talent here though, he has a passion for what he does, but he's a bit overzealous with this being only his third film. It takes cues from other mob movies well, there's nothing here that feels like a blatant knock-off of "Goodfellas" or "Casino", and the story here could be interesting with better connectivity. In the hands of Scorsese, this would've been a classic, but Scorsese already did this, he did "The Departed". I know that comparison has been made a million times before, but it's just a better, more engaging movie than this. The performances are great, the premise is great, it just lacks focus. It hits all the bases, just not hard enough to really leave an impact. This might've worked better as a miniseries actually, not condensed into a 2 hour movie. I like Scott Cooper though, I think he has serious potential, similar to "Hostiles", a few minor changes and this would've been a lot better.

I had gotten my hopes up for Black Mass, perhaps too high, when I heard Johnny Depp would be playing the lead role as infamous Boston gangster Whitey Bulger. Combined with director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) it was reasonable to think that Black Mass could be a triumphant return to Donnie Brasco form for Johnny Depp, and a strong gangster picture in its own right. Upon seeing the film, I was disappointed. Depp's Whitey Bulger lives up to the hype, but the movie around his performance never got me hooked.Black Mass recalls a period of time in the mid 1970s when Irish Mob Boss Whitey Bulger began working with his brother, Billy Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch) and FBI informant John Connely (Joel Edgerton), in an effort to take down the rival Mob families of Boston. Sure, it is an interesting true story, and Whitey Bulger is an interesting real life character, but the movie doesn't do enough to warrant a full-fledged dramatic film. Black Mass plays like a documentary. It follows certain characters, and explains the inner workings of the Irish Mob and the FBI. But this isn't a documentary, it's a crime drama. In a documentary, the interest comes from seeing the actual historical evidence of the story. In a film, you have to do more, and I never felt that Black Mass had anything of its own to say about Whitey Bulger, the Mob, or the FBI. The drama in Black Mass is incidental. All I saw was a film that tells me what happened, but not what it meant for anyone involved.The reason Black Mass doesn't work is not because of the performances. Individually, there is some great acting on display. Edgerton and Cumberbatch are convincing as meaty Bostonians, and Kevin Bacon gives a performance reminiscent of his work in Mystic River. Depp, however, is the main attraction, and his Whitey Bulger is the first truly Oscar-worthy performance from him in years. His cold, blue eyes can stare at the screen and tell you more about his character than any amount of writing can. And that's a good thing, because Bulger is not much of a character on the page. According to the script, he's a bad, bad, guy. Depp does all the heavy lifting. He fleshes out Bulger as much as humanly possible, illustrating his fierce connection to his son, and his hair trigger temper, but it's still not enough to save the film.Black Mass is not a bad film, but it is a misguided one. There are good performances all around, and hints of strong filmmaking, but the movie never managed to grab me. Simply telling Whitey Bulger's story is not enough. With only an admirable Johnny Depp performance to differentiate it from the countless crime dramas that have come and gone in Hollywood, Black Mass is destined to be forgotten.43/100