Ironically, it is literally a challenge to stay awake through this film. There are four things wrong with this movie, and all of them are named Ben Affleck.As lead actor, writer, director, producer, sorry but he has to take the blame for this snooze-fest.In all fairness, the music also sucks..More than anything, although the basic story is good the script is somewhat lackluster and fails to spark any passion, but also Ben Affleck is terribly out of his acting range in the lead role and never really conveys the essence of a person from the time period.Visually, the movie looks pretty great and the action sequences are very well done.This could have been another great crime movie with a different musical score and more appropriate lead actor and a little harsher editing.

Very good story, well done, well played. Better than average. Bandits are not homer-sexual in this. Romantic view far from reality, but good as a film.

Live by Night - Ben Affleck's 'sorry my Great Grandpa kept slaves' film. So this petty Chicago (I'm not a..)gangster guy gets set up and a very cuddly Don Italiano uses him to get at some Irish gangster guy in Florida. Ben goes uber PC as an Irish guy working for an Italian banging a Cuban/black chick while taking the fight to the KKK - we turned it off. 1/10 - dunno how it ended.

Ben Affleck proves once again that he cannot write, direct, produce and star in a movie. He has failed to create an interesting picture despite the fascinating material he has at hand. First, the novel by Dennis Lehane; second, the territory of gangland Boston and Florida during Prohibition; third and finally, a cast of great actors in the supporting roles from Brendan Gleeson to Elle Fanning, Chris Messina and Chris Cooper. Why isn't this a good movie? It should be, but Affleck once again does not seem to be able to take the helm wearing all those hats and produce a great movie. The stereotypes abound, the women are cardboard cutouts and the Godfather it ain't. I read this movie was originally going to run to three hours, before Warner Bros forced Affleck to cut it. As it is, at a few minutes over 2 hours, I can't imagine sitting through more of this boring, snail-paced and dull gangster film. Don't waste your time on Live By Night: watch the Untouchables, rent the Godfather trilogy or, better yet, go outside and take a long walk instead.