Tag: Benedict Cumberbatch

video review : Black Mass

video review : Black Mass

Use your hand to cover the “M” on the opening title shot. It’ll be the most entertaining part of the movie. Not that this Boston crime story will necessarily put you to sleep. It’s just that director Scott Cooper is a poor man’s Martin Scorsese.

It’s a case of style over substance as Johnny Depp, looking like an actor in costume, plays the role of Winter Hill Gang leader James Whitey Bulger. The plot preludes his life as a fugitive, but it’s barely interesting enough to make you care.

my rating : 3 of 5

2015

video review : 12 Years A Slave

video review : 12 Years A Slave

There’s a poignant whipping scene involving soap, but the best part of this Slave story come at the end. It’s a beautiful Hans Zimmer song based on the main character. That it sounds like Time from Inception is a blunder, but listening to it is better than watching the movie.

That’s not a moral criticism. Watching a dramatization of an essentially innocent man, or woman, endure the hardships of slavery generally doesn’t bother me. It’s just that, plotwise, Solomon’s story, based on his 1853 memoir, doesn’t necessarily make for an interesting movie.

my rating : 3 of 5

2013