Black Mass Poster

Black Mass (2015)

Biography | Drama 
Rayting:   6.9/10 168.9K votes
Country: USA | UK
Language: English
Release date: 15 October 2015

The true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf.

Movie Trailer

Where to Watch

  • Buy
  • Buy
  • Buy

User Reviews

sfsknight03 20 September 2015

I don't usually write reviews but I felt compelled to inform others about how awful this film was. And I want to prefice this by saying I love crime films and have seen the greats such as Goodfellas, the Godfather, and The Departed but this was just drivel.

Let's start with the acting: Johnny Depp plays Boston crime lord James "Whitey" Bulger and reveals virtually nothing about the character he plays aside from the violent actions he portrays. The supporting cast does nothing to make this a compelling story either with the exception of Joel Edgerton's John Connolly as a street-wise kid turned FBI agent loyal to Bulger's cause.

The pacing and dialogue are also the biggest culprits here. The film develops slowly leaving the watcher wondering if it will ever pick up to an emotional crescendo with only to find out the ride is as monotonous as your daily drive. Moreover, the dialogue feels like students taking turns reading out of a textbook. I know that the film is a biographic one but there's no need to have it feel as though you're reading a Wikipedia article.

Likewise, the musical score tries to underpin the uneasy feel of the movie but only works to put the viewer to sleep with its two tone rise and fall. None of the cinematography and shots of the scenes work to create anything worth capturing attention. There are shots of Southie that do convey the bleak outlook of Bulger's turf but they are few and far between as the film mostly focuses on the boring and uninspired dialogue and setting the actors are captured in such as living rooms, offices, dark bars, and car interiors.

If I was to summarize watching this film with an analogy I would describe it as eating and tasting a cardboard box.

Troy_Campbell 13 October 2015

Fmovies: The American crime genre is arguably the cornerstone of modern cinema. Think cinematic masterpieces and there's a good chance every third one is a mobster flick or underworld yarn. This breed of film is nothing if not reliable. Why, then, is the first notable movie about one of U.S.A's most notorious and durable heads of crime so unmemorable? Checking off key points in an organised but uninspired manner, this James "Whitey" Bulger biopic is seemingly more concerned about fitting in all the Wiki-worthy moments rather than truly delving into the psyche of a monstrous man. The unfocused script stems from the choice to trace two decades of Bulger's life (1975 to 1995), an unwieldy stretch of time that results in an unclear filmic timeline and the requirement for truly horrible makeup and wigs. Johnny Depp has succeeded at portraying a gangster before – his John Dillinger in Public Enemies is enthralling – however he's lumped with too many poorly executed physical alterations and character development shortcomings to make an impression here. Aussie Joel Edgerton fares better as a morally intriguing federal agent skating on thin ice, and Kevin Bacon is enjoyable as a frustrated FBI boss, but why Benedict Cumberbatch signed on for such an inconsequential role, as Bulger's Senator brother, is anyone's guess. Scott Cooper keeps it relatively low-key behind the camera, aside from a couple of stylish murder sequences, with the suitably dour cinematography and unfussy score following suit. Overall Black Mass is never overtly bad, per se; its major sin is just being so damn standard.

Eliott-Smith 9 September 2015

The only time I ever recall of being terrified of Johnny Depp as a character was in Sweeney Todd and I never thought he could top that performance.

But I stand corrected, his performance as Whitey Bulger is not only terrifying as hell but one of the best performances Depp has ever pulled off! This is the type of the film that makes you want more and more after each scene is done all the way towards the end, and the supporting characters really help Black Mass reach its full potential of hitting the right spots for a moviegoer. Scott Cooper did an amazing job in this biopic he also she be up for best director, Joel Edgerton steals the spotlight in some scenes and bloody nails it in all the screen time he gets. This film also has a nice funny side to it as well which really makes you laugh then BAM all seriousness. By far probably the best film I have seen this year!

Deserves more than 10/10

ArchonCinemaReviews 3 October 2015

Black Mass fmovies. The intrigue of all crime movies relies on a simple idea: people are complex, but actions are not. Behind every reductive, one-word crime —"murder," "theft," "extortion"– is a human with a motive and a history to support that motive. Part of the reason we follow the stories of criminals is to overlay ourselves on their paths, trace the steps around their intentions, and see where they turn where you would not. Great crime stories give us the opportunity feel our own humanity guide us through darkness. Unfortunately, I felt nothing while watching Black Mass.

Heralded as a return to acting form for Johnny Depp, Black Mass tells the true-crime story of James "Whitey" Bulger, a mythologized, south-Boston crime lord who operated from the late 70's to early 90's. As an adaptation of the best-selling book of the same name by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill, the film portrays the key years of Bulger's ascent to power in the Boston crime world, during which he acted as an FBI-informant through slick FBI agent (and Southie homeboy) John Connolly (Joel Edgerton). At the behest of Connolly and his less enthusiastic boss Charles McGuire (Kevin Bacon), Bulger provides information that precipitates the downfall of the Italian mob, allowing his own Winter Hill gang to take over all aspects of Boston crime, from the drug trade to money laundering, and everything in-between.

However, with such a compelling, cant-fail crime premise, the film is bafflingly hollow. Other than hearing a laundry list of crimes that Bulger supposedly spearheads, we almost never see any crimes being committed, other than the odd shotgun rampage or prostitute murder (both which felt sadly derivative for such gruesome scenes). Doors slam, money is exchanged, and men with furrowed brows walk hastily down empty alleys—but it never feels like we are made to understand why.

Where is the money coming from? What are Whitey's motivations? Who are the victims of these crimes, or rather, where are the commoners (for a film with such a large cast, it seems completely devoid of extras) of Boston at all? Even the undeniable Benedict Cumberbatch seems adrift and misused in his role as Whitey's state senator brother Billy Bulger.

Director Scott Cooper chose to focus only on a handful of key years during Whitey's reign of terror, perhaps to draw focus on his peak instead of wasting time on his rise or fall. Unfortunately, the result is a dubiously avowed criminal juggernaut who feels–and sometimes looks—like he is made out of paper. Much has been made of Depp's transformation into the balding, ghostly Bulger through the magic of makeup, prosthetics, and false teeth. He looks legitimately ghoulish throughout the film, yet the performance feels thin and insubstantial, perhaps less due to Depp's acting than to the camera's disinterest.

Depp does has his moments, especially in one particularly tense scene where he slinks out of the shadows to confront Connolly's untrusting wife Marianne (Julianne Nicholson), lurking over her like a pale, demonic shadow. During that scene, I felt like I was watching a horror movie. Afterwards, I could only lament the fact the rest of the movie didn't try harder to be a horror movie, or didn't try harder to be anything interesting at all.

Black Mass has the trappings of a great film with solid performances, beautifully lit shots, and a wealth of source materials, making its ultimate failure that much more disappoin

jacobcornblatt 20 September 2015

I try not to get my hopes up too much for certain movies, and "Black Mass" (which I got very excited about) just reminds me why.

Oh, Scott Cooper... how did you manage to make one of the most twisted, unusual, and mysterious gangster stories into an emotionless web of a film? From acting to editing, there was so much wrong that it's almost surprising.

My main issue was the nonexistence of a certain necessity: stakes. In all great mafia flicks, stakes are essential. Would "Goodfellas" have been as remarkable if it didn't feel like any wrong move would set off a universe-ending set of events? Would the "Godfather" have been considered the greatest film of all time if a war wasn't seconds away from breaking out? "Black Mass" managed to keep a story that easily could've had those steaks from having any at all. This was, of course, caused by the emotionless acting, but more on that in a second. But this film really made me not care if the protagonist (whether you consider that to be Bulger or Connolly) lives or dies; and in a mob movie, that is a worse crime than anything committed on screen.

So the acting I blame entirely on Cooper. Every single actor did a great job with what they were given, but the problem is that they were given the wrong thing. For example, Depp was probably told to play a silent yet psychotic, friendly yet intimidating crime lord. Did he do that well? Absolutely. Is that who the character was written as? Not at all. Same goes for Joel Edgerton's - who I thought did the best job out of all of the actors - character, Jesse Plemons' character, and even smaller characters like Adam Scott's. All those actors did well, but not in the right parts.

The list goes on with issues, so let's talk about why the movie got 2 stars rather than zero (therefore, let's talk about the positives). I've heard some critics discuss the overuse of violence in the film. Though there is quite a bit of violence, I thought it was used very tastefully. No blood was used where it didn't seem necessary, and personally, I think that the violence becomes numbing, which takes us even further into the mob guys' mentality on murder. Also, I thought the shooting locations were very well chosen, as they really captured the narrow-mindedness of the lead characters' lives.

So should you see this movie? -If you love mafia movies of any shape or size, then go see it. -If you love Johnny Depp, wait until it comes out on demand. -If you don't love mafia movies, haven't seen many mafia movies, or just have none of the listed qualities above, then don't see this film.

srfzr-x80 17 September 2015

Encompassed with episodic rhythm and an awfully conventional format, Scott Cooper mutates a story of rich soil capable of greatness to a detaching and routine crime film. Black Mass grasps only on the superficial layer as it focuses solely on documented events of the crime they organized. Due to this, the movie suffers as it seems to be merely a biography- laying out these horrific events in these specified timeframes but not putting any focus on the characters that performed it. All action, but none of the story that happens between that allows the audience to view who they are and what they're like. Black Mass fails to delve deeper into the roots, and this of course limits the scope of all the actors. Great mob cinematography such as The Godfather, Goodfellas, and the Sopranos- all of these were so great because they allowed the audience to see what the characters were like when they weren't shooting, beating, or plotting against people.

That being said, in their limited boxes boy do these actors put on a show. Led by Johnny Depp and Joel Edgerton, the audience can tell straight from the start that this cast reveled and lived their roles. With the amount of overwhelming, heinous events; the film had to have someone cold-hearted and sleazy, and woah did these actors become the epitome of that. However, due to this heavily limited character, the only "rise" the audience feels are from the bone-chilling actions that these men did. Black Mass fails to captivate. And when the closing credits roll a feeling of disappointment washes over you, as it feels like you just watched an episode on the ID channel with really, really good actors.

Similar Movies

9.0
Rocketry: The Nambi Effect

Rocketry: The Nambi Effect 2022

7.0
Gangubai Kathiawadi

Gangubai Kathiawadi 2022

7.6
Elvis

Elvis 2022

8.3
Major

Major 2022

7.4
Jhund

Jhund 2022

7.1
Rescued by Ruby

Rescued by Ruby 2022

6.9
Jerry and Marge Go Large

Jerry and Marge Go Large 2022

8.4
Kaun Pravin Tambe?

Kaun Pravin Tambe? 2022


Share Post

Direct Link

Markdown Link (reddit comments)

HTML (website / blogs)

BBCode (message boards & forums)

Watch Movies Online | Privacy Policy
Fmovies.guru provides links to other sites on the internet and doesn't host any files itself.