Black Mass

Summary

True story about James Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous criminal in south Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down the mafia family invading his turf.

Characters/Actors

Johnny Depp as James Bulger

Johnny Depp is literally incredible as he plays this spine chilling, murderous, criminal, showing us that he's not just all about dressing up to play children's favourite characters, but he can also play a serious role, in which he did in Black Mass.

When i first saw Johnny Depp in this biopic movie, i was a little creeped out by his blue contacts, which made him look more scary and malicious as it made his eyes look really piercing.  Plus the gap in his tooth really played a important part as it gave him more of a characteristic to his role and even when he smiled, it showed us he can still look evil.

What did you guys think of his role?

Benedict Cumberbatch as Billy Bulger

As much of a big actor Benedict Cumberbatch has become, he played a very quiet and small part in this movie, making me wonder if he should of played more of a bigger part, but maybe the movie wanted to focus on more of the criminal side of things since Billy Bulger was on the good side of the law, working as democratic politician.

I think that his character could of been implemented in more scenes perhaps, since he is James's younger brother after-all, but after watching the movie i didn't think much of his character, only that he was put in the movie to let us know that James had a younger brother in his life. 

Dakota Johnson as Lindsey Cyr

Dakota Johnson was another quiet but important part of the movie as she plays James's girlfriend, which must of been a huge part of his life, especially after losing their 6 year old son to a terminal illness.

By Dakota's character Lindsey Cyr, you could tell she was struggling with the life of  being the girlfriend of a feared Boston criminal, especially after their son dying of a terminal illness. This made things harder and more tense for the both of them.

Joel Edgerton as John Connolly

Joel Edgerton did a fantastic job playing the role of John Connolly and he was a well suited actor for the part. 

John Connolly was the suck up type that wanted to live the life of a big time criminal, but wanted to do it under the radar as he worked for the FBI. His character made it a great story as he tried to pretend to work with James for both their benefits, but more so John's, as he wanted to be rich and live a luxurious life.

Memorable Mentions:
Kevin Bacon as Charles McGuire

Peter Sarsgaard as Brian Halloran

Jesse Plemons as Kevin Weeks

Best Scenes

Kevin Weeks Fight Scene

One of the first opening scenes for Kevin Weeks characters is probably one of the best ones in the movie, because it's unexpected and a very brutal one at most! 

We see Kevin as a security door man at one of the local bars in Boston, trying to do his job, he ends up getting into a fight with James Bulger's cousin and two other men , but all this turned out well for Kevin as it showed James that he was a tough kid as he saw him get his face get beaten like a pulp by three men and carries on fighting the three of them.

This also opened a lot of doors and very disturbing scenes within this movie as the character of Kevin Weeks indulges in the criminal life of James Bulger. 

I'll pull the plug myself

Dakota played an outstanding role in where her son is lying in a coma in hospital and she tells James, "I will pull the plug myself." By this, she means she will put her own son out of his misery and this sparks James into rage, making the scene very emotional and tense.

As a evil man James was, he really loved his son and he made Lindsey feel more lower than he was a criminal, making her feel bad for what she had just said to him.

This part of the movie also pushes James over the edge, making him more outrages as he kills more people with out any consequences at all after his son dies.

Shootout Scene

This is probably one of my favourite scenes of the movie, as we see James Bulger goes on a mad killing spree, killing two men in broad day light after finding out one of them snitched on James to the FBI.

James walks out in the middle of a car park, shooting the driver in the head and goes after the one who snitched on him, shooting him point blank as he lies on the ground.

The best part about this scene was how casual he just walks off like nothing happened or as if it was just a normal day for James, but the un-normality of the scene was the terrifying screams of the public who were close by to the crime scene.

Intimidating Dinner

The scene where James Bulger is invited to John Connolly's house for dinner must be one of the tensest scenes i have seen Johnny Depp do ever! I mean he looks terrifying and you could literally feel his presence while watching this particular scene.

James Bulger basically intimidates one of the FBI agents about being a snitch as he gave up a "secret family recipe" easily to James, but James was joking, putting the agent on edge as if he was double bluffing the joke, as if he was secretly serious about it all. 

Also James goes to John's wife's bedroom to get her to join them for dinner, but James has other intentions and intimidates her in a sick sexual manner by grabbing her throat.

If i was in the room or being intimidated within that scene, i think i would literally weep a little and crap myself!... I'm joking, but what a tense scene that was!  

His Criminal Days Are Over

Another tense but more of a awkward scene is where John Connolly gets put on the spot by FBI agent, Fred Wyshak.

Fred Wyshak blasts John about James Bulger not being caught yet for all the criminal acts he has done and asks John about why no one has done anything about it. John tells him that James's "Criminal days are over" and he "Doesn't use phones." 

This scene was a little bit cringe worthy to watch, as John gets put on the spot and tries to wiggle his way out of the sticky situation, but a very important scene as i think it lead up to the arrest of John Connolly for working along side James.

Getting Arrested Vs On The Run

Towards the end of the movie, we see multiple of arrest of James Bulger's crew including John Connolly, Kevin Weeks & Steve Flemmi, but i guess that was the obvious part because they both get questioned by the FBI, as if they're the ones telling the story of James Bulger.

James on the other hand goes on the run, giving his younger brother a last phone call, telling him that he won't see him for a while.

Fun fact!... James Bulger finally got caught in 2011, after being on the run for 16 years and imprisoned for life in 2013. 

Memorable mentions:

Kill The Whore

Intimidating Marianne Connolly

Conclusion

When i watched the trailer for Black Mass, i thought i was going to be watching a biopic action movie, but instead it was dry and slow at times. The only good parts of the movie was when James or someone was killing somebody else. This was the only action you could really enjoy and some of the scenes were too brutal to even enjoy.

The characters were above par, but Johnny Depp really did outdo himself with this one, as he did a fantastic job in creating a real live monster within this movie, even if some of it was make believe. He really made me feel intimidated by his character at times and cringe worthy to watch him in some of the scenes throughout the movie.

Overall i enjoyed the movie and would recommend to anyone, but i thought it was over hyped and the trailer played most of the best parts of the movie, which probably made people believe it was something much better, but still a great movie.

What did you guys think of Johnny Depp's transition? Scary!?