New Black Mass Movie Received Mostly Positive Reviews From Major Critics
Warner Bros. Pictures released their new action/drama movie, “Black Mass” into theaters today, September 18th, 2015, and all the major, top movie critics have turned in their reviews. It turns out that most of them thought very highly of it, giving it an overall 69 score out of a possible 100 across 34 reviews at the Metacritic.com site.
The film stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Joel Edgerton and Johnny Depp. We’ve posted blurbs from a few of the critics,below.
Scott Foundas from Variety, gave it a really nice 90 score, stating: “If Johnny Depp’s mesmerizing performance — a bracing return to form for the star after a series of critical and commercial misfires — is the chief selling point of Black Mass, there is much else to recommend this sober, sprawling, deeply engrossing evocation of Bulger’s South Boston fiefdom and his complex relationship with the FBI agent John Connolly, played with equally impressive skill by Joel Edgerton.”
Brian Truitt over at USA Today, gave it an 88 grade, stating: “As notorious gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, Depp astounds with one of the best performances in his long career while co-star Joel Edgerton steps up equally well as John Connolly, an ethically questionable FBI agent who flirts with the wrong side of the law.”
Peter Travers from Rolling Stone, gave it an 88 grade, saying: “Ice-cold. Dead eyes. Demonic laugh. His face a mask you can’t read until he’s up in yours. Then run. That’s Johnny Depp giving everything he’s got in a riveting, rattlesnake performance as South Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger in Black Mass.”
Kenneth Turan over at the Los Angeles Times, gave it a an 80 grade. He stated: “If the final result doesn’t transcend emotionally in the manner of the gold standard of Boston noir, Clint Eastwood’s “Mystic River,” the fault is not in the execution but the unyieldingly oppressive nature of the underlying material.”
Joe Morgenstern over at the Wall Street Journal, gave it an 80 score, stating: “The film, directed with exceptional flair and elegant concision by Scott Cooper, even comes from Warner Bros., the studio that specialized in psychopathic monsters played by such stars as James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson during Hollywood’s golden age.”
Lou Lumenick from the New York Post, gave it a 75 score, stating: “While highly entertaining and sometimes inspired, Black Mass is more like Scorsese lite. In perhaps the most memorable sequence, Bulger sardonically tests a childhood friend (Joel Edgerton) for loyalty by teasing out a “secret” steak sauce in what’s basically a reworking/homage of Joe Pesci’s famous “I’m funny, how?” scene in “GoodFellas.”
Richard Roeper over at the Chicago Sun-Times, gave it a 75 grade, stating: “This is a good, solid, well-executed crime story. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Peter Hartlaub from the San Francisco Chronicle, gave it a 75 grade, stating: “A solid piece of filmmaking, from subtle beginning to the excessive end.”
Michael Phillips over at the Chicago Tribune, gave it a 75 grade. He said: “If anything, director Cooper is so intent on portraying Bulger as a man, not a monster, the man comes off a little softer than he was, probably.”
Chris Nashawaty over at Entertainment Weekly, gave it a 75 score, saying: “Cooper, the director of Crazy Heart and the underrated Out of the Furnace, has made a tight and tense gangster film with Black Mass. But it’s a pretty straight-ahead entry in the genre, albeit one peppered with spicy performances.”
Todd McCarthy from The Hollywood Reporter, gave it a 70 score, stating: “Depp’s instinct for observing, underlaying and keeping things in, then letting it all out when required, pays big dividends here in a performance far more convincing than his previous big gangster role, John Dillinger in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies; it’s unexpected, very welcome at this point in his career, and one of his best.”
Ty Burr at the Boston Globe, gave it a 63 grade. He stated: “It’s a solid if not stellar crime drama, well put together, very well acted, and lacking only a genuine reason to exist.”
Joe Neumaier from the New York Daily News, gave it a 60 grade, stating: “The movie itself is an intriguing but ultimately unspecial Feds-vs.-hoods drama. But as the sinister, snakelike South Boston criminal Whitey Bulger, Depp delivers.”
Ann Hornaday from the Washington Post, gave it a 50 score, stating: “Even filmmakers and actors as fine as these haven’t managed to solve one of cinema’s most enduring challenges — making criminals interesting without exalting them.”
Finally, A.O. Scott over at the The New York Times, gave it a 50 score. He stated: “Mr. Cooper’s direction is skillful, if overly reliant on borrowed Scorseseisms (especially when it comes to music), and the cast is first-rate, but the film is a muddle of secondhand attitudes and half-baked ideas. It feels more like a costume party than a costume drama.” Stay tuned. Also, get your favorite Movie stuff, and more by Clicking Here.
