Movie Review: Live By Night (2017)

Hello All,

    Alright folks, so this is going to be the first of five reviews I do this week. I kind of have an order of release planned, but I’m not going to announce all of them in advance in case something happens. First off, we start with the latest film that stars, was written, and directed by Ben Affleck. Now his past efforts in these regards have proven quite good. Argo was great, so was The Town, and Gone Baby Gone. I think I can also say that we’re all really looking forward to the Batman movie he’s got coming down the pipe. So how was his foray into an old school gangster movie based on a novel? Let’s find out together shall we?

Plot Summary - Set in the 1920’s and 30’s, the story follows Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) as he tries to become a high profile criminal.

Pros - The film is stunning visually. It has gorgeous scenery in almost every single frame of the film. The action scenes in it are also pretty good as well.

Cons - The biggest problem with this film by far is the story structure. It’s like somebody took 5 - 6 different subplots, and rearranged them in no real particular order. It’s edited to shit, and it has this weird problem with showing things that should be off screen on screen, and vice versa. It’ll have scenes start in one area, and end in a completely different area for no particular reason. All of the characters are pretty much one note as fuck, with Ben himself being particularly stilted and wooden. The film also refuses to just end, as it drags on and on beyond any logical end point.

Final Score - 2/10

It’s pretty awful, but it just escapes being the worst because of it’s beautiful cinematography.

Next: The Bye Bye Man - I’m actually seeing this one tomorrow, and I’m delaying the rest of them by one day to bring you it, because I hear it is fucking awful, and I’m strangely curious.

Links:

Last Review is Here: Last time, I watched to very good films that were both very sad. You can read that cheery review here.

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Until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.