Lawless

Went to see lawless at the cinema last night, really recommend it.

Wasnt how i expected and quite violent in some parts.

Tom hardy was his usual top notch but special mention to Guy Pearce he makes a cracking bad guy, to me he felt like a cross between Alan Rickman from Die Hard and the German officer in Inglorious B*rstards very scary even when he wasnt being very menacing.

overall really good film and urge you to go see.

Hi Bomdangle,

I saw it on Friday of last week, and completely agree with you on every count. Hardy was excellent, but Guy Pearce completely stole the show. He a terrifying as the Special Agent. Shia actually impressed me as well, and usually I'm not a fan. Jason Clarke was perfectly cast as the drunk old brother, and too was menacing in his own way.

Hillcoat really established an atmosphere in the film, and the music fit so well.

The violence was beyond anything I was expecting. It was incredibly realistic and visceral, but not overdone in a 'Hollywood' style way.

Overall, highly recommended to anyone. Excellent film and thoroughly enjoyable.

Very good film and I agree, Hardy and Pierce put in excellent performances.

The story flowed very nicely with some real excellent scenes, the shoot out at the end in particular was very good.

I thought it was a bit "meh" to be honest.

Plus points:
The action scenes were excellent.
In general the pace of the film was very good.
The score was perfectly suited to the visuals.
The violence was spot on - showed the dark side of the era without ever feeling gratuitous.
The acting was first class: good turns by Leboeuf, Pearce and Oldman, and another tour de force by Hardy - slipping effortlessly into the role and managing to be both awkward and menacing at the same time, all through grunting.

On the downside, Gary Oldman's part was underused

The main problem for the film I think was that the basic plot (guys run illegal business, other guys want a cut, guys don't want that, war ensures) wasn't in itself interesting enough to make a very good film out of on its own. It could have been made more interesting in a number of ways:
- more focus on the backstory of the characters: what made them go into the alcohol business? How did they become violent and why? etc.
- a look into the rights and wrongs of prohibition, and the inevitable criminal activity it resulted in.
- How the general population viewed the violence: were they on someone's side?

The film sometimes threatened to touch on these themes, but only briefly. In the end, we were meant to accept that "our" criminals were the good guys, so their violence was fine, whereas the corrupt officials were the bad guys, so theirs wasn't.

It became a simple story of good vs evil, and as such a fairly generic gangster movie, albeit a violent, well-paced and brilliantly acted one.

A good film, and good entertainment, but could have explored the deeper themes more seriously, and as such a bit disappointing.

5.5/10.

Fair points Mike, well made. I understand where you're coming from. I agree on Oldman's part- judging from the trailer and advertising, I assumed he would have a bigger part.

5.5 is harsh, it was after all entertaining, so I upgrade to 6.

Marking films always seems random though: I gave X-men first class a 7, although objectively it was probably no better than Lawless, but because I didn't expect it to be anything other than it was (good harmless fun, decent idea behind the plot and overall well acted) so although it was realistically at most going to get about 8 (that it didn't was because it had a couple of flaws), I was less harsh with it because I had fewer expectations.

Lawless on the other hand felt like it had the potential to be a 9, but fell (IMO) short, and seems to have come off worse in the marking.

Perhaps this marking thing is just completely unnecessary: it introduces a comparitive element (this film was better than that one) to what is really best just an absolute judgement (the film was rubbish/ok/good/fantastic for this reason).

Anyone seen The Sweeny or The new Bourne film. Thinking about seeing one of them this weekend, not sure which to go and view.

Haven't sen either Lumbering_Jack i'm afraid. Hearing that the new Bourne film isn't that great though?

The Sweeny is rocketing at the box office apparently, so that could be the better choice!

yeah this is a film i wanna watch.. glad you enjoyed it

I like the look of this film. But was La Beuf his usual irritating self in this? Don't rate that guy as an actor and he is a step-down from the guys he starred along side in this.

Watched it last night., Decent- Anyone think Hardys voice sounded abit like bane!

I thought that mysti when I watched Warrior. I guess that's his american voice that he puts on.