They tried to take something that would have made a good mini-series and crammed it into 2 hours
Agreed. The pitch is so dangerously unoriginal (when I watched the trailer for the first time, I was like "okay, so, it's the story of a fictional gangster who make it big ?") that only the "details", the characters, the dialogues, could have made it good.
Reason 2, among many others is that its WAYYYYY too preachy. And it shoehorns weird early 21st century identity politics into a movie about the 1940s.
I found the movie surprisingly awful, writing and acting-wise, but that bit was the final nail to the coffin. I knew that Affleck, despite being a good director, was a total moron when it came to politics (see his rant at Bill Maher's show and how he tried to cover up the fact that he has slave-owning ancestors)... but the scene where Coughlin puts the evil white banker in his place took me by surprise. I felt like I was listening to the rant of a whiny SJW student from CalArts. Without it, I was willing to give the movie a 4 because of a few well directed action sequences, the photography, and Elle Fanning's performance. But in the end, I gave it a 3. Affleck can go *beep* himself.
_____
"I think working around a bunch of nurses is giving you a false sense of your ability to intimidate."
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MGurlea
8 years ago
Scaar_Alexander,
I thought this movie was OK. Not bad but not great either. Affleck has done way better movies. But yes, the scene with Christian Clemenson seemed like a total anachronism. Would a tough gangster in the 1930's really say that or is that 2016 showing up in this period movie?
The other racial things in the movie seemed OK and to fit for the most part. I am especially glad though that they included the racism and bigotry used against, the Irish, Italians, and Catholics. That totally goes against the current far left narrative of black Americans have a completely and total monopoly on being victims of bigotry and racism and every other race out there lives and has always lived a privileged life on Easy Street. I hope some far left people see this movie and go, "Wait, there is bigotry against other people and not just blacks?"
And ya, Affleck's last appearance on Bill Maher was bad. But it is always great when Bill calls out fellow liberals on their *beep* and illogical ideals that contradict each other. When that happens the guest's head usually explodes and they have a meltdown right there on set. I have seen it a few times on his show. Affleck was the most high profile one to happen.
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