- I had a severe misunderstanding as to what this film was about. I think I only saw the trailer once and clearly didn’t pay that close attention because I thought it was a western. It’s not.
- This has the grossest throat cutting scene since Eastern Promises. There are a couple of scenes of must-hide-behind-your-hands quality violence, although they also do a decent job tempering other bits of horrendous violence by having it take place slightly off screen or from a camera angle where you can’t actually see anything.
- Guy Pearce is spectacularly awful in this and does an excellent turn as the villainous state law man from Chicago. He’s borderline over-the-top in places but I haven’t felt that grossed out by a villain in a long time, so, uh, good for him?
- I really, really loved Tom Hardy in this. I’ve never quite understood the love he gets elsewhere but I found his monosyllabic grunting to be rather hilarious. I like a low-key criminal who is capable of horrific violence while simultaneously keeping a generally calm demeanour otherwise. The revelation that he didn’t drag himself to the hospital when he got his throat cut was pitch perfect.
- The virgin/whore dichotomy of the only two female characters was boring. I didn’t dislike Mia Wasikowska or Jessica Chastain in this, I just wish there had been more to their characters.
- The soundtrack was pretty fantastic.
- Gary Oldman is literally in this for five minutes. If, like me, this was your main motivation for seeing this, you may want to wait until this comes out on DVD. His five minutes are perfectly fine and he has a short but fantastic rage stroke scene, but I’m not sure it’s worth $12.
- I don’t drink that much so I have a hard time understanding the desperate need to drink during prohibition, especially given the disgusting science experiments that passed for liquor during this period.
- There’s an IMDB forum topic called “Can We All Agree Shia LaBeouf is Gratest Actor of Our Time?”
Categories: 2.5 Stars