Theater Whore: Black Mass

Black Mass 8/10

I finally got a chance to watch the movie Black Mass starring Johnny Depp. Before I saw this he as pretty much the only person I knew was in the movie. Turns out there was also Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard, Adam Scott, and Dakota Johnson. I had heard of the guy James”Whitey” Bulger mostly after he was captured but didn't know much else about him. This movie managed to cover a good portion of his criminal career as well as the corruption in the FBI that was supposed to be taking him down.

Johnny Depp has one of his best performances in years as Bulger. I like when I can watch a movie and forget that I am watching a movie and I felt that was with this. Bulger is controlling organized crime in Boston and starts off small but gets big fast because he and his gang are ruthless as hell. They will beat people to death that you thought were their friends because of mistakes they made. Joel Edgerton plays FBI agent John Connolly that grew up with Bulger and his brother and now senator William Bulger played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Bulger trades information with Connolly for the ability to continue his criminal ways. He pretty much uses the FBI to get rid of his enemies.

The Review: Tusk

This contains spoilers. What the fuck did I just watch? I have never said that sentence in a good way. Maybe after I go to a strip club for the first time I will. I just finished watching the movie Tusk written and directed by Kevin Smith. I am a huge fan of his movies for the most part. Six of his 11 films I have liked which is a good track record even if he were a fighter. This was not one of them. I'd heard of its development from listening to his podcast and was excited to finally get the chance to check it out. I totally could've lived without seeing this.

This is about a guy played by Justin Long that is on a podcast that heads to Canada to make fun of an interview a kid that chopped his leg off playing with a sword. He gets there and the kid has killed himself. He finds an ad with a guy played by Michael Parks offering lodging and also has some good stories to tell. He gets there and is drugged by the old man and told that he is going to be turned into a walrus. Meanwhile back at home his co-host and girlfriend are having the sex with each other.

Who Should Be The Joker?

Ryan Gosling as The Joker?! Shut up and take my money! Well, that was being reported but then shut down because he didn't want to commit to the amount of films required. I previously wrote a blog about who the best Joker was (click here to read that). Later I wrote a Who Should Be? featuring some actors that I almost wanted to use for this. That time it was for Dr. Strange and it looks like one of the people I picked, Benedict Cumberbatch, will play him...possibly maybe.

Jared Leto is the next name being tossed out to play Joker in the Suicide Squad movie. I'm not sure how it will tie into the upcoming DC films. That is a lot of characters to introduce but if they do it anything like the animated version, Batman Assault On Arkham, which did a great job of showcasing the characters.

Joker is one of if not the most well known villains in comic books, cartoons, and movies. He is never played the same and anyone that would try to do what Heath Ledger did would be a bad idea. He didn't copy Jack Nicholson just as Nicholson didn't copy Cesar Romero.

Who Should Be Dr. Strange?

Word is going around that a Dr. Strange film is in the works. Of course more important than who is directing, writing, or producing it is who will be playing the lead character. Some are reporting that it may be John Hamm, which isn't the worst idea ever. It's fine. It's fine. He is funny, has a great personality, and most people man or woman wouldn't kick him out of bed. Another name being thrown around far more than I am comfortable with is Johnny Depp. This...I just can't handle seeing Depp playing Dr. Strange.

Nothing against Depp as a human, but I'm sick of him being weird. With all the stuff hes done with Tim Burton, all the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, and that terrible Lone Ranger flick he just doesn't need to be attached to anything involving magic in any way. Years ago, because they have been talking about this film for decades now, I thought Robert Downey Jr. would be a good Dr. Strange. This was of course before he popped up in Iron Man where he was pretty damned good.

Theater Whore: The Lone Ranger

So I decided to watch The Lone Ranger because I was in the mood to torture myself. I had heard all the reviews but nothing to detailed to spoil the movie and saw how little it made compared to how much it cost to make. To me this movie was destined to fail just like John Carter and Green Hornet. They are characters that millions of people know but that doesn’t mean that folks are gonna want to shell over close to $20 to watch them. 

The premise of this movie is pretty simple. Tonto played by Johnny Depp is telling the story of the adventures he and The Lone Ranger had. This, by the way, completely removed any sense of danger the film presented since he was an old man telling the story and The Lone Ranger was known as someone who could no longer die after being killed. So when no one can be killed why should I care what they do?