Rise to power flick with strong cast but empty characters, weak dialog, no suspense

Rating: 5/10 (18 January 2016)

Yes, Johnny Depp steals show, but the show is so very lame. Bunch of mafia clichés, hollow characters, no genre expected suspense. The movie wants to build idea of mafia friendship, followed by betrayals (this is shown on start already). But relationships among main characters aren't well defined, there are no connecting stories to make bonds believable. I like most actors so i was not prejudiced. I read somewhere Joel Edgerton was good in Black mass. Perhpas that is true, but John Connoly's dialogs were so childish, his actions that should be sneaky, scheming and cunning were simply transparent and unbelievable. No, i did not buy the story for a minute. Which is strange since the story is true. The good part, which isolated could be given high scores: Jimmy Whitey Bulger Johnny Depp looks scary indeed. The empty bright eyes could fit the horror flick. Strong occasional resemblance with Christopher Walken made me think Johnny studied him for this part. He did good job, but director could benefit from mafia classic recipe with Joe Pesci being the funny little guy made scary as hell by the story.