Johnny Should Get An Oscar!

Rating: 7/10 (18 September 2015)

I saw "Black Mass", starring Johnny Depp-Mortdecai, The Lone Ranger_2013; Joel Edgerton-The Gift, Star Wars:Episode 3_Revenge of the Sith; Dakota Johnson-Fifty Shades of Grey, Need For Speed; Benedict Cumberbatch-The Imitation Game, 12 Years a Slave, Oh yeah, he is playing Doctor Strange in 2016 and Kevin Bacon-The Following_tv, X-Men:First Class.
This movie is based on the true story of James "Whitey" Bulger, who was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for 12 years. Johnny plays James and he does a really good job of it. His make-up, hair and eye contact lenses completely change his looks so much so, that he is fairly unrecognizable. Johnny and Benedict play brothers and Joel is a childhood friend that grew up with both of them in Boston, but they all took different career paths; Johnny as the head of the Irish mob, Benedict as a US senator and Joel as an FBI agent. Kevin plays Joel's boss at the FBI headquarters that wants Joel to crack down on Johnny and Dakota plays Johnny's wife. Johnny starts out as a low level Irish criminal in the 1970's & 80's with the Italian Mafia edging in on his territory. Johnny becomes an informer to the FBI so that they will take out his competition, the Mafia, and gets immunity for his earlier criminal life, in exchange for it. The only problem was that Johnny continued with his criminal life. The FBI did not like being played as fools, so that is when Johnny had to go on the run and became the FBI's most wanted man-his $2 million dollar reward was the highest amount ever offered for a felon, except for Osama bin Laden. The movie is very violent with Johnny changing at the drop of a hat, between being nice and psychotic. As the end credits start, you see pictures and video of the real Bulger and his compatriots and they tell you where they are now and what happened to them or how many years sentences they received. It's rated "R" for violence, language, drug use and sexual content-no nudity-and has a running time of 2 hours & 2 minutes. I would not be surprised if Johnny gets an Oscar for this role. I enjoyed it enough that I would buy it on DVD.