A paranoid schizophrenic walks into a pub.....

Rating: 8/10 (20 September 2015)

Unlike Medak's 1990 depiction of the Brothers, this starts when the Twins were halfway through their rise to power, and is told through the eyes of Frances Shea, Reggie's soon to be wife, and she gives a pretty mundane Bladerunner style narrative throughout the whole film.
Although in my opinion, Medak's movie is far superior cast wise (Kemp brothers aside), it seemed to depict the Twins as good old boys, the type where a neighbour would say 'oh they'll do anything for you, but if you ever did them a misfortune, they'll come down on you like a ton of bricks'. And it also seemed in that movie, it was from the point of view of Violet Kray, and Ronnie appeared to be the brains of the outfit.
Here, however true the depiction is, it's Reggie for the most part that is the brains, the foundation of the outfit, and Ronnie just seems to be a thorn in the side of the 'firm', the hindrance, and as the film goes along, it's Ronnie who tends to be the films hindrance.
It's not the fault of Hardy, he is brilliant, and proves that he is a force to reckoned with, and here he cements the fact that he is one of the most exciting actors around.
I feel that Helgeland wanted Ronnie to be truly terrifying, with just a hint of dark humour injected into his character, but toward the end of the film, he only had to appear on screen, and he caused many people in the cinema to laugh out loud. And this took you away from the film momentarily.
But as Ronnie's mental health problems start to worsen, Reggie's problems begin to increase, and his tolerance with his brother begins to thin, and his flashes of violence and anger begin to become more frequent, and in turn infect his relationship with Frances.
As a film, the narrative doesn't glamorise the brothers too much, and although they appear to be a lot of fun to be around, Helgeland knows that the Twins are psychopaths, and never makes them out to be pseudo-saints (although in one scene, the camera moves away from an incident involving Reggie and Frances, as Helgeland does want you to sympathise with Reggie just a little).
There are times in the film where I was reminded of Medak's movie, but that's just history I suppose, and in some respects, I kind of envy people who see this first, as they will go into the film with fresh eyes.
But all in all, it's a great movie, the narrative wasn't needed, the technical parts of the film involving Hardy and Hardy are flawless, you really believe that they are doppelgängers and not the work of special effects.
But I feel that if you had the cast of the nineties version and replaced the Kemp's with Hardy, it would be up there with The Long Good Friday as one of the all time great British gangster films.
And there is one scene in Legend, where Hardy is sitting at a table in a casino.......and he is Bond.