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As any true cowboy flick, it has one or two humorous characters, an innocent heroine and gritty action scenes. Mainly, it has a captivating ...

As any true cowboy flick, it has one or two humorous characters, an innocent heroine and gritty action scenes. Mainly, it has a captivating story which Lawless mostly lacked.
  Directed by John Hillcoat (The Road) with a screenplay by Nick Cave. The plot follows three bootlegging brothers who face opposition from a new deputy in town (Guy Pearce). And Pearce was brilliant as he is always in his selective roles. It had great expectations for this movie after viewing the trailer, as it had been a long time since I'd seen a high-budget horse opera flick. Clint Eastwood's era is still missed. Lawless had material but had no coordination in how to use it. It is based on a historical novel written by Matt Bondurant explaining the moonshining operation in Virginia, and the tale of his grandfather Jack Bondurant (Shia LaBeuof).
  However, there are plus points. The list of fine actors include the previously mentioned LaBeuof and Pearce, along with Gary Oldman from Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy as a renowned gunslinging gangster. The former had not many chances in off-mainstream movies and is best-known for his headlining in the Transformer series. He used to star in the teen comedy series Even Stevens where I became a fan of his. Needless to say, LaBeuof is still good thespian and his latest focus on choosing more determined parts is nice on the ears. He plays the youngest brother with Tom Hardy (Bane in The Dark Knight Rises) is the oldest and a greater unknown Jason Clarke is stuck in the middle. Jessica Chastain plays Hardy's love interest on-screen and sizzles. And #spoiler# she has a sexy nude scene. Dane DeHaan also acted to-the-role in a small capacity. The settings, background and score are brilliant and truly capture the essence of the wild, wild west.
  Still, there is no depth in the storyline. Only a few fights, scared and brave authorities make up the entire follow-through. Even the bootlegging of moonshine is not interestingly showcased. With better screenwriting and better attention to detail, Lawless would have been one of the best western movies of the decade.
  It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 65th Cannes.The film made $53m worldwide off $45m largely because of the mass cinema murder in Colorado last year. As mentioned a handful of times before in my blogposts.

Rotten Tomatoes: 67%.
IMDB: 7.3/10.
BO101: 2/4.

2 comments:

AJaye2009 said...

Nice review for a terrible film.

NisarMasoom said...

Thank you and yes it underwhelmed my expectations.