Live by Night

Live by Night_360P

"Maybe it's true. We all find ourselves in lives we didn't expect. But what I learned was powerful men don't have to be cruel."Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) Yet in the best of gangster, powerful men like Michael Corleone and Henry Hill are cruel, no matter how gentle their exteriors. So it seems with Joe Coughlin, a prohibition "bandit," as he calls himself, who doesn't think of himself as a gangster ("I don't wanna be a gangster. Stopped kissing rings a long time ago."). Yet he kills or has others killed in the name of moving toward heaven. Although beautifully appointed and set in Florida and Cuba, writer/director Affleck's crime story misses the weight of crime films, which casually juxtapose the serious with the not so. It lacks the sass of Pulp Fiction and the gravitas of The Godfather with not much of their verbal gymnastics or irony. Joe wanting to be a saint while being a sinner requires an actor of considerable resources, which Affleck showed a modicum of recently in the Accountant because it required him to be affectless. He brings that same stolid mien to this film and endangers the edge necessary for the success of actors like Al Pacino. Like Affleck, the film is listless except when Tommy Guns take charge. As Joe navigates from a low-rent lover, Emma (Sienna Miller), to a classy love, Graciella (Zoe Saldana), director Affleck spends too much time on their embraces and too little on what makes him love them so passionately. He does love his own image as his abundance of self close-ups testifies. Maybe there is no passion, just old affectless Affleck. It's dumping time in Hollywood, and Live by the Night is a classic example of why smart studios dump dull movies in January. It's not all that bad the way Joe is not all that bad. However, it just doesn't have the firepower to go against the big guns in the Oscar race. Remember the wild surprises and rich characters of the long-form Sopranos? Maybe that's why the film gangster genre feels troubled here: The arch enemy, TV!

Actor/writer/director Ben Affleck tries his hand at a period piece in this ambitious crime saga beginning in the 1920s Prohibition era. Joe Coughlin--the son of a renowned Boston police officer--is a small-time crook looking to make a name for himself in the ruthless underworld of organized crime. After some tragic circumstances, he relocates to the South to become the frontman/muscle for an Italian mafia bootlegging operation, but quickly gets plunged into the seedy, seductive world of money, power, greed, and corruption. Intriguing at first, with tense action scenes and character interactions, but follows too many unrelated story threads, has ineffective casting in key roles, too many familiar elements, and concludes in pat, sanctimonious fashion. Despite flavorful ingredients, Affleck's attempt to create a potent, moralizing amalgam of The Town and The Godfather doesn't quite succeed. **½

Ben Affleck proves once again that he cannot write, direct, produce and star in a movie. He has failed to create an interesting picture despite the fascinating material he has at hand. First, the novel by Dennis Lehane; second, the territory of gangland Boston and Florida during Prohibition; third and finally, a cast of great actors in the supporting roles from Brendan Gleeson to Elle Fanning, Chris Messina and Chris Cooper. Why isn't this a good movie? It should be, but Affleck once again does not seem to be able to take the helm wearing all those hats and produce a great movie. The stereotypes abound, the women are cardboard cutouts and the Godfather it ain't. I read this movie was originally going to run to three hours, before Warner Bros forced Affleck to cut it. As it is, at a few minutes over 2 hours, I can't imagine sitting through more of this boring, snail-paced and dull gangster film. Don't waste your time on Live By Night: watch the Untouchables, rent the Godfather trilogy or, better yet, go outside and take a long walk instead.

Prohibition era Boston. Small-time Irish crook Ben Affleck doesn't want to get caught up in the territorial war between Irish gangster Robert Glenister and Italian gangster Remo Girone. But when he falls for Sienna Miller, an inside woman for one of his jobs, it's too late as she's also Glenister's mistress. When a robbery goes wrong and some cops end up dead, and Glenister gets the word about Miller and Affleck, it's only because of Affleck's dad, a police captain who knows everything about everyone in Boston, that Affleck ends up doing some hard time in prison rather than go to the chair or get killed by Glenister. But Miller's dead and when Affleck gets out again, he wants revenge and turns to Girone. Girone sets Affleck up in Florida where Glenister's been moving in on his liquor business. Affleck does well there and manages to take over most of Glenister's business. But Florida isn't just run by gangsters, it's also run by the KKK... Bloody awesome! If you enjoy the 30s and 40s gangster movies starring James Cagney and Lawrence Tierney (Affleck looks so much like him at times, I am convinced he based his physical demeanor in this movie on him), this movie will bring a smile to your face. While Affleck's character is never quite as ruthless or cold as Cagney's and Tierney's trademark roles, he definitely embodies that same kinda spirit. The movie also touches upon the more political/racial/religious aspects of the era, such as where police captain Chris Cooper tells Affleck he will turn a blind eye as long as he keeps his business to the bad (read: non-white) part of town (and of course there's the KKK as already mentioned above). While Affleck is far from the greatest actor ever, he seems very aware of his limitations and makes them work to his advantage here. It also helps that he's supported by an excellent cast. And the movie looks absolutely stunning with some great sets and set pieces, and tons of beautiful 20s/30s cars (including a great car chase in and around Boston). Affleck, who also directed this movie, and DoP Richard Richardson, as well as the set & art directors, give this movie a great and authentic look, which by itself is worth the price of admission. If there's a negative to this movie, it's that Affleck (also the screenplay writer!) wants to bring too much of Dennis Lehane's source novel to the table. Because of the sheer amount of plot lines some get a bit lost in the shuffle and not given too much attention (I also left out some rather important ones in this review, hah). I assume that similar to his 2010 movie 'The Town' his original cut is way longer than the current 2h9m runtime tho, so hopefully at some point a 'director's cut' of 'Live By Night' sees the light of day. For me however, the 2 hours flew by, and I was on the edge of my seat from the first second to the last. I can't recommend this movie enough, and I am even considering seeing it again in the cinema. Let me say it again: Blood awesome!

This is a boring pile of horse manure. It starts off as a poorly made gangster film, then side steps into a shoddy tale about racism and eventually becomes a mawkish love story. It finally sticks it hard in your ass with a depressing, wretched and tragic ending. Ben Affleck is a tiresome misery - he makes a good movie or a high profile movie like Good Will Hunting, or Batman vs Superman:- then he says to himself:- "Awesome I have got every-bodies attention I must now make a series of tedious, annoying, self-indulgent films to teach everyone a lesson!" 'Gigli', 'Man About Town', 'Runner Runner', 'Pearl Harbor', 'Phantoms' etc , etc, etc. If I see one more film where he tries to play the strong silent type but comes off as a sullen faced sanctimonious bore I think I will vomit my damn guts out of my ears. I don't know why but he keeps tricking me into watching his terrible films, films like "Argo", what the hell was that all about? Or "To The Wonder" which was a baffling hateful snore fest. Or that piece of movie garbage "Paycheck". Please Lord give me the strength to remember how disagreeable of an actor Ben Affleck is and avoid his films like the plague. And Lord help other innocent victims to avoid "Live By Night" as if it were gonorrhea! Finally Lord, please find a more suitable actor to fill the role of future batman movies:- maybe Josh Brolin, Or Michael Fassbender or even Russell Crowe, or even Mel Bloody Gibson! or oh yeah Christian Bale!

Actor/writer/director Ben Affleck tries his hand at a period piece in this ambitious crime saga beginning in the 1920s Prohibition era. Joe Coughlin--the son of a renowned Boston police officer--is a small-time crook looking to make a name for himself in the ruthless underworld of organized crime. After some tragic circumstances, he relocates to the South to become the frontman/muscle for an Italian mafia bootlegging operation, but quickly gets plunged into the seedy, seductive world of money, power, greed, and corruption. Intriguing at first, with tense action scenes and character interactions, but follows too many unrelated story threads, has ineffective casting in key roles, too many familiar elements, and concludes in pat, sanctimonious fashion. Despite flavorful ingredients, Affleck's attempt to create a potent, moralizing amalgam of The Town and The Godfather doesn't quite succeed. **½

I went to friend's to watch and from the trailers it seemed like a nice little gangster movie. It starts building up as a crime/revenge story and then out of nowhere it's like the movie ignores what it was originally going for. I'm gonna explain this... So Benn Affleck's character is head over heels for this marilyn monroe look alike and then she betrays him. So this mob boss beats him up and lets him go. Ben Affleck swears revenge and then he starts by going to the Florida and then tries to find the guy who betrays. At that point, the movie just totally forgets all of that. So Ben Affleck befriends a bunch of Cubans and agrees to start smuggling rum. So then out of nowhere the KKK shows up (I'm not making this up) and start harassing him. So he tries to make deals with them and then they back down. So then he like finds the sheriffs daughter is strung out on heroin and then black mails him into letting him meet one of the KKK heads (they even gave the dude a hair lip so we know he's in the KKK and LITERALLY Hitler)so he can kill them. We're already like an hour into this movie and it's already forgotten about the whole revenge story. So they try to tie it in by saying the main villain paid the KKK to shoot up the Ben Affleck's clubs. So the KKK guys get shot and then they explain over a quick montage that they ended up running the KKK out of Tampa. So then in the next part of the movie Ben Affleck tries to open a Casino but the Sheriff's daughter is back in town going on tour speaking against gambling, sex, drugs, and all kinds of sins (this movie is all over the place). So that's like 20 minutes of the movie wasted. The plot around her is dumb, she kills herself after contributing nothing to the plot, and then Ben Affleck goes and gets his revenge. This movie looked like it'd be a cool gangster movie but it is not a gangster movie. There is nothing more absurd than a movie placed in the 20s trying to tackle "social issues" facing society today. It was trying to send a "message" that didn't really go anywhere and it's a shame they tried to sell this as a crime drama. Terrible movie. Leonardo Retardo and Ben Assfleck should retire.

The Plot. Boston, 1926. The '20s are roaring. Liquor is flowing, bullets are flying, and one man sets out to make his mark on the world. Prohibition has given rise to an endless network of underground distilleries, speakeasies, gangsters, and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent Boston police captain, has long since turned his back on his strict and proper upbringing. Now having graduated from a childhood of petty theft to a career in the pay of the city's most fearsome mobsters, Joe enjoys the spoils, thrills, and notoriety of being an outlaw. But life on the dark side carries a heavy price. In a time when ruthless men of ambition, armed with cash, illegal booze, and guns, battle for control, no one-neither family nor friend, enemy nor lover-can be trusted. Beyond money and power, even the threat of prison, one fate seems most likely for men like Joe: an early death. Too bad Afleck is the worst actor on the planet. And a poor director. And he can't write. The movie sucks.

"Maybe it's true. We all find ourselves in lives we didn't expect. But what I learned was powerful men don't have to be cruel."Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) Yet in the best of gangster, powerful men like Michael Corleone and Henry Hill are cruel, no matter how gentle their exteriors. So it seems with Joe Coughlin, a prohibition "bandit," as he calls himself, who doesn't think of himself as a gangster ("I don't wanna be a gangster. Stopped kissing rings a long time ago."). Yet he kills or has others killed in the name of moving toward heaven. Although beautifully appointed and set in Florida and Cuba, writer/director Affleck's crime story misses the weight of crime films, which casually juxtapose the serious with the not so. It lacks the sass of Pulp Fiction and the gravitas of The Godfather with not much of their verbal gymnastics or irony. Joe wanting to be a saint while being a sinner requires an actor of considerable resources, which Affleck showed a modicum of recently in the Accountant because it required him to be affectless. He brings that same stolid mien to this film and endangers the edge necessary for the success of actors like Al Pacino. Like Affleck, the film is listless except when Tommy Guns take charge. As Joe navigates from a low-rent lover, Emma (Sienna Miller), to a classy love, Graciella (Zoe Saldana), director Affleck spends too much time on their embraces and too little on what makes him love them so passionately. He does love his own image as his abundance of self close-ups testifies. Maybe there is no passion, just old affectless Affleck. It's dumping time in Hollywood, and Live by the Night is a classic example of why smart studios dump dull movies in January. It's not all that bad the way Joe is not all that bad. However, it just doesn't have the firepower to go against the big guns in the Oscar race. Remember the wild surprises and rich characters of the long-form Sopranos? Maybe that's why the film gangster genre feels troubled here: The arch enemy, TV!