Black Mass 4K Review (Warner Bros,)

Black Mass is a 2015 crime film produced and directed by Scott Cooper (Hostiles, Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace, The Pale Blue Eye, and Antlers). It’s written by Mark Mallouk (Everest and Rush) and Jez Butterworth (Edge of Tomorrow, Ford v Ferrari, Spectre, and Birthday Girl). It’s based on the book from authors Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill. The budget was $53,000,000 and it grossed $99,975,678 worldwide at the box office. James “Whitey” Bulger (played by: Johnny Depp from Donnie Brasco, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Public Enemies, Platoon, and Once upon a time in Mexico) is the leader of the Winter Hill Gang, he controls organized crime within South Boston. His main crew includes Stephen Flemmi (played by: Rory Cochrane from Dazed and Confused, Love and a 45., Empire Records, A Scanner Darkly, White Boy Rick, and Public Enemies), Kevin Weeks (played by: Jesse Plemons from Breaking Bad, Civil War, Game Night, Killers of the Flower Moon, Antlers, Vice, Fargo, and The Irishman), and Johnny Martorano (played by: W. Earl Brown from Deadwood, Scream, There’s something about Mary, Preacher, and True Detective). Bulger lives with his longtime girlfriend Lindsey Cyr (played by: Dakota Johnson from Madame Web, The Social Network, Our Friend, The Peanut Butter Falcon, Suspiria, and Bad times at the El Royale). He has issues with the Angiulo Brothers from the New England Mafia. Childhood friend FBI agent John Connolly (played by: Joel Edgerton from The Gift, It comes at Night, Zero dark Thirty, Smokin Aces, and Star Wars franchise) returns to the neighborhood.He’s still good friends with Whitey’s brother William “Billy” Bulger (played by: Benedict Cumberbatch from the Doctor Strange franchise, Avengers franchise, Sherlock, 1917, Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Hobbit franchise) who has major power in local politics. The Angiulo Brothers start a war with the Winter Hill gang. Whitey decides to work with the FBI as an informant for Connolly to help take out his rivals. Whitey’s secret son Douglas ends up getting Reye syndrome and Lindsey removes him from life support which kills any morals that Whitey had left. Connolly tries to convince his staff John Morris (played by: David Harbour from Hellboy, Stranger Things, Black Widow, Thunderbolts, Suicide Squad, The Equalizer, and Violent Night) and Charles McGuire (played by: Kevin Bacon from Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Mystic River, City on a Hill, Death Sentence, and The Following) that Whitey can be a weapon for the government against organized crime. Whitey uses his new gig as an informer to get away with his own crimes and murders. The FBI take down the Angiulos which makes Whitey even more powerful. Connolly lets Whitey into his personal life for family dinners which includes his wife Marianne (played by: Julianne Nicholson from Law and Order). As their relationship gets deeper, Connolly helps Whitey escape his criminal activities. The Winter Hill gang gets into trouble and the whole set up gets exposed. Connolly is brought down for helping his long time friend as everything starts to fall apart. Whitey is forced to run away from his life to avoid being arrested while the others suffer their past. Will Whitey survive all his issues while being on the run or is his legacy finally over????There’s been several true crime television specials and full length documentaries made about the legendary James “Whitey” Bulger who ran crime in Boston. His disappearance and hiding from the law is one of the craziest endings when it comes to organized crime. I won’t spoil anything else because not everyone is familiar with the complete case and situation but you should look into it if you don’t know it all. Director Scott Cooper took this real life gangster story and turned into a top notch feature film. The script covers most of the important events from the Winter Hill gang and Whitey in a respectable running time. Iconic actor Johnny Depp completely transforms himself into the actual James “Whitey” Bulger for Black Mass. If you watch old videos, clips, and interviews from the real life version then your mind will be blown away from this amazing performance. It’s one of the best roles from Depp and he’s the main reason to check this out. Joel Edgerton as John Connelly is incredible as the FBI agent that’s lured into corruption just to make a name for himself. Rory Cochrane as Stevie Flemmi gives one of his greatest turns in a long time. He’s the right hand man to Whitey and he gets put into some tough spots here. The rest of the impressive all star supporting cast includes Jesse Plemons, Julianne Nicholson, Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon, David Harbour, W. Earl Brown, Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Sarsgaard (Garden State), Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation), Corey Stoll (Ant-Man franchise), Bill Camp (Joker), Juno Temple (Ted Lasso), and James Russo (Donnie Brasco). As you can see with the list above, this feature is loaded with familiar faces. There’s not a single week link when it comes to that in this. Black Mass is one of the best crime and gangster movies in the last few years. It’s still wild that this is a true story. A crime lord corrupted the government for his own vicious greed. There’s plenty of violence, suspense, and some dark drama here. Black Mass is beyond entertaining, it has very strong replay value. It’s nice to see this one get the 4K and UHD home video treatment, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from Warner Bros Pictures! This 2160p (2.39:1) transfer with HDR10 looks much sharper than it’s 2016 blu ray home video release when it comes to all the visual details from this crime feature. I will say this restoration is a little darker compared to it’s original version. It has an English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track on the UHD. The audio is the same as before but it still sounds amazing. It definitely puts your home set up to the test. All of the dialogue is crisp, the crime is elevated, and the music has a killer boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. There’s no new extras on this UHD but everything was carried over for this 4K. “Black Mass: Deepest Cover, Darkest Crime” is 23 minutes. It has interviews with Scott Cooper, Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Edgerton, and some producers. They chat about the true story and the people that inspired this production. They talk about the true crime film and their honest thoughts on it. They discuss bringing these real people to life again in the screen and the Boston shooting locations. It’s an interesting behind the scenes look into Black Mass. “Johnny Depp: Becoming Whitey Bulger” is a little over 12 minutes. It goes over the actor prepping and transforming into the real life criminal. Depp wanted to meet the actual Whitey but he refused. He got into character after all kinds of research and the makeup fx that really made him look similar to Whitey after digging deep into the role. It has the full length documentary “The Manhunt for Whitey Bulger” that’s almost 62 minutes directed by Constantine Nasr. It has interviews with Josh Bond, Dick Lehr, Gerard O’Neill, Howie Carr, Robert J. Long, Phil Tornsey, David Boeri, and several others. This very fascinating feature is dedicated to law enforcement looking for the Boston crime lord from 1995 to 2011 after his notorious escape in great detail. It basically follows everything after the film ends. It kinda plays out as sequel to what really happened after this experience. Lots of information and stories are shared in The Manhunt for Whitey Bulger. This is a must watch and one of the best extras on a bigger production like Black Mass. It’s available everywhere right now including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!