Good movie but grossly overrated

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I got in to just over an hour and whatever heft the film attempted to show was sucked dry by a director (Helgeland) trying to be Tarantino. The use of the 1960's American jazz and soul sounded more like Jackie Brown than Swinging London. The gay brother's perversion as well as the old fruit who indulged in the same was proof positive the director/screenwriter hadn't much original material to begin with.It is surprising considering his body of work - the sets looked like they were all shot inside a studio instead out doors.

I finally watched "Legend" in the hope that it might equal "The Krays" (1990) which is a very fine film. Unfortunately it falls far short of that lofty goal. Tom Hardy is excellent in his dual role which is, of course, a marvel of modern film technology. Both Krays appearing in the same scene, both facing the camera, played by one actor in seamless perfection is technically impressive.However, the story telling is a.) uneven, b.) incredibly slow and boring at times, and c.) not nearly as insightful as "the Krays" and lacking the visceral impact of that powerful movie. Just reciting a series of historical facts and asking your lead actor to put some emotion in them, doesn't add up to good movie making. A lot of talent was wasted in the process, especially Tara Fitzgerald and Taron Egerton who were reduced to wallpaper roles. Emily Browning's impressive efforts in portraying poor love struck Frances are above par but they pale in comparison with those of Kate Hardie who played that role in the 1990 version.I would have rated this movie higher than the 4 I gave it, if it were not for the odd stretches of prolonged dull scenes of, well, nothing. The 1990 original is much better on many levels.

Some years after they died, Reggie Kray and his more psychotic twin brother Ronnie still attract attention.They ruled the London underworld in the 1960s and attracted glamour through celebrities as well as the attention of the police. They used threats and violence to establish a foothold to run nightclubs and operate protection rackets. Dogged detective Nipper Read tried for years to get the twins behind bars.Tom Hardy plays both roles. Reggie is the more straightforward gangster, level headed, he falls in love but still prone to bouts of violence. Ronnie suffered from complex schizophrenia, he was unhinged, homosexual and could fly off the handle very easily.Brian Helgeland wrote and directed this rather muddled film. Apart from the brothers and Reg's romance with Frances, most of the characters are caricatured and the story flatly portrayed which needed a heavy voice over. Christopher Eccleston is wasted as Nipper Read and the third Kray brother is never mentioned.Peter Medak's 1990 film The Krays which was more low budget tried at least to aim higher. It showed the brothers coming up through the ranks as gangsters and the enemies they made, we see them getting into trouble during National Service and we also see a more complex relationship they has with their mother.

Greetings from Lithuania."Legend" (2015) is kinda "been there saw that" type of crime biopic. Performances were descent by everyone including the brilliant Tom Hardy - he is good in here, playing two roles. It is far from his best performance, but it is a pretty good one and involving. The movie itself is also kinda entertaining. It is not a best gangster drama by far out there, and although at running time 2 h 5 min this movie does drag here and there (especially towards the end with Emily Browning scenes) while it lasted i was entertained. Overall, "Legend" is definitely a pretty good movie. Good central performance / performances by Tom Hardy and pretty entertaining script makes this movie involving. It is far from anything great in any category, but it is a pretty descent movie.