hyped garbage

A Masterpiece!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Ironically, it is literally a challenge to stay awake through this film. There are four things wrong with this movie, and all of them are named Ben Affleck.As lead actor, writer, director, producer, sorry but he has to take the blame for this snooze-fest.In all fairness, the music also sucks..More than anything, although the basic story is good the script is somewhat lackluster and fails to spark any passion, but also Ben Affleck is terribly out of his acting range in the lead role and never really conveys the essence of a person from the time period.Visually, the movie looks pretty great and the action sequences are very well done.This could have been another great crime movie with a different musical score and more appropriate lead actor and a little harsher editing.

Very good story, well done, well played. Better than average. Bandits are not homer-sexual in this. Romantic view far from reality, but good as a film.

'Live By Night' (FYI, "live" as in 'liv', not 'lie-ve' - "sleep by day, live by night") is the fourth film Ben Affleck's directed (after 'Gone Baby Gone', 'The Town' and 'Argo'), and sadly it's my least favourite of his. That's not to say it's bad, since he's a better director than he is an actor, but that's where the problem lies - it's quite hard to truly warm to his character, Joe, in this. I wish he'd cast other people as leads, like in 'Gone Baby Gone'. It's set in 1920's prohibition-era Boston (where else), but he eventually relocates to Tampa, Florida, to run the rum trade for the Italian gang.The start's OK, but needed more of his father (Gleeson), as he gets caught between the Irish and Italian mobs. Joe meets Graciela (Salanda) in Tampa and falls in love and has to put up with the KKK calling him and her all sorts of things, but that's eventually sorted - the film doesn't really delve too much into the racial implications of things. Joe & Dion (Messina), his trusty off-sider, meet the police Chief (Cooper) and his daughter, Loretta (Fanning), which has implications later on. The main plot centres on Joe & Dion trying to branch into the gambling/casino business and the hurdles they face. There's a tale of vengeance in there, plus a cautionary tale of not losing yourself while trying to be someone you're not and all the while you still feel a little bit of "why do I care?" There are some great fly-over scenery/sunset shots in Florida, and a decent ending, but it all feels a bit too dragged out (130min, when it could've easily wrapped up after 105min) with no real connection or purpose made. The set design and cars are certainly cool and of the era, but the shootouts never seem enough or to have enough at stake.

Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) returns from the Great War and leads a robbery crew in Boston. His girlfriend Emma Gould is the inside man who is also the mistress to Irish gangster Albert White. A gang war between White and Italian mob boss Maso Pescatore blows up. He gets set up by White, beaten, and imprisoned. After his release, Pescatore recruits him to chase after White who has escaped to set up an operation in Tampa, Florida. With his best friend Dion Bartolo by his side, he builds a rum operation in Tampa. He befriends Sheriff Irving Figgis (Chris Cooper) and his daughter Loretta (Elle Fanning) who is heading to Hollywood. He marries local Graciela Corrales (Zoe Saldana). He battles the KKK and then tries to build a casino.This story seems to be too big for Affleck's writing skills. He's proved his directing skills but this is a long meandering criminal life. He's trying to make Godfather but he doesn't have the vision. It also doesn't help that he plays Joe in a cold and distant manner. He is so cold that none of his relationships are appealing. I don't care about Emma and only slightly more about Graciela. The saving grace is that he doesn't get romantic with Loretta as I feared. That may be why her character is more compelling than almost everybody else. This movie pushes Affleck to his limits and he shows his limitations.