Johnny Depp is a very talented actor. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who would disagree with that statement. But, it has been hard to stand by Depp's side as in the 2010's, he's been delving deeper into the makeup and weirdness and avoiding all things challenging. But forget Alice in Wonderland's Mad Hatter or the iconic Jack Sparrow. Depp is weird as hell and still coated in makeup for Scott Cooper's Whitey Bulger pic Black Mass, but you can see he's challenging himself. It's great.
Okay, it's not all great. Scott Cooper is a competent director of actors, and everything looks good onscreen, but it's hard to enjoy Black Mass when it feels like everything onscreen has been done before. Even the "family recipe" scene from the first trailer feels like it's trying to be the "funny how" scene from GoodFellas. Black Mass doesn't even touch GoodFellas or The Godfathers, but for what it is, it's a decently good watch.
