Live By Night | Christmas Day limited release, wide release on 01/13/17 | Ben Affleck/Warner Bros. New trailer on page 8

[TimmyRiggins]

Okay, a bit of disinformation going on in here. Dennis Lehane thought Ben was too old for the role (and Affleck said in an interview that he obviously had to change Joe's age in the movie, and it seems there's some CG de-aging for the beginning of the story), but Affleck screentested for him, and Lehane gave him his blessing, that's it, that's the story. Otherwise, he also said he liked acting in his own movies because these are more interesting roles than he usually gets. 

 

Let's see the film and judge accordingly. It's very well possible Affleck got too much on his plate here (with the material being much more dense than The Prince Of Thieves)  and he has admitted that pulling triple duty means he has less bandwidth (as he described it). It's also possible that WB thought the film was too long and he had to cut it down drastically. Scott Eastwood who's playing Joe's brother has been cut out of the picture, so did Titus Welliver (Gone Baby Gone, The Town, Bosch) and Ben LOVES that guy, that along with seemingly rushed portions according to reviews, it's a logical thing to think. 

 

I'd say his performance in The Town surpasses his turn in Gone Girl imo, he has rarely been better. 

Edited December 21, 2016 by TimmyRiggins

[TalismanRing]

http://www.metro.us/entertainment/ben-affleck-s-live-by-night-fails-to-bring-back-the-gangster-movie/zsJplt---2wynPn9EpKYkc/

 

Quote

The 1930s gangster movie, the best of them made by "Live by Night"'s studio Warner Bros., was lean and mean and rarely nice. Affleck's film is none of these. It’s plodding and murky, the inevitable by-product of trying to whittle a complicated and dense novel (by Dennis Lehaine) down to two hours. It plays like it was mercilessly amputated from an epic, yet it still feels long because there’s too much stuff and not enough forward momentum.

 

Quote

Holding it all together is Affleck in sleepy zombie mode, a state he’s always in in pictures also directed by Ben Affleck. Just as Kevin Costner the director sees Kevin Costner the actor as a boring fount of nobility, the director Affleck likes to cast himself as a brooding sadsack, always at some point staring poignantly at seas

 

[Goffe]

52 minutes ago, redfirebird2008 said:

I think casting himself as a 19 year old 

WHAT?

[aabattery]

Whoa, those reviews are a lot worse than I was expecting. I guess /profile/31285-empirecity/" rel="">@EmpireCity was right. Good call.

Edit: I was wrong, was someone else who said that. My bad!

[MuffinMan]

9 minutes ago, Goffe said:

WHAT?

 

He didn't cast himself as a 19-year-old. The character is older in his screenplay, which is what he cast from.

[redfirebird2008]

13 minutes ago, Goffe said:

WHAT?

 

There was a comment in one of the reviews that he starts the movie as a 19 year old and "Affleck can't pass for a day under 35." I can't remember which review it was.

[TalismanRing]

I don't think WB cutting down the film is the problem.  The material is probably best suited for for a mini series. 15-20 extra minutes still isn't going to give enough room for all the characters and subplots to be done justice.  Adapting a dense novel like this for a movie is all about streamlining and focusing in on the larger arcs and characters.

 

http://theplaylist.net/gangster-squad-drama-live-night-major-misfire-director-ben-affleck-review-20161221/

 

Quote

Clocking in at just over two hours, “Live By Night” feels much longer, and its bloated pace drips like slow molasses. Flabby in shape, too, the drama finds a director with his eyes off the prize and a picture that cumulatively feels like it’s run away from him trickle by trickle. Even at its best, the sluggish “Live By Night” rarely even entertains.

 

Quote

Labelling “Live By Night” a disaster is a little uncharitable; the baggy drama is perhaps more painfully mediocre than full-blown folly, but it’s close. Mostly phoned-in and flat, “Live By Night” possesses none of the killer instinct that usually fuels the ruthless crime drama, narratively or otherwise. An uninspired examination of the outlaw life and honor among thieves, no matter how one tries to frame it, “Live By Night” is missing bite. And without teeth, all the picture can do is slosh around without focus, earning the unfortunate distinction of a directorial career worst for Affleck. [D+]

 

You have to love how Playlist's "painfully mediocre" warrants a D+.   But it fits on their usual grading curve. 

[LateReg]

27 minutes ago, AABATTERY said:

Whoa, those reviews are a lot worse than I was expecting. I guess @EmpireCity was right. Good call.

I thought that @EmpireCity also had said that WB was very happy with the film. His comment was what got me thinking this would probably be at least pretty good.

[aabattery]

2 minutes ago, LateReg said:

I thought that @EmpireCity also had said that WB was very happy with the film. His comment was what got me thinking this would probably be at least pretty good.

 

I definitely recall him saying it had bad reactions, or something along those lines. Maybe I'm going crazy. Nevertheless, I think it might go up to the mid-40s by the end of it judging by the tone of the reviews.

[TalismanRing]

4 minutes ago, AABATTERY said:

 

I definitely recall him saying it had bad reactions, or something along those lines. Maybe I'm going crazy. Nevertheless, I think it might go up to the mid-40s by the end of it judging by the tone of the reviews.

 

That was Passengers.  He said WB was pretty high on this.

[AniNate]

Yeesh, I guess  has a brand new life

[aabattery]

3 minutes ago, TalismanRing said:

 

That was Passengers.  He said WB was pretty high on this.

 

Yeah, just went and checked. @EmpireCity was like you said, it was @filmlover who thought it was going to be mediocre. My bad.

[filmlover]

"There was a comment in one of the reviews that he starts the movie as a 19 year old and "Affleck can't pass for a day under 35." I can't remember which review it was."

 

Oh Ben. Even DiCaprio knows he's reached the point where he can no longer get away with that.

Edited December 21, 2016 by filmlover

[Plain Old Tele]

The most awkward "needs to pass as a late teen" star-casting ever might be Barry Levinson letting Robert Redford play the young Roy Hobbs in THE NATURAL. He was 20 years too old (minimum). Interesting to watch because he does a decent job with his mannerisms and stuff, but you can't hide the age. Interesting now they could probably de-age him and it'd be great. 

[Chewy]

19 minutes ago, filmlover said:

Oh Ben. Even DiCaprio knows he's reached the point where he can no longer get away with that.

 

Only Tobey Maguire can

[filmlover]

Just now, Chewy said:

 

Only Tobey Maguire can

Maybe if Hollywood was actually hiring him these days. Alas...

[TalismanRing]

5 minutes ago, Grand Moff Tele said:

The most awkward "needs to pass as a late teen" star-casting ever might be Barry Levinson letting Robert Redford play the young Roy Hobbs in THE NATURAL. He was 20 years too old (minimum). Interesting to watch because he does a decent job with his mannerisms and stuff, but you can't hide the age. Interesting now they could probably de-age him and it'd be great. 

 

He was still so beautiful it almost didn't matter.  Levinson worked around it a bit by shooting young Hobbs mostly in moonlight, shadows and golden sunsets.  Marlena Dietrich though would have demanded the addition of Vaseline on the camera lens and some gauze thrown over it. 

[efialtes76]

5 hours ago, CoolioD1 said:

i did say previously that affleck gets less and less interesting as a filmmaker with each new movie. and you know the batman picture is likely to continue that trend.

Argo was his best reviewed movie and won the Oscar.

 

[The Futurist]

Sometimes, I wonder if Argo would have won the Oscah without that famous stupid line.

 

 

[CoolioD1]

1 minute ago, efialtes76 said:

Argo was his best reviewed movie and won the Oscar.

 

and his least interesting! i do like it though, but i love gone baby gone and really like the town.

Edited December 22, 2016 by CoolioD1