100 Movie Challenge - 01 - "Lawless"

Before I start, I would like to apologise or say you're welcome, depending on your outcome after reading this. This is my first ever attempt at a movie review and I don't really know what to do or how to do it, so I'm just going to go with the flow and hope it all works out in the end. Would love to know what you think either on Twitter @CrisMovieCorner or email us at ChrisMovieCorner@gmail.com thank you. 

So last night I started my 100 Movie Challenge, an decided to go with a film I missed last year "Lawless". I went into the film a little skeptical at the time LaBeouf wasn't my favourite actor, same goes for Jason Clarke not that I had ever seen him before I was just sceptical over their performances.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Action
Director: John Hillcoat
Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Dane DeHaan.
Production Year: 2012
Country: United States
Certificate: 18 (UK)








John Hillcoat's latest venture into the feature film world came in the form of the Crime/Drama "Lawless", based on the novel "The Wettest County In The World" by author Matt Bondurant which is based on true events that occurred in the great depression era of America.

The film is a beautiful looking period drama with an equally beautiful lead performance from Shia LaBeouf, with brilliant performances from Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke and Gary Oldman for his few minutes of screen time.

Tom Hardy plays the overly violent and apathetic Forest Bondurant, while Jason Clarke plays the more stereotypical crazy hillbilly Howard, however LaBeouf plays the clever and quick witted Jack who is eager to prove to his brothers that he isn't the silly little brother anymore. Their new riches bring them into the eye line of crooked federal agent Charlie Rakes played by the appalling Guy Pearce who is pretty much a pantomime villain with a ridiculous look. Unfortunately for the viewers the beautiful Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska don't get enough screen time, they are the snippets of eye candy we get every so often.

The film is full of gruesome violence, however that is not to say that the violence over shadows the excellence of the script which was adapted by Nick Cave whose previous screenplays include "The Proposition" & "Ghost... Of The Civil Dead" both of which were also directed by John Hillcoat.

So my overall opinion on the film was that it was pretty great, easily one of my favourite films of the past few years. It was definitely one of the better films of 2012, all be it overshadowed by the big block busters like "The Avengers" or "The Dark Knight Rises". Even though I haven't decided on what system I have decided i will use for rating films, I will just give the films a numerical rating out of 10.

9/10