Capone is a 2020 biographical movie; Written, directed and edited by Josh Trank who returns to the director’s chair a full five years after the disastrous but infamous 2015 Fantastic Four Reboot or Fant4stic as it’s more commonly known. Now Trank is interesting as he made a little sleeper hit in 2012 called ‘Chronicle’ if you haven’t seen it give it a watch it honestly a great watch but then made the aforementioned Fantastic four movie and blamed it on studio interference. However, I wondered if this was just an excuse to cover his own back that he made, in my opinion, the worst film of 2015 and one of the worst films I have ever seen and didn’t want to take full ownership of his mistakes. So yeah I was doubtful in thinking he just got lucky with his directorial debut. And his latter effort wouldn’t match up to his first, so out of his minimal filmography where does Capone Stand?
To put simply Capone is as terrible as Fant4stic but nowhere near the level of entertainment as Chronicle. Capone isn’t your average gangster film which mostly depicts the character in their prime and follows them to their eventual downfall, Capone only focuses on the last 12 months of the notorious criminal’s life as he succumbs to his Neurosyphilis, multiple strokes and dementia eating away at his psyche.
This is an interesting take on the genre and for the majority of the film it plays out as a somewhat horror movie as we see demons and apparitions that Capone’s fractured mind as created and we watch what most people don’t know about the famous gangster he spent his last days with the mentality of a 12-year-old child, who chases these fantasies and on occasion soils his adult diapers.of
A standout as always is Tom Hardy’s performance, of course, he plays the infamous gangster just as you except, he does his Tom Hardy grunts, he does his signature Tom Hardy eye bulge’s and it at times it’s a little over the top but as always its a pleasure to watch. Hardy’s performance as Capone is great but I do wonder what it would have been like if we saw him play a Capone in his prime and see whether he would translate as well as he did here. And also I’m a sucker for some gangster action as well as a sucker for some Tom Hardy action.
The Pacing of the film is where it falters the film has some interesting moments but most of the movie is just people talking to a confused and ill Capone about 10 million dollars he hid but can’t remember where due to his dementia. And when things do pick up such as a Tommy gun rampage the film is almost over. It felt like it went on way too long when in fact the film is under 2 hours long.
Overall the film is a good watch if you want to find out more about the Chicago criminal but for me, it’s a film that I’ll probably never watch again which is a shame because I love gangster movies and I love Tom Hardy but if you want to watch a movie about Tom Hardy playing outlaws watch ‘Legend’ or ‘Lawless’.
Final Score.
Title:Average
Trank as crafted a unique gangster biographical film that strays too much away from common films of this genre and though the movie has some enjoyable moments there are too little to keep me from saying this is the incredible watch I wish it was despite a solid Hardy performance.
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