92% on Rotten Tomatoes
During the Cold War, insurance lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks) is required to defend and facilitate the exchange of a Russian spy to secure the freedom of a young American spy.
I don't need to tell you that Steven Spielberg is great, but let's face it... it's been some time since he's made a good, watchable film.
Thank the heavens that this film is actually pretty great.
It's INSPIRED by a true story, and since it's dealing with such a heavy and serious real-life event, I was quite surprised at just how funny the film was. I mean, I'm not saying it was a constant stream of side-splitting laughter, but Spielberg managed to slip in some really funny moments.
The intensity of the film was also handled really well. It's not a crazy spy movie like I first thought it would be, as it delves more into the politics and boring negotiations, but the thing is... it's not even boring. Sure, it's a long film and there's quite a bit of talking, but it's easy to follow and the conversations can still be quite interesting.
I loved Tom Hanks in this. Man, he is a legend. He did a great job in this film.
Another stand out was Mark Rylance, who played the Russian spy. I love how cute old people are, and this guy was sooooo adorable. Especially the way he would say, "Would it help?"
Which brings me to another thing that I loved about this film: it really showed how great certain individuals could be.
In the face of almost guaranteed death, Rudolf doesn't look worried. Why? Well, because... would it help?
Thrust in the limelight, Donovan becomes the most hated man in America; more hated than Rudolf! Why? Because he's defending a Russian spy. But his character is so idealistic; he goes by the law, he argues for proper procedures to be taken even though it's pretty much a given that this guy is a spy. Why? Because JUSTICE. I love it when people do things on principle.
So overall, this film is an enjoyable and dramatic biopic which I would recommend seeing at least once. There are some great shots, and the film was quite visually appealing, so while there is not any real necessity to watch it in cinemas, you still won't be disappointed. The themes and nature of this film remind me of Argo, but I do think that Argo is more re-watchable, as Bridge of Spies is a bit too long.
62% on Rotten Tomatoes
Speaking of Toms being legends, Legend looks at the Krays, twin gangsters that terrorised London in the '50s.
Tom Hardy plays both Reggie and Ronnie Kray, and yet you tend to forget that it's the same actor. Reggie is not entirely cool, calm and collected, but next to the violently paranoid schizophrenic Ronnie, Reggie appears as cool as a cucumber.
Unfortunately, Tom Hardy is about the only thing that's good in the film. The dialogue is long and very hard to understand with their heavy London accents, and the plot moves at a slow pace, making it hard to get too invested in what's happening.
Luckily enough, any time Tom Hardy is the focus of the scene, his presence and performance are loud enough for you to be distracted from the bad points of the film. Emily Browning's sheer beauty and mesmerising voice were also enough to distract you from what was going on (even though some of the narration got a bit weird... "Cup of tea? I don't think so.").
Seriously, Tom Hardy was amazing, especially with Ronnie. Some people might think he went a bit over the top, but I think it just added to the humour. This film definitely was a much lighter film than I thought it would be, and most of that is due to Tom Hardy's exceptional performance.
But as I said, everything else was just sort of dull, and as great as Tom Hardy was, he couldn't make up for an only alright to sort of bad film. So in the end, Legend is definitely not a legendary film and definitely not worth the watch.
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