Legend

Year of Release:  2015
Director:  Brian Helgeland
Screenplay:  Brian Helgeland, based on the book A Profession of Violence by John Pearson
Starring:  Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, David Thewlis, Christopher Eccleston, Chazz Palminteri
Taron Egerton
Running Time:  131 minutes
Genre:  biography, drama, crime, gangster

This tells the story of the life and career of the notorious Kray twins, who ruled London organised crime in the 1960s.  Reggie Kray (Hardy) is suave, charismatic, intelligent and volatile, while Ronnie Kray (Hardy again) is a brutal psychopath.  The film mixes the story of the rise of the Krays criminal empire, with Reggie's relationship with Frances Shea (Browning), who narrates the film.

This is a fairly average gangster movie.  It's enjoyable enough, but it feels as if it's trying to pack too much into an, admittedly generous, running time.  Tom Hardy is brilliant as both Reggie and Ronnie, the scene where they have a long fight is a highlight, however there is no way to engage with either of them, and you never really find out anything more about either of them than you do in the opening scene.  Emily Browning gives a good performance, providing the emotional core of the film as the unfortunate Frances Shea, although her breathless, romantic narration seems very out of place.  I don't know enough about the Krays to comment on how accurate or not the film is, but as a gangster film it is entertaining, and never gets dull throughout it's running time, with several scenes of brutal violence punctuating the tale.

      
Ronnie and Reggie Kray (Tom Hardy) in Legend

The Usual Suspects

Year of Release:  1995
Director:  Bryan Singer
Screenplay:  Christopher McQuarrie
Starring:  Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak, Pete Postlethwaite, Kevin Spacey
Running Time:  106 minutes
Genre:  crime, thriller

This became one of the iconic films of the 1990s, launching director Bryan Singer and stars Kevin Spacey and Benicio del Toro into the front ranks of Hollywood.  Following a horrific gun battle which leaves twenty seven dead, the sole survivor, small time con man "Verbal" Kint (Spacey) tells FBI agent Kujan (Palminteri) of the events leading up to the massacre, starting six weeks earlier in New York City, when Verbal met thieves McManus (Baldwin), Fenster (del Toro), Hockney (Pollak) and Keaton (Byrne) at a police line-up.  In the holding cell they come up with an audacious robbery, that brings them into contact with lawyer Kobayashi (Postlethwaite) who claims to represent the mysterious and legendary criminal mastermind Keyser Soze.

The film is mostly constructed in a flashback structure moving between Kujan's interrogation of Verbal and Verbal's telling his story.  It's a fast-moving and intriguing story that mostly seems to be moving one way, telling a story that will doubtless be familiar to any thriller fan, but then takes some real turns, leading up to what is one of the most famous final twists in movie history.  Writer Christopher McQuarrie won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award.

The film has some great performances, Kevin Spacey won Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards.  However, the casting of white English actor Pete Postlethwaite as the apparently Indian Kobayashi strikes something of a false note, although the false note might actually be intentional.  Also the only prominent female character, Keaton's lawyer girlfriend Edie played by Suzy Amis, barely has any screentime, and really has nothing to do.

The film is full of quotable lines, and Singer directs with a distinct style, creating some memorable images.  Several scenes have really entered the annals of pop-culture.  It's not a perfect film by any means, many of the characters are quite cliched and, aside really from Verbal and Keaton, the rest of the gang of crooks just seem to be there to fill up space.  It's worth watching though, because it is very entertaining, and the climax is still effective.

 Round up The Usual Suspects: Kevin Pollak, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio del Toro, Gabriel Byrne and Kevin Spacey