Rent Legend (2015)

The Family That Slays Together Stays Together - Legend review by Count Otto Black

The thing everyone talks about concerning this movie is Tom Hardy's extraordinary performance as both Kray twins, which frequently means that he has to interact with or even fight with himself. While it's certainly true that he does a remarkable job of making two men with identical facial features appear extremely different, his portrayal of Ronnie Kray (the mad one with the glasses) suffers from the same ironic problem as Philip Seymour Hoffman's depiction of Truman Capote. Ron may in reality have sounded as though he was slightly mentally retarded and had a permanent cold, but accurately portraying him on screen makes him come across as such a ridiculous caricature that it looks like bad acting, inappropriate comedy, or both. I sometimes laughed when I wasn't supposed to because his foul-mouthed tirades combined with utterly irrational word-salad sounded like an out-take from Derek and Clive (he even starts talking about "the horn" at one point). And it's impossible not to think of Monty Python's Doug and Dinsdale Piranha when a statement about Ronnie being a bit out of control is accompanied by a shot of him walking into a night-club accompanied by a donkey wearing a dinner-jacket!

Another problem is that this film is trying very hard indeed, right down to copying specific scenes, to be a British "Goodfellas", therefore Reggie Kray's wife becomes the third major character - in fact, the only other character who really matters - right down to narrating the entire film. Unfortunately, Emily Browning gives a very lackluster performance indeed, her narration in particular being painfully wooden. Though to be fair, it must be hard to bring much conviction to dialogue as abysmal as: "We honeymooned in Greece. The Parthenon had stood for 2,400 years. Reggie's promise to go straight lasted two weeks." That's not scriptwriting, that's just word association!

Too many characters who ought to be interesting badly underdeveloped so that we can concentrate on Tom Hardy's one-man show, which gets a bit predictable with its constant emphasis on the "good" brother being held back from reforming by his loyalty to his psychopathic twin, and what shocking twists there are come too late and are clumsily handled. Also, we're shown surprisingly little evidence, other than the two murders that finally send the brothers to jail for life, that they're running an ultra-violent criminal empire. Mostly everyone just hangs around in pubs and clubs talking tough and hoping Ron doesn't have one of his funny turns.

Tom Hardy's very impressive and everything looks terribly authentic, so on a technical level it works, but it's oddly unsatisfying, and sometimes even a bit dull. "The Krays" from 1990 remains a far better depiction of the same people and events. By the way, whose brilliant idea was it to give this film the same name as a dreadful Ridley Scott fantasy starring Tom Cruise as an elf who likes unicorns? There must be a few people who ended up with the wrong DVD and couldn't believe what they were seeing!

Very Entertaining Gangster Drama - Legend review by GI

An excellent gangster drama based on the infamous Kray twins who dominated the London crime scene of the 1960s. In many ways this is a star vehicle for Tom Hardy who plays both brothers in a superbly edited and constructed film. The temptation will be to assume this is an accurate biopic of real life gangsters but it's reported to be inaccurate in some key areas and indeed one major plot point and overall the film has the vibe of an adapted graphic novel with the characters sharply exaggerated and the film is all the better for it. Ronnie and Reggie Kray are two East End villains who are rising up in the underworld by taking over clubs and similar venues through threats, intimidation and brutal violence. They have to contend with the attention of the police (their nemesis being detective 'Nipper' Read played by Christopher Eccleston, although the film hardly delves into any investigation narratives and Read is a sidelined character in this depiction) and the Richardsons, a rival gang (Paul Bettany cameos as their boss). The main focus though is on Reggie and his besotted relationship with Frances (Emily Browning), who struggles with the violence she gets caught up in. The insanity of both brothers is neatly portrayed with the clearly psychopathic Ronnie who is always close to ruining their empire to the slowly revealed Reggie as an equally violent sociopath. Hardy is excellent throughout and the film recreates London in the 60s with aplomb. There's some excellent set pieces and although mostly restrained there is some brutal violence on display. A better film than The Krays (1990) which was dark and had an unpleasantness to it, mostly because of Hardy's great screen presence. Overall highly entertaining.

Very good story about the Kray brothers - Legend review by CP Customer

I really enjoyed this film about the Kray brothers. Thought the acting was very good from Tom Hardy playing both parts. It gives you a real insight into the corruption and thinking you are powerful enough to get away with anything you want. Eventually you get brought down. I agree it's a strange title for the film and should of been something better.