Reviews

• 

  ★★★★ review by Katie on Letterboxd

  "I prefer boys."
  
  
  2 STARS FOR EACH TOM HARDY

• 

  ★★★★ review by lauren on Letterboxd

  choose your fighter: the two armie hammers vs the two tom hardys

• 

  ★★★½ review by Martin28 on Letterboxd

  Though bloated and a little aimless at times, Legend is still a thoroughly enjoyable celebration of the British gangster genre complete with a killer soundtrack of Mersey-beat favourites and sporting a truly incredible double-act by Tom Hardy.

• 

  ★★★½ review by jose on Letterboxd

  still drooling over two tom hardys over here 🤤🤤

• 

  ★★★½ review by Jonathan White on Letterboxd

  TIFF 2015 Film # 8

  Reason for pick – my wife’s nostalgia for the 1990’s version; The Krays

  The TIFF picking process is a big deal in our house. I’m virtually not involved; my wife Lise dives head first into research even before TIFF starts to spill the beans on what’s going to be showing. One morning I heard a little giggle from her followed by what seemed like a pronouncement ‘Da Krays’ .. enunciated with the sing-songy melody used by the Coach Ditka Superfans … ‘Da Bears’ . This made her smile, and then laugh and laugh. She repeated it several times in a row, and occasionally, on random occasions, throughout the run-up to this year’s TIFF. I had learned that ‘The Krays’ wasn’t a particularly good movie, but that at the time she was living in London, and The Krays was both a movie and a West End play; and how her and her flat mates would trumpet ‘Da Krays’.

  With all this effervescent reminiscing going on, I still managed to avoid hearing anything about the story of the Krays. I had unconsciously formed an opinion, though. I thought they were a pop group … not sure from what decade, as Lise was never specific, but, defiantly pop, and not rock. As we seated ourselves in the Elgin theatre, and the opening TIFF falderal and interstitials ended, the film opens with skylines of 60’s London, and two slick haired, sunglass wearing twins sitting in the back of a limo. Ah, it’s set in the 60’s … funny, I hadn’t heard of the band, then. Conversation between the Kray brothers consists of a few bits and bobs, but nothing about their musical career. Then the term ‘gangster’ is brought up … wait, what? They’re a gangster pop group? …. I can be such an idiot sometimes … well, most of the time.

  Tom Hardy’s dual roles as Ron and Reggie Kray, the Ying and Yang of psychopathy and Ernest is not just a gimmick, it works wonderfully and Hardy puts equal care into the rendition of each brother. Emily Browning as Reggie’s object of desire, and eventual wife is our story’s narrator, and does a credible job of bringing out the depths of each brothers character.

  Pacing is great, and there’s a fine balance of humor and ultraviolence that keeps you enthralled. A perfect popcorn style dramedy.

  After the show, when my wife and I were discussing this vs. Trumbo, which had seen the previous evening, she pointed out that this, too, was a biopic. At first I objected, but then realized, yes, that’s true. I guess I was fooled because it was a completely cinematic experience. I guess there is a way to do a biopic right.

• See all reviews