When the trailer for the new Johnny Depp film “Black Mass” began circulating on television networks and social media outlets Depp fans and film junkies collectively celebrated.

I was caught up in the hype as much as any other Depp fan and crime movie junkie. The trailer itself showed the darkness and madness behind a Boston racketeering gangster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger where viewers could catch their first glimpse of Depp’s sinister portrayal of a cold-blooded psychopathic murderer.

The movie is based off of the gruesome events that occurred in South Boston, Massachusetts where Bulger and his Winter Hill Gang terrorized its citizens, sold dope to local neighborhood children, and made a fortune in gambling and racketeering operations.

It is highly recommended that potential viewers watch the documentary “Whitey: The United States of America v Whitey Bulger.”

Spanning from the ’1970’s to the ’1980’s Bulger began an alliance with the Boston’s FBI agent John Connolly (played by Joel Edgerton), arising tostarting what will be known as one of the biggest corruptions of law enforcement.

The film is filled with a star- studded cast with appearances by Kevin Bacon, along with up-and-coming actors Benedict Cumberbatch playing as Whitey’s State Senator brother Billy Bulger and “Fifty Shades of Grey”star Dakota Johnson playing as the mother of Whitey’s son.

Depp’s performance as Bulger is eerie, frightening, and captures this real life villain’s personality fantastically., Hhowever, the film itself is not the gripping crime drama many viewers hadave been anticipating.

Directed by Scott Cooper (“Out of the Furnace” and “Crazy Heart”),, the film will remind many viewers of another Boston- based crime film, “The Departed,”as the movie delves into the alliance between Bulger and agent Connolly, childhood friends that survived the streets of South Boston together, and the threat of a ‘rat’ inside the Boston FBI team.

What started off as a plot to get the Italian Mafia off the streets of Irish territory turns into a slippery slope for Connolly and fellow agent John Morris as they become part of Bulger’s trysts of corruption. Described as a “vicious animal that won’t take ‘no’ for an answer,”, the audience is first introduced to Jimmy Bulger’s violent and manipulating ways when he initiates his protégé Kevin Weeks into the gang by ordering the beating of another member of the Winter Hill Gang, to a bloody pulp ultimately killing the man.

All Bulger had to do was give him a simple look and Weeks immediately understand the signal and began pummeling the gang member.

Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Jimmy Bulger is a terrifyingly new acting perspective many have never seen and might become unnerved by. From the pasty pale face, piercing blue eyes, and the attitude of a man not to be toyedried with, Depp channeled Bulger’s psychopathic personality perfectly. Depp fans and movie goers are used to Depp’s harebrained characters and taking roles that are very much out of our realm of imagination, but those are characters and their quirks are welcomed among us. There are two sides Bulger is viewed as in the film:, a local man that grew up his whole life in the South side of Boston (Southie, as it is known to the locals);, a loving son to his mother;, a caring and concerneding father to his son, and a man who shares a close bond with his brother Billy.

The other side of Jimmy is the one no one wants to know, let alone be witness to. An unforgettable scene occurs between Bulger and his son, as the family sits at the kitchen table enjoying breakfast together when Bulger finds out that his son hasd been involved in trouble at school for punching another child in the face.

The audience will see Bulger’s dark humor in along with the advice from a hard knocks father teaching his son how to protect himself, “It's not what you do, it's when and where you do it, and who you do it to or with. If nobody sees it, it didn't happen.,” explaining that the reason his son got in trouble is because his teacher caught him in the act of punching the other child.

While Johnny Depp’s performance of as Bulger is top notch, leaving the viewer with chills each time the camera pans onto those startling blue eyes, unfortunately the film as a whole doesn’t does not have that sitting on the edge of your seat feel. There are moments where the audience will jump in their seaits from sudden gunshot blasts and cringe worthycringe worthy moments.

of a snitch being strangled with a rope, but this film is lacking the dramatization we are all used to. That is exactly what Scott Cooper intended to do. In an interview with The Boston Globe during the premiere of the movie in Toronto, Cooper explains he had kept the victims and their families in mind during the whole filming process, “…I wanted to make the story with the utmost respect, with the victims and the victims’ families in mind…” This is the reason why some viewers may leave the theater a little disappointed that there will not be any scenes of victim’s having their teeth pulled out or just glimpses of the violence that Bulger is capable of committing. These atrocities are still fresh in the families’ minds, along with the conviction of the real life Jimmy Bulger that recently happened in June 2013. Before the credits began to roll the audience is brought into a time leap of a white beard, incognito Bulger emerging from an elevator and is apprehended by agents in a parking lot in 2011.

While the film may come off as disappointing for many due to the lack of dramatization of certain scenes, the actual performance of the actors and the replication of events and places during the reign of Jimmy Bulger will leave the audience wanting to learn the actual facts of what had occurred on the streets of South Boston. In that case I highly recommend viewers to watch the documentary Whitey: The United States of America v Whitey Bulger where they can see for themselves the depth and accuracy Scott Cooper and Johnny Depp put into making this film about one of America’s most infamous gangsters. After all, before his capture, James ‘Whitey’ Bulger was second to Osama bin Laden on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List.

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