Live by Night October 25, 2018May 12, 2022 Admin What’s the Tomatometer®? Critics SIGN UP | LOG IN MOVIES TV SHOWS NewRT PODCAST NEWS SHOWTIMES TRENDING ON RT Top Gun: Maverick Most Anticipated TV & Streaming Firestarter Candy WATCH TRAILER LIVE BY NIGHT R 2016, Drama/Mystery & thriller, 2h 9m 34% TOMATOMETER241 Reviews 42% AUDIENCE SCORE10,000+ Ratings WHAT TO KNOW CRITICS CONSENSUS Live by Night boasts visual style and an impressive cast, but they’re lost in a would-be crime saga that finds producer, director, and star Ben Affleck revisiting familiar themes to diminishing effect. Read critic reviews YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE 6% 18% The Snowman 23% 69% The Kitchen 72% 62% The Hunter 73% 55% Crimson Peak 71% 71% The Infiltrator WHERE TO WATCH Rent/buy from $2.99 Rent/buy from $2.99 Rent/buy from $2.99 RATE AND REVIEW WANT TO SEE LIVE BY NIGHT VIDEOS 2:04 Live by Night: Trailer 2 View All Videos (1) LIVE BY NIGHT PHOTOS 1 2 3 4 5 View All Photos (44) MOVIE INFO It’s the Roaring `20s and Prohibition hasn’t stopped the flow of booze in an underground network of gangster-run speakeasies. The opportunity to gain power and money is there for any man with enough ambition and nerve, and Joe Coughlin, the son of the Boston Police superintendent, long ago turned his back on his strict upbringing for the spoils of being an outlaw. But even among criminals there are rules, and Joe breaks a big one: crossing a powerful mob boss by stealing his money and his moll. Rating: R (Some Sexuality/Nudity|Language Throughout|Strong Violence) Genre: Drama, Mystery & Thriller, Crime Original Language: English Director: Ben Affleck Producer: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Todd Writer: Ben Affleck Release Date (Theaters): Jan 13, 2017 Wide Release Date (Streaming): Mar 21, 2017 Box Office (Gross USA): $10.4M Runtime: 2h 9m Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1) CAST & CREW Ben Affleck Joe Coughlin Zoe Saldana Graciela Chris Messina Dion Bartolo Elle Fanning Loretta Figgis Matt Maher RD Pruitt Brendan Gleeson Thomas Coughlin Show all Cast & Crew CRITIC REVIEWS FOR LIVE BY NIGHT All Critics (241) | Top Critics (62) | Fresh (83) | Rotten (158) It’s more concerned with flattering our modern sensibility than truly plunging us into the mores of the 1920s. April 6, 2020 | Full Review… J. R. JonesChicago Reader TOP CRITIC It’s not Goodfellas. It lacks the black humour and the relish for eccentricity for its own sake, and the ending verges on mawkishness. But it’s great entertainment — a cunningly wrought tribute to old-fashioned Hollywood and the Warners style. January 27, 2017 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review… Sandra HallSydney Morning Herald TOP CRITIC Live By Night is a confusing jumble. But above all, it commits the cardinal sin of gangster movies: It’s really, really boring. January 25, 2017 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review… Wenlei MaNews.com.au TOP CRITIC Individual sequences are also compellingly handled and, as Affleck has demonstrated in his previous films as director… he’s an accomplished storyteller.Yet the film doesn’t entirely hang together. January 20, 2017 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review… David StrattonThe Australian TOP CRITIC You probably won’t turn it off when it comes on cable. But the material needs to be bigger, more momentous, as well as more intimate. January 17, 2017 | Full Review… David EdelsteinNew York Magazine/Vulture TOP CRITIC One of the film’s final set pieces is so wonderfully staged that it reminds you what skill Affleck has with the camera. Next time, he should perhaps confine himself behind it. January 16, 2017 | Full Review… David SimsThe Atlantic TOP CRITIC Not every role feels fleshed-out, and the pacing puts the viewer at a distance, but there are several moments of greatness along the way, including a superb final gun battle and one helluva Model T car chase. April 5, 2022 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review… Brian EggertDeep Focus Review There’s nothing inherently wrong with Ben Affleck’s warmed-over plate of gangland goulash – it’s a gorgeous production, meticulously put together by a team of seasoned Hollywood vets – but there’s also little that’s fresh. August 17, 2021 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review… Matt BrunsonFilm Frenzy ‘Live By Night’ is a great American epic stuck inside a misguided movie. June 3, 2021 | Rating: 1.5/5 | Full Review… Michael J. CaseyMichael J. Cinema It’s a literary stew of themes, held together by the violence and pulpier aspects of the movie. February 28, 2021 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review… Richard CrouseRichard Crouse The editing ruins much of the excitement mustered by the long-awaited showdown, as it refuses to simply wrap things up. December 5, 2020 | Rating: 4/10 | Full Review… Mike MassieGone With The Twins If Affleck considers himself the martyr of this production, that level of sacrifice was both unnecessary and entirely avoidable. September 23, 2020 | Rating: 1.5/5 | Full Review… Leigh MonsonSubstream Magazine View All Critic Reviews (241) AUDIENCE REVIEWS FOR LIVE BY NIGHT Jun 26, 2018 Though it doesn’t exactly die on-screen, Ben Affleck’s stylish but stale latest presents a Gangsta’s Paradise that recycles characters and situations seen time and time again in better 1930s-set mob classics. In this R-rated crime thriller, a group of Boston-bred gangsters (Affleck, Chris Messina, et al) set up shop in balmy Florida during the Prohibition era, facing off against the competition and the Ku Klux Klan. After turning out back-to-back hit A-Grade dramas The Town and Argo, writer-director Affleck had his pick of H’Wood projects, including taking a go at Justice League. Instead of teaming Batman up with other DC heroes, he chooses a different Dark Night, one exuding flourish but ultimately mired in clichés. He should have stuck with the Caped Crusader–not just because Live By Night lacks a unique oomph, but because his singular talents could have definitely improved upon Zach Snyder’s less-than-stellar Justice League. Teaming up again with South Boston-born novelist Dennis Lehane (their first collaboration, the excellent kidnapping puzzler Gone Baby Gone, marked the auspicious start of a truly gifted filmmaker), Boston-bred Affleck sees an ambitious chance to leave a mark on the gangster genre, award-winning bestselling book in-hand. What results, however fresh the source material, somehow feels like a long slow walk in Alligator shoes. Punctuated by moments of visual spark (the climactic set piece, a bloody affair set entirely inside an oceanfront Miami hotel, is an exciting symphony even though you already know it note-for-note) and inspired casting, the adaptation hardboils down Lehane’s more complicated story into something more pedestrian and bland. Affleck leads a capable cast that stands and delivers, among them Messina, Chris Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Sienna Miller, Scott Eastwood, and Brendan Gleeson, with Elle Fanning being the standout. They all seem to be having a great time playing Gatsby with Guns (having a slightly better time than the audience, at least), but no one here is walking away with an award. More boorish than noirish, their playing field is an all-too-familiar turf that looks grand (cinematographer Robert Richardson deserves special mention) but is ultimately more of a trope-ical than tropical paradise. To Sum It All Up: Bored-Walk Empire SHOW MORE Jeff BSUPER REVIEWER Sep 22, 2017 https://cinephilecrocodile.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/live-by-night-dir-ben-affleck-2016-i.html Anthony LSUPER REVIEWER Apr 21, 2017 Other than the costumes, this flick’s a nightmare. Christian CSUPER REVIEWER Feb 25, 2017 LOL!!! I love hate-watching some Ben Affleck! Stevie SSUPER REVIEWER See all Audience reviews QUOTES There are no approved quotes yet for this movie. 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