Legend – Blu-Ray Movie Review

From Academy Award winner Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential) comes the true story of London’s most notorious gangsters, twins Reggie and Ronnie Kray (Tom Hardy). As the brothers rise through the criminal underworld, Ronnie advances the family business with violence and intimidation while Reggie struggles to go legitimate for local girl Frances Shea (Emily Browning). In and out of prison, Ronnie’s unpredictable tendencies and the slow disintegration of Reggie’s marriage threaten to bring the brothers’ empire tumbling to the ground.

This is not the first movie about the notorious Kray brothers (twins, actually), but it is one of the better films about them. Hardy does an amazing performance as both Ronnie and Reggie. One brother is suave and the other is “mad as a hatter”, but Hardy makes them both his own and within the first 20 minutes, you’ll completely forget the same man is playing both characters. The time frame of the film is the 1960’s, but the London scene is a lot different than what we were going through in the States. The similarities were that the mob was hated by the police, but the mobsters were often revered by the locals. There is also a nice twist with the film’s narrator at the end that I did not see coming. The movie is both entertaining and fast paced, but I would highly recommend you see it just to watch Hardy carry the story. It’s hard to imagine that he was in Mad Max and a Batman movie. Here, he has a chance to really act…twice!

The film looks great on BD without any artifacts or video misteps. Film grain gives it a “period feel”. Colors are saturated and bright while the interior and exterior shots showing great depth and detail. The sound was equally impressive. The music was all encompassing and strong. Surrounds were used often and the sub had a few scenes that delivered punch. A near demo disc here, for sight and sound.

Besides a DVD and digital copy, there is : Creating the Legend and a feature commentary with Brian Helgeland.