It is incredibly difficult to talk about Black Mass without instantly discussing Johnny Depp's incredible and intense performance as James "Whitey" Bulger. Without a shadow of a doubt, Johnny Depp is getting nominated this year.

The reason there is a difficulty talking about the film beyond Depp's performance is the fact that it is a fairly run-of-the-mill Boston gangster movie - on top of that, it's also a fairly run-of-the-mill historical biopic. It is nice to see a film that does not glamorise a gangster, but simply puts it as it is - a businessman dealing in violence and money. Joel Edgerton also gives a good performance as John Connolly, convincingly playing corruption embodied in John Connolly. Almost unseeingly driven by greed, Connolly is the only other potentially three-dimensional character in the film apart from Bulger.

That's why it is surprising to see so many A-list actors in this film doing virtually nothing: Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Sarsgaard, Kevin Bacon, Adam Scott, Juno Temple - the list goes on. This seems to be the result of a trend in Hollywood studio produced films, a "Too Many Cooks Syndrome", if you will. Of course, it's driven by money. The film gets a bigger and bigger budget with films funding it, but they only want to fund a low-risk film, so logically, the more A-list actors you have in a film, the more tickets you will push. Unfortunately, this results in having a cast full of potential squandered. This syndrome also occurred in Everest.

Back to Johnny Depp. His performance is incredible - he disappears into the character, and no trace of the celebrity you see shyly talking on interviews, wearing silly hats. He is more than believable, emotional and physical acting of the highest calibre. Of course, the hair and makeup team did an incredible job to transform his face without making it look artificial, or constricting his facial movements. Damn. It happened again - talking about Depp's performance.

The thing is, there's not a lot to say about the film in general. It's not bad, but it's not particularly good either. The cinematography is as standard as any other Hollywood movie, the soundtrack is alright and the script is generic. Watch it for Johnny Depp's performance, but you're better off watching The Town for a generally better film about Boston and gangsters.