best movie i've ever seen.

A Disappointing Continuation

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

What doesn't kill you, makes perfect sense for this film. It seems Paulie and Brian (Ethan Hawke and Mark Ruffalo)do everything they can to survive in South Boston. Growing up together, Brian and Paulie go through everything to be able to live and raise families. This gritty story can't be more realistic, with the real life events come to life. Living in tough times is relatable to more people than realised, that's why this story really hits home, with brilliant screen play by to of the most highly underrated actors, Ethan Hawke and Mark Ruffalo.7/10 for this gritty drama.

I started watching this film with no idea what it was about. I had added it to my Netflix queue a while back, and forgotten why. Right from the first scene, though, I knew I had found a hidden gem. According to Wikipedia, the movie premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, and was released on a very small scale in December 2008 due to the collapse of its distributor, Yari Film Group. It is a straight- forward crime drama, showcasing the struggle of gangsters who want to change their lives. It is set apart, however, by the fact that it is based on Goodman's real life until the mid-1990s. Some guys deal with their demons with telling their story in a meeting…Goodman made a bad-ass movie about his…and Ruffalo, Hawke, and the rest of the cast (including Goodman) played the hell out of their roles.

This movie was your typical connect-the-dots street crime drama. You have your cookie-cutter bad-guys as good-guys setup, Ethan Hawke playing against type, the dumb mom with a heart of gold who can't resist her sadistic, flunky husband, etc., etc, etc. All of this would have been fine if not for three major problems: 1) the acting sucked. (2) the editing sucked. (3) The pacing was awful.I'm not going to get too into the bad acting. Bad acting is bad acting. A bunch of guys shouting "hey, where you going?" to each other for the better part of 2 hours gets old fast, and requires little subtlety or range. I won't linger on the film's pacing, either. You can see for yourself that there are several slightly interesting street scenes among the main characters, and then these slow, tedious, pointless domestic scenes that try to illustrate just how low these low-lives really are.The true sin this film commits is in its editing. First question - why is it ALWAYS winter? This entire film supposedly spans about 20 years. Yet every scene is set in gray, cold, bleak weather. Adding insult to injury is the director and editor's inability to be consistent about what kind of permanent winter they're trying to capture here. Repeatedly throughout the entire movie there are juxtapositions of scenes where one scenario plays out with six inches of fresh snow on the ground - then cuts away instantly to what logically plays out as something that is happening only a few hours or even just minutes later - with NO SNOW on the ground! This happens constantly, back and forth, back and forth, snow/no snow, snow/no snow. It's like, what the hell's the deal with this? Is it winter or not? Or is it late October? and how can it go from looking like the middle of January one minute, to the beginning of November the next, with reddish leaves on the trees and softer sunlight? Truly an editing disaster, and unless it was supposed to be symbolic of something, utterly pointless. As is most of this movie, aptly titled "What Doesn't Kill You." The rest of the phrase is, "Makes You Wish It Had." At least, that's the case here.

This is a very underrated film. I think its a shame it never has gotten publicity. I randomly picked it up on the fly for free a local library on DVD and was amazed that I never even have heard of it. There are no gimmicks or high wire stunts this was true to life. We need more of these films to rejuvenate what the cinema has become lately. I was thoroughly impressed on all levels with this film. This could of done very well in the box office if it had marketing at the time. Sadly CGI and fake acting has trumped modern cinema lately. This gritty true to life story beats them all hands down. I give it an 8/10, simply based upon the rehashing of older story-lines together. It still holds its own charm. Rent this movie and you will be surprised how well it was done.