Overall, an entertaining picture.

The director pays incredible attention to detail, not only in recreating 1931 West Virginia, but in every nuance of the acting.

The story is a little odd in that the characters, though brilliantly portrayed, can be a little hard to root for at times. I mean there's never a point you root against them, but at some point it becomes harder to really care what happens.

Gary Oldman is memorable, though he only has as a few minutes of screen time.

It's worth the 10 bucks.

I agree, I saw this yesterday and thought it was blinding.

The acting was great, especially Tom Hardy who's grunts were hilarious at times.  Also his 'I thought I walked?' line had me laughing.  I feel that's a good point though, despite this been a quite brutal and violent film there's some good dark comedy moments.

Shia LaBeouf getting his ass kicked by Guy Pearce was a stand out scene too.

Overall a good movie.

I was a little let down by this being a big fan of Nick Cave's music and his previous collaborations with Hillcoat, in particular The Proposition.

I found it hard also to really care about the characters and the story. I read the script a few years back when it was on the black list under the title “The Wettest County in the World” and had the same feelings towards it.

Solid performances (especially Guy Pierce) looks great, fantastic soundtrack, just lacked in the narrative department, too by-the-numbers. cliche and unremarkable, thus forgettable.

However, you do get to see Jessica Chastain's boobies...which was nice.

Completely agree with everything Col has said here. Everything. Yes, naughty bit as well.

The first 30-45 minutes promised a great deal but then it sort of fell in on itself. Collapsed under the weight of no real direction, meaning and the lack of significant stakes. Sure, there's the supposedly (but not really) omnipotent threat of the fantastic (as usual) Pearce, but it's not nearly cinematically palpable. The ascension of LaBeouf was rushed and too incomplete to allow us reason to believe he'd be anything like a threat to Pearce, whilst the sidelining of the real threat of Hardy adds to the anti-climax that was the final shootout. It just seemed such a small ending - both as a spectacle and narratively. By the end, this was a movie on its last legs that had stopped being barely entertaining.

I'd say that the blame can largely be placed on the script and lack of focus in terms of what this movie is supposed to be about. Also think the original title was so much better. Wouldn't be surprised if an awful lot of the meat in the pie is sat on the cutting room floor.

I went into this one with fairly high hopes...

I'm a big fan of the last collab between the writer and the director.
It's a dazzling existential Western called, The Proposition.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421238/

But this one and The Road were disappointments to me.
Considering the wealth of talent involved, I wanted more from this one.

I just don't get Shia, man.
One scene, he's the golly gee I'm scared little bro.
They very next he's an action hero. Until he starts crying. Ugh.
In a word, a JOYLESS film for me.

I wanted to like Lawless a lot.
I dig the subject matter, being a NASCAR fan and all.
But after a promising first act, the story meandered like crazy.

The love affair felt bloodless. I mean, come on. She's hot.
Give us a some warmth on the screen, will ya?

It's like Hillcoat's allergic to humor.
He goes out of his way to eradicate anything that someone might smile at.

And given the August release, I'm sure the Weinsteins knew this wasn't Oscar bat.
I doubt they'll give him another chance to get them some gold statues.

E.D.

This was decent enough but lost its way during the second half for me. They set-up a great conflict between Charlie Rakes (A superb Guy Pearce) and the Bondurant brothers but it then seem to lose momentum and when the forced finale came (With the death of Cricket) it all felt rather flat to be honest.

The characters of Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska were not given enough considering that Chastain’s own misfortune could have been a good motivation for Hardy’s character.

And to only give Gary Oldman about 5 minutes of screen time – wished they could have weaved his character into the plot more.

On a plus side, this was the best I’ve seen from Shia LaBeouf.