Alien at the Movies

It's the making of a mobster when Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck), son of a Boston police superintendent/WWI veteran/two-bit robber, rises to power through bootlegging & rum running during the Prohibition Era. Joe is a man driven by the love of the women in his life. Seemingly always caught between a rock & a hard place, but don't worry about Joe because he is smart. Don't underestimate him. Affleck produces, directs, screen writes, & stars in this beautiful looking, sometimes slow moving film with bursts of violence & a big time blood bath. Elle Fanning, Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana, & Chris Cooper are among the outstanding supporting cast. The film magically transports you back to Boston & Tampa during the 1920s-30s where the Italian mob & the Irish mob are muscling in on each other's territories with the Ku Klux Klan tossed into the mix. 

Alien gives it 2½ "Riders of the Eastern Ridge" stars out of 4.