The Irishman (2019)

Classic Scorsese . De Niro is the best he's been for years . Pacino is really magnetic and charming . But for me, Joe Pesci is the standout. Quietly deadly, magnetic , loyal, complicated, its him that will get the Oscar . Saw it at the cinema ( sorry Netflix but I am not watching Scorsese at home ) and it was superb. Oh Anna Paquin is used quite cleverly as well. Good actress . Decent performance Go and see it at the cinema . You will remember the masters returning for one last ride

Fmovies: First off, let me set this straight that I'm not repeled by long or slow films. However, The Irishman is at the very least 30-40 minutes too long, and the suspense sometimes is killed off by characters dragging the scene too much. The biggest offender would be the second last arc which I'm not gonna spoil.

Secondly, for such a slow film you'd expect the pay off to be worth it, but it isn't. The message of the film is revealed very early on, and it's very obvious where this particular plot line is going to. These 2 factors (slow pace and obvious plotline) make the film feels particularly unrewarding to me.

Third is the lack of the 'wow' factor, which is disappointing for such a godlike cast and crew. There is not a single memorable scene or line that stands out for me, despite the actors all doing a phenomenal job. And no, I don't really mind the CGI, even though it's not the best thing since sliced bread. The music is not memorable either, even though it can be an artistic choice to make the film feels more grounded and unglamorous.

So where does this leave us? Personally I don't think this is a bad film, but it feels disappointing with such a big roster. Don't expect this to be the film to watch with friends over, as it's pretty (unneccessarily) lengthy and the undertone is meant to be a heavy one.

This film is super long. Too long to sit in the cinema for as fantastic as it looks. I ran out of snacks, I was so gripped I didn't go to the toilet which meant my bladder was bursting only adding to the tension.

This is pretty much the Avengers of the gangster movies where all of your favourite people are in one film written by the best writer and directed by the best director. Only Walken and Woods are missing.

Making de niro young kind of works and isn't as distracting as I thought and Pacino is fantastic. If you expect Pesci to be the nutjob he was in the other Scorsese movies then think again and this is no bad thing. Pesci is one of the best actors alive with a fantastic range and this movie proves it.

The Irishman is lovely to look at but for god sakes take a leak before you go or wait for its Netflix debut where you can watch it with whiskey and pause it for comfort breaks.

The Irishman fmovies. If your one of those people thinking about getting Netflix just so you can see this dinosaur, please don't. Watching Robert DeNero in this film is almost sad. He plays the part of a guy in his prime, but the CGI face doesn't work. It looks animated at times and his body moves like a very old man ... even for DeNero's age of mid 70's. The grocery sceen where DeNero beats up the store owner is just embarrassing to watch. Joe Pesci comes out of retirement for this one and shines. He has a stare that burns a hole through you. Al Pacino as the flamboyant Jimmy Hoffa works well. Harvey's Keitel in a small mob boss roll is solid too. But the editing is not together ... the movis drags ... and the fellas in the film unfortunately are just too old to pull this off convincingly. It's too bad this wasn't made 25 years ago, it would have probably worked. Grossly overhyped epic that is passed its prime, in more than one way. Would never waste 3.5 hrs watching again. If your hoping for the next Goodfellas, you've come to the wrong place.

While this is De Niro's best performance in years, and it's great to see Pesci back on screen, this film is strangely subdued and slow, and not half as entertaining or engrossing as either Goodfellas or Casino were. Unfortunately, this films seems to reflect a Scorsese who is aging, or perhaps the fault lies with the freedom that Netflix gave him, when a lot of editing could have been done to tighten this film up. Even if you're watching this on Netflix in say 3 x 70 minute sessions, not much really happens in this time to make it compelling enough to want to stay till the end. It's a strange film because it bares the distinct marks and style of a Scorsese film but is nowhere near as memorable as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull or The Departed (and perhaps Di Caprio and Damon would have been a better fit, rather than de-aging the actors via CGI). It could also be that the script just isn't as good as most of his previous films. I can't recommend this to many of my friends as I know they simply won't sit through this, unless they are hardcore De Niro or Scorsese fans.

Sadly a sub-par effort from one of my all time favorite directors. The story is weak (by Scorsese standard) and overly stretched. I can understand the appeal to revisit his trademark Italian gangster genre one more time, but this one feels unnecessary. The also trademark Scorsese humor is in-existent (except for the painting walls bit). De Niro looks disoriented, in the worst physical (hunched over almost the whole movie) and acting shape ever and out of place. Not very surprising, either. He spent the better part of the last 15 to 20 years doing mock impressions of himself which after the novelty faded ended him up in a series of quite dubious productions. That's a very long time to lower the bar and obviously takes its toll.

The De-aging technique is unconvincing when the actors move. Their faces look animated, fake. There is little and uninspired music. Keitel looks fantastic but is underused. Pacino kinda overacts on occasion. Pesci looks fantastic and is in top form acting-wise but he's also in a supporting role (he's the best part of the movie) so he doesn't have a big impact on the movie. Romano is in top form but his part is also small.

The movie is slow, linear, extremely long, predictable (how often have we seen the Hoffa story on screen? a superior version starring Nicholson comes to mind) and dull. There isn't much going on action-wise. A lot of innuendo and he said they said, but aside some quite dull hit-jobs where de Niro is supposed to be in his prime but moves like a 75 year old the story is quite static. The dialog is stale. Stunts are weak to say the least (Pacino's double excessively hiding his face when he hits the floor in a fight and obviously wearing a wig and body padding, and the store owner more than obviously throwing himself through the window of the store while De Niro clumsily mimics hitting him around come to mind, rendering those scenes borderline laughable). Colors, interiors, costumes are all in shades of beige. Camera work is rigid. Plus the Hoffa story is old news to begin with, there are so many insane things going on right now and would translate better to the screen in 2019. The edgy fast paced crazy energy of the more recent Wolf of Wall Street (not to mention his earlier masterpieces Casino, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Mean Streets or Goodfellas etc) seems that of a different director.

All in all the weakest film in Scorsese's portfolio and not above a 6 stars out of 10 by any standard (I'm inclined to be lenient mainly because he managed to bring Pesci out of retirement for this. But by Scorsese standard it's well below that). It's more of a self-indulgent piece of nostalgia best left unmentioned when it's all said and done. And I'm hopeful that Marty will surprise us with more of his best work in the future and we can sweep this one under the rug.