I thought it was OK. I haven’t watched the last 20 minutes, but I’m not thinking they will make a difference.
Granted I have poor facial recognition abilities, but I didn’t know that was Al Pacino until I came to this thread. I was actually going to find out what that actor’s name was on Google and then appoint him the poor man’s Al Pacino. I thought his acting was terrific, don’t get me wrong. But with his hair styled that way and his face not so gaunt, I didn’t know who he was. I was able to spot Harvey Keitel right away, and he was on the screen for just five minutes!
What is it with Robert DeNiro playing an Irish guy who is in the mob but not really? I love Bobby, but come on now. And get out of here having a 77-year-old guy playing the part of a 30-something year-old. If it had been anyone besides De Niro doing that, I would have bailed out after the first 10 minutes.
I appreciated the history lesson about Jimmy Hoffa, even if all the facts weren’t presented. I used to do research in the Hackensack Meadowlands (where the Giants Stadium is), and people would always tell me to look out for his body while I was slogging around in the marsh. I knew he was the Teamsters president with connections to the mob, but that’s all I knew.
I enjoyed the more subdued Joe Pesci. Much respect for Russ!
Interesting to me that many people were taken out of the movie by the CGI. I didn’t really notice it much and when I did, it didn’t matter to me. I was just strung along by the characters themselves.
I am beginning to think it helps to enjoy the movie if you’re long-in-the-tooth yourself. For me, Scorsese’s finished something he started building almost 50 years ago and I feel like I was along for the ride. And, of course, if you were old enough to see Mean Streets when it came out, you’ve got plenty of things to reflect on, yourself.
Different strokes, I guess. I thought it was an absolute masterpiece.
Every performance - Pesci’s in particular - was right as rain. I will single out just one: watch DeNiro’s face during the uncomfortable car ride near the end with Pacino. He’s been in a series of stupid comedies of late that made me forget what a master performer he is. These scenes of which I speak are understated and powerful.
Scorcese enjoyed the luxury of a long running time (I guess this is why is was a Netflix release?), and let the camera and scenes linger a hair or two longer than we are accustomed to. Some may consider this a negative, but I believe it added a realism that Hollywood seems afraid of these days, what with the half-second jump cuts and shaky cams that so often permeate the screen. I enjoyed every minute, beginning to end. Hell, he could have made a 10-episode mini-series out of the material and I’d be all aboard.
Genre-wise, I’m not quite ready to elevate “The Irishman” above the first two Godfathers, but I wouldn’t be shy about mentioning it in the same breath as “GoodFellas”.
For me the 3.5 hours went by like one hour - and I’m a person who often watches half a movie and never comes back to finish it. I never felt bored for a minute.
The main themes are the passage of time, aging, and meaning in life. Nobody can say that Scorsese glorifies the mob in this movie. He shows how pitiful and meaningless and stupid it all is in the end. The last half hour of the movie hits hard. Scorsese did that to some extent in Goodfellas, but this is on another level entirely. Nobody is going to finish this movie thinking gangsters and hits and violence are cool. Nobody is going to finish this movie thinking crime pays, even if the perpetrator is never caught.
Yeah, it’s got a long run time, but that’s why God made pause buttons. I’m wondering how old De Niro was supposed to be when he first met Pesci at the gas station. The de-aging effects were pretty good overall, but Pesci calling him “kid” was a little ludicrous.
It was okay, but parts of it really could have used better editing. I think it was a mistake to use the older actors as their younger selves. It just didn’t work. While they can use tricks to make them look younger, the eyes don’t lie, nor does the movement of an aging body.
Did anybody else notice Hoffa’s wife? She was the drug mule in Goodfellas.
I sure wish I could’ve seen the movie Karl saw. Because the Irishman I just watched was one really long cliche of dull… I couldn’t even finish it. It wasn’t worth it.
I noticed that Scorcese went for a different feel on some of this. There are more moments of sponteneity on this than I ever saw in his work. He let them riff. I don’t think I ever saw that before in his stuff.
OTOH the grocery store scene could have been cut: It was the same old “Italian father vendetta” porn scene you see in all the gangster flicks. And when it happened it blew the whole conceit of a young deniro out of the water. Deniro looks small in the movie.
in Goodfellas the scene with Tommy and his mother was all ad libbed. The only thing in the script was the boat/dog painting shown by Tommy’s mother who was played by Scorcese’s mother.
I’m surprised you would think that. That scene was vital. It was the point where Peggy’s feelings towards her father changed.
Far from protecting his daughters, his act of violence destroyed his relationship with his daughters, Peggy in particular. After that, they felt they couldn’t go to him with any problem, they couldn’t trust him not to overreact and do something terrible, they feared him rather than loving him.
I rather enjoyed it, overall. I do agree that the CGI young mains still moved like old men, about the only fix for that would have been to CGI the young mains faces onto a body double for the action scenes. I did really enjoy the slower paced lack of real blood guts and gore that many mob/crime pictures end up being. The lack of scary jump scenes was also nice. mrAru called it more of a mockumentary in his opinion [we both were growing up in the 60s/early 70s when the later action took place]
Hm. It seemed like a cliche and I just went “here we go again.” How many times have we seen that in the sopranos, the godfather, the bronx tale, on and on. The father has his kid insulted and … It is like porno to me, on the exploitative side.
How it affects the daughter I have to admit i didn’t consider but is it really a new wrinkle? All mafia stories have that kind of goo in them. I’m a little jaded by now but aren’t we all? It’s a long history of this stuff. Yes the little girl has a killer for a dad.
Then when it happens he looks like a little old man. It might have not had the impact it could have is all I’m saying.
Do you think The Godfather II would have been as good if Marlon Brando had tried to pass himself off as a 20-year-old?
Because I don’t think it would have been as good, even with CGI. And personally, I liked that Robert De Niro was able to shine in the role of Vito. It was a role that launched his career.
Seeing him playing whatever age he was trying to play in this film made me instantly think about all the younger actors who would love to be the next “De Niro.” But they can’t now because of CGI and an audience who sees such things as “trivial”.
What amazes me are people who think CGI and casting choices are “trivia” rather than artistic choices that should be subjected to criticism just like any other artistic choice. All of it is fair game for scrutiny, IMHO. I understand that people can be taken out of a film for stupid reasons, but I don’t think it’s stupid to think like they should have done something differently to make Robert De Niro more believable as a “kid”. Like, when he was beating up the storekeeper he really did move like how you’d expect a 76-year-old guy to move. That scene would have worked better with a body double, IMHO.
The casting choices are not trivia. The cast were exceptional. It would be difficult to get that quality of acting with less experienced and capable actors.