The Irishman (2018)

jayrebb said:

Biggest complaint im getting is that its a little dry, lacks punch n pizazz especially because of the dragging second half.

Was it worth assembling this cast? And is it worth the buzz surrounding the movie? Awards? etc.

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Awards talk seems misplaced to me. Any such victories would feel more like a lifetime achievement award than fully about this movie.

It was aight. 3/5 stars on the FOH scale.

Frank Sheeran was a bit of a zero. And, there are many other conflicting accounts and confessions about Hoffa's disappearance that put Sheeran's story in doubt.

This shows biggest problem is the length. It is well documented. Looking back, a lot of it feels unnecessary or repetitive. ie, Sheeran asking Hoffa to come to his senses 6 different times, because the bosses really meant srs bsns this time around.

The second issue is that they waited too long to tell the tale. De'niro, Pacino, and Pesci are almost 80 years old. The anti-aging technology can only do so much. De'Niro trying to curb-stomp that shop owner was one of the most embarrassing things I have ever seen on film. It looked like he was about to break a hip just lifting his boot off the ground.

My last big issue are the jumps across multiple timelines. It is just distracting. It happens too much. I had the same issues with True Detective S3. If you want jump around to different points in a persons life, keep it simple like Saving Private Ryan. The Introduction (future), the Story (past), the Impact (future). Done.

The ending with Frank confronting his impending death was well done and I felt like it represented every DeNiro gangster character he has done with Scorcese. It wasn't just Frank unwilling to feel sorry for the horrendous shit he did in his life, it was Ace, Jake, and Jimmy as well. The rest of his performance and role was pretty meh but the ending made that long, slow drive to Detroit with lots of cigarette breaks worth it IMO.

I thought the best part of the money was near the end. After where De Niro was picking out his space in a mausoleum, the FBI agents giving him a chance to come clean on Hoffa. De Niro rebuffed them saying something along the lines of "On the advice from my lawyer, I have nothing to say about that". They responded with, "Your lawyer is dead." De Niro said, "WHO KILLED HIM?!".

Made me raugh pretty hard.

Overall the movie was kinda meh. It wasnt terrible, but like everyone said before me, everyone was past their prime in this. Well I thought Pacino did a pretty good job with playing Hoffa and conveying Hoffa's ego.

Enjoyed it for what it was, though it was so long we had to watch it in three sittings.

I thought it was a let down. I think Pesci and Pacino did really well. De Niro was mixed, he doesn't have much personality or motivation, he's like a golem created by the italian mob to do their bidding. That's fine I guess but it isnt really interesting to watch. And he's just too old to play the guy, that scene with him curb stomping the guy was so awful, I get that it was important to the story but fucking yikes. It's like the movie doesn't know what it is about. The main character isn't really developed, the overall story isn't cohesive, the way all these different parts fit together isn't well defined.

idk, I think if you didn't have the big names attached to this, it would be a middle of the road movie that no one would ever talk about. There are some good scenes, some good characters, but the movie is forgettable.

I think 2.5/5 Is about as high as I go with this.

Many have already stated the reasons with how geriatric the movie looked. The attempt to make the actors look younger failed miserably. I was hoping it was going to be CGI but I guess there was no budget for that sort of thing. The story dragged on and on..and on. Pacino lacked his fire that I felt some scenes needed playing Hoffa. It was like he just could not let it all go. I am guessing age might have had some effect on this. The Devil's Advocate is a master piece that shows Al Pacino at his finest. This movie did not reflect that. Pesci looked old no matter what they did. I wondered why I had not seen him in a while and now I know why.

The ending was the saving grace. I felt like that was both the character and Robert Deniro at the Mausoleum. I almost felt as if that scene was speaking to all the main actors who have aged to a point where they really have to consider this kind of thing. It felt genuine.

If they had shortened it a bit and actually De-aged the actors(or used other actors to represent them like in Godfather), it would have scored better.

The movie was ok to watch once but this is no where close to Casino or any of the Godfathers.

- Pacino was very good at playing Hoffa. You can check the real Jimmy Hoffa on Youtube, when he's being grilled by Bob Kennedy or when he's just doing an interview, I think Pacino really nailed it. The film, while developing its own story of course, did really well at showing how his life went, from top power to prison and then trying hard to get back to power at all costs, even publicly denoucing mafia. Which was like suicide at that point.

- Pesci was awesome in the role of Russ Bufalino, a role at the antipodes of the "gangster" ones he played in both Goodfellas and Casino. He really nailed the "that boss" behind the curtains mobster type, based on what we know. It was really cool to see Pesci not doing the psycho randy wiseguy for once. Also Pesci had retired for years, had to deal with health issues, and seeing him again was a blast.

- DeNiro was I think miscast at playing a 1.93m tall irish guy. Deaging him was as convincing as disguising a labrador and there are scenes he just can't act as a 40ish years old man. Of course it's DeNiro and its acting is convincing (minus his accent), but Frank Sheeran was nicknamed "The Irishman", not "The BrooklynMan", there's just so much you can do from that. I know the movie was all about getting DeNiro, Pesci and Pacino together but for me that didn't really click. DeNiro felt out of place for most of the scenes.

Overall I liked the movie, I'm a Scorsese fan, but I think it lacked pacing, we're in 2019, doing a miniseries isn't taboo anymore and there's so much stuff you can do writing wise about this era, there's no need to chain yourself to a 3h30 biopic. And again, I know with The Irishman people liked to label it "last of Scorsese mafia trilogy" and it's absolutely wrong. Scorsese is a feature director, he doesn't deal with anything trilogy wise, he just makes movies. If there's ever a "Scorsese mafia trilogy" people should be aware of Mean Streets.

The Irishman isn't a bad movie, it's just a decent film you watch and then go watching Goodfellas or Casino because there's something missing. Soul? Both Henry Hill and Sam Rothstein stories were compelling , they both had that "rise and fall" trajectories. I think The Irishman lacks soul because Frank Sheeran's life didn't have any and it tried so hard sticking to it.

Mean Streets is on Netflix right now. A lot of Goodfellas came directly from that movie, he even used the same Rolling Stones songs.

Early Scorcese seemed like Keitel was going to be his main guy but obvs that ended up being DeNiro. Anyone know what happened there?