I went to see this last night, I know it's out on Netflix at the end of the month but it appeared to be a proper film that would benefit from the full cinematic presentation. Not least because, for me, the three and a half hour running time needs the full immersion that a movie theatre affords. I can't imagine getting that much uninterrupted time to focus on it at home.
I enjoyed it, a lot, though perhaps wouldn't go as far as to call it the classic that some reviews have. It's basically a long, agreeable time in the presence of fantastic actors playing off each other in a world (re)created by a great auteur, the substance of the film itself probably wouldn't work at all without this cast and director, unsurprisingly.
Joe Pesci comes close to stealing the film as he gives the most subtle performance of the leads, with Pacino predictably at the other end of the scale and De Niro coming somewhere in the middle. Stephen Graham is absolutely fantastic in a small role and the whole film is filled with great little turns (I'm sure I spotted Stevie Van Zandt in a cameo as a nightclub singer but can't find any evidence it's him online).
The much-talked-about de-aging effects didn't bother me at all (even the disconnect between the actor's youthful faces and older man's movements in a couple of scenes) and, to my mind, were far more successful than using younger actors in the early scenes or prosthetics/make-up would have been (there is one use of prosthetics in the film which is terrible, actually - though not used to age/de-age someone).
One thing it did make me realise is that any mob movie released nowadays ,even one with the talent behind it that The Irishman has, is going to suffer in the shadow of The Sopranos. The genre has been perfected, though that doesn't mean I don't enjoy the right people giving it another go. I'm now wondering how many mob movies I've seen since The Sopranos that left a major impression on me, 'Killing Them Softly' came to mind but there must be others.
I enjoyed it, a lot, though perhaps wouldn't go as far as to call it the classic that some reviews have. It's basically a long, agreeable time in the presence of fantastic actors playing off each other in a world (re)created by a great auteur, the substance of the film itself probably wouldn't work at all without this cast and director, unsurprisingly.
Joe Pesci comes close to stealing the film as he gives the most subtle performance of the leads, with Pacino predictably at the other end of the scale and De Niro coming somewhere in the middle. Stephen Graham is absolutely fantastic in a small role and the whole film is filled with great little turns (I'm sure I spotted Stevie Van Zandt in a cameo as a nightclub singer but can't find any evidence it's him online).
The much-talked-about de-aging effects didn't bother me at all (even the disconnect between the actor's youthful faces and older man's movements in a couple of scenes) and, to my mind, were far more successful than using younger actors in the early scenes or prosthetics/make-up would have been (there is one use of prosthetics in the film which is terrible, actually - though not used to age/de-age someone).
One thing it did make me realise is that any mob movie released nowadays ,even one with the talent behind it that The Irishman has, is going to suffer in the shadow of The Sopranos. The genre has been perfected, though that doesn't mean I don't enjoy the right people giving it another go. I'm now wondering how many mob movies I've seen since The Sopranos that left a major impression on me, 'Killing Them Softly' came to mind but there must be others.
Comment