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The Irishman (2019)

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Through the first two hours or so of this it kinda just feels like another Goodfellas/Casino which is fine it's all slick and fun but when it becomes a sad old man movie in the last act that's when i think it really soars. certainly the most emotional of Scorsese's crime movies I thought. Definitely has an elder perspective than his others you can feel Scorsese grappling with death at the end of this thing.

 

De Niro's great this is his best performance since his 95 combo of Heat and Casino. the way he sells his sadness and regret towards the end of it was top notch. Was cool to see Pesci do a more quietly menacing gangster compared to his other roles too. The first time I saw de-aged de niro i was thinking "uh oh" but i got over it pretty quickly. the only other time it really bothered me was the scene where he beats up the grocer, you can tell he's an old man in that scene that's the slowest beating i've ever seen. also i guess early on when Keitel and Pesci are calling him a kid and he looks the same age as them all the time. he never looks under 55 thru the whole movie, the de-aging stuff mostly wasn't distracting because it felt so minimal. like where the hell did all that money go?

Edited by CoolioD1
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Feels very much like Scorsese's own Once Upon a Time in America, right down to the main theme sharing some similarities, but there's a real sense of bleakness to the third act that I wasn't expecting. De Niro's subtle, subdued work might be my favorite performance of the year so far, and Pacino felt like the perfect mix of his pre and post-Scarface style of acting.

 

The final shot in this film feels like a call-back to The Godfather, whether it's intentional or not. Except instead of a powerful, young Michael Corleone standing behind the closing door it's an old, withered, sad Frank Sheeran; alone and forgotten, having wasted a life on empty pursuits. Really beautiful, soulful stuff. 

Edited by TMP
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I'm still confused by some of the details of the main story (like I don't understand why Hoffa went to jail) and I thought it played like an average Scorsese flick for the first half but that second half is absolutely masterful. I think Scorsese made an interesting choice by making it clear that Sheeran didn't have a motive. He doesn't know why he's doing any of what he's doing. He's no Jordan Belfort or Henry Hill who are clearly motivated by greed. It's why Paquin's "Why?" has such a strong impact. That's the first time Sheeran actually thinks about what he's done. Speaking of Paquin, I shouldn't have doubted Scorsese. I thought he was going to waste her because I heard she only has one line of dialogue but the movie does a great job of utilising her. 

 

Also, I found out that the digging the grave flashback towards the beginning of the movie was foreshadowing to Sheeran digging his own grave at the end of the film. I'm wondering if Scorsese was actually trying to make a parallel between soldiers and members of the mob.

Edited by lorddemaxus
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I'm giving the movie a 9/10 right now but I think it should grow to a 10/10 for me like with Silence and TWOWS. Its certainly Scorsese best gangster film too.

 

Also @TMP, do you think the fish stuff in the car might be a callback to The Godfather too ("Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes")?

Edited by lorddemaxus
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I loved it.  From a pure film making stand point, this is a sprawling epic of mind blowing proportions.  Everything from the acting and directing right down to the editing (which is up there with JFK and JAWS as one of the best editing films of all time) to the location scouting (it seems like every scene is in a new locale),this is just the epitome of terrific film making.  As far as the acting, Joe Pesci is the best of the bunch imo.  If there was only one acting award given out, to me it would be Pesci....he's mesmerizing in every scene.  He's so much different that all of his other Scorsese performances.  He's quiet and calm and yet deadly.  He'll order a hit and make you feel that he feels bad about it.  I think my favourite part in the film is when Russel and Frank are in the kitchen and Russel tells him he has to kill one of his best friends.  The acting in that scene is just ridiculously incredible.

 

10/10 

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While it was epic in its approach it never lost sight of its characters.  DeNiro, Pacino and Pesci haven’t been this good in awhile.  And I was struck by just how profound it was.  It was the right time for Scorsese to make this film.  It’s a monumental achievement.   

Edited by DAR
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There are some bright spots in this for sure, but much of the movie is very generic and brings those great moments down. There was also a strange overuse of VO which would just explain what was happening on screen, I feel like it should either be show or tell not show and tell to be more effective in what Scorsese was going for. Anyway a step down from him recent works like The Wolf of Wall Street and Silence, while also being a step down from his other “gangster” films like The Departed, Goodfellas and Taxi Driver. 

 

Of course all of the above is subjective and anyone who loved the film is put wrong just a bit of a let down for me personally. 

 

Right now it’s a C for me or probably somewhere between a 5 or 6 out of 10, hopefully it grows on me a bit over the next few days.

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A fantastic film that gets better the more I think about it. As others have said, the first half really is a "Best Of" Scorsese crime films, almost to a fault. The second half is brilliant as everything starts to unravel. All three central performances are fantastic. De Niro and Pacino are the "yin and yang" of Hollywood and they play amazingly off each other. Pesci gives such a great, restrained performance that it is mind-blowing given how most of his career ended up post-Goodfellas.

 

Scorsese effectively closed the loop on his "crime" series. This movie is a true reflection of what he did with the genre and put an exclamation point on it. This was the perfect time to make this movie with four talents who made their names in the genre and helped craft it into what it is today. 

 

This is the best film of the year.

Edited by MrGamer
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A+

Very well done as expected. With the talent involved, how could it not be? Pacino and Pesci were especially good. The only thing I could have done without was the daughter storyline for the most part. That could have been done far more succinctly. And those blue eyes were very unsettling/uncanny valley for me.

Edited by glassfairy
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For a while, I wasn't really feeling this as it went through the motions of what we usually expect from a Scorsese movie, but it really takes off once Hoffa enters the picture and becomes something truly special by the end. This 3.5 hour crime story is no less of an epic than Titanic or Lord of the Rings: Return of the King or Avengers: Endgame (though Scorsese himself would scoff at that last comparison :lol:). While it can move a bit on the slow side, Scorsese keeps things interesting and entertaining (loved how the introductions for the minor characters came with onscreen descriptions of how they perished, almost all in incredibly violent ways) while conveying a real sense of the passage of time. As expected, he draws excellent performances from his cast. Longtime Scorsese favorite Robert De Niro, reuniting with him for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, reminds everyone what an incredible actor he really is when he isn't slumming for paychecks. Al Pacino (how did it take this long for him to finally collaborate with the director?) is similarly perfect as Hoffa; I wouldn't be surprised if he picked up a second Oscar for his work here. Joe Pesci steps out of retirement to deliver a subtle performance, while actors such as Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, and Jesse Plemons all add to the proceedings in small ways. As for the CGI de-aging...I thought it was mostly convincing, if distracting at times (since the actors still move like the much older men that they are despite their faces appearing considerably younger). While I won't call it one of Scorsese's best movies (The Wolf of Wall Street will easily go down as the best of his 2010s output in my books), it's arguably one of his most meaningful. Could it have used some trimming? Sure (although I ended up watching the whole thing in a single viewing). But there's no questioning that this is a highly rewarding 3.5 hours. A-

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The hit on Hoffa sequence in this movie and the ranch scene in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood are masterclasses in balancing a high level of tension with some great humor and engrossing character interactions.

I can't wait to watch this again having seen it in the cinema just over a month ago, but the biggest compliment I can give The Irishman is actually my dad's verdict when he watched it last week. One of his usual criticisms when walking out of a film is that it was a bit too long, and yet coming out of this movie he said: "What a film! I could've watched another hour of that".

Also, I'm stealing this from a poster on another forum, but these shots give me chills:

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As one of the most ambitious undertakings of Martin Scorsese’s entire career – no small claim to make about a master of the craft who has many challenging efforts to his name – The Irishman is a film that feels so grandiose in all facets that it demands time and thought to really sink into its viewers’ minds. And when it does, it’s a film whose impact feels about as big as its ambitions. Though Scorsese returns to the gangster movie subgenre with some familiar faces from a few of his greatest hits, The Irishman never feels like a cheap retread. Rather, it feels like a more sophisticated and mature take on gangster tropes than one would find in the likes of Goodfellas or The Departed – one where the characters approach death and judgment with such dread that they feel like more than just machinations of the plot, and where title cards stating the dates and manners of gangsters’ deaths makes it feel like death is truly coming for everyone in this film in one way or another. The first two-and-a-half hours are plenty engrossing and move along swiftly, often playing like a Scorsese take on the first two Godfather films. That said, it’s the last hour – in which the title character must wrestle with the weight of his decisions and his fears associated with aging – where the film really takes on its bruising power and makes itself feel like something much more profound than “just” a gangster film. Much will be made of the reunion of three enormous cinematic talents in Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, and all that hype is justified with stirring performances that mark each man’s best work in decades. DeNiro is arresting as the hitman of the title. His performance isn’t as animated as others in his filmography, but he’s compelling and intimidating for much of the running time while also conveying Frank Sheeran’s late-life wistfulness and guilt with grace. As infamous union organizer Jimmy Hoffa, Pacino proves a perfect match for the man’s blustery confidence in public and temperamental nature in private. DeNiro and Pacino are excellent scene partners, giving us the dynamic meeting of powers viewers thought they would see for more time in their previous meeting in Heat nearly a quarter-century ago (and I imagine it also runs circles around their collaboration in the largely-forgotten Righteous Kill), and their bond is strong enough that the climactic moment in their relationship has considerable impact. The mostly-retired Pesci is also in top form as the patriarch of a prominent crime family. Pesci’s work here is more restrained than his performances in Goodfellas and Casino, but he’s still intimidating when he needs to be and gets a number of powerful scenes with DeNiro. I’m still unsure of where exactly The Irishman ranks in the Scorsese canon, but whether one prefers it over his previous classics of not is simply a matter of taste; what’s clear is that it’s another mightily impressive accomplishment for one of our greatest living filmmakers.

 

A

 

Stray Thoughts:

- The whole last hour is superb, but that last scene is especially great. The symbolism of Frank asking the nurse to leave the door open is patently obvious, but still powerful.

 

- I definitely would have liked to catch this one theatrically rather than on Netflix. I'm bummed that my area (whose theaters are independently owned and operated) didn't take a chance on it, especially where two venues I used to attend in Rhode Island got it last weekend.

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Obviously this is a very well made film but looking past the sold production values, there are a few  BIG problems for me and I doubt this would have made every much in theaters.

 

-It is just unbelievably and inexcusably long and slow. There are so many long takes that are pointless. There is a very watchable 140 minute movie buried in there somewhere. As is, it isn't rewatchable at all and feels like a tremendous chore to get through.

-The "de-ageing" process is a mess and incredibly distracting. RDN's face may look SLIGHTLY younger but his body and movements are still that of an 80 year old. The scene where he beats up the convenience store clerk was HILARIOUS for how terrible it was. DeNiro looks much more like the youngsters fucking Grandfather than their Dad. 

-DeNiro and Pacino's performance here leaves a lot to be desired in general. One does not buy that they're very close friends. They may not be enemies but the friendship just feels underdeveloped which greatly reduces the power of things towards the end. 

-The Union itself is just never really established. What does it do and how does organized crime into it? Because loans come through it? Why does it matter that Hoffa get back on top?

-Bizarre such a ridiculously long movie can feel underdeveloped in these 2 areas

-Anna Paquin says like 5 words of dialogue

 

Joe Pesci is the real delight here, as always, practicing restraint. 

 

C

 

 it aint no Godfather, lemme tell ya

Edited by excel1
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THE IRISHMAN

 

This is a decent film to watch...once. It's no Goodfellas, it's not even a Casino. The film kept my attention throughout though so I wasn't bored. I thought all the actors did great but my standout would be Pacino in his showy role. Anna Paquin's role was a bit embarassing. They should have just got an unknown for such a nothing role. 

 

Grade - C

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I don't have much more to say about this movie that others haven't said already and much more eloquently, but I think it's a true masterpiece. I wanted to watch it again almost immediately after my first watch. The last time I felt that way about a 3 hour+ movie? The Wolf of Wall Street. I just can't get over how good this movie is. It's got everything. Humor, real characters, amazing performances and one of the most heartbreaking endings I can ever remember seeing. 

 

The only minor complaint I have about this, the one portion of the movie that did feel a little draggy was the "Frank you need to talk some sense into Hoffa" "He won't listen!" sequence, that did start to feel a liiittle repetitive, but it's entirely possible my thoughts on that could change the more I watch the movie.

 

As far as the CGI deaging... I thought it was great, in that I didn't notice it at all. Think about it, if the CGI was as terrible and distracting as some people are saying then the movie would be a completely unwatchable disaster. There's no way you could take the movie seriously if the lead actors faces looked completely fake. The only time I noticed it was the first scene where Frank and Russell meet at the truck stop, and a handful of times where Frank's eyes looked a little weird. Other than that the effect was invisible. That said, I'm not sure how necessary it was? De Niro/Pesci/Pacino never look like young men in the movie, they just look somewhat younger than they are now. This wasn't an issue or a problem for enjoying the movie, it's just one of those things you accept and don't even really think about it, like Goodfellas/Wolf of Wall Street/countless other movies where the lead actor is playing the same character over a 20 year period but don't look any different throughout the course of the movie. I just wonder if they could have achieved the same effect with makeup, considering they don't look much younger than they are now.

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