The Irishman A Bit Lengthy for my Taste, but Still Timeless Scorsese Grade: B

Source: IMDB

The Irishman tells a story about Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) whom delivered meats for a butcher shop. One occasion Frank decides he wants to deliver meats exclusively for the head of the mob, as he then becomes a hitman for the mob. Frank tends to get too acquainted with his connections, as his connections have different views and opinions on politics. Soon Frank will have a difficult time taking order to take out a personal friend, that he has no desire to take out, but because he’s so deep in the mafia he has no choice. Watch a story of a man whom became successful in a corrupt line of work, as he becomes to live a life of regret in the near end. Advanced apologies to all incase my plot synopsis isn’t exactly up to par with what it is, just simply explained it what it was without giving away much. Oh boy was I absolutely thrilled to have this film played in my city, it was only showing in two theaters as I had to make it happen, driving many miles to get there. Limiting a Scorsese picture on a TV screen can never do, no matter if it’s in a beautiful 4K picture, in order to get the complete experience, one must see it in a theater. I went to the Eclipse Theaters in Las Vegas, Nevada as I gotta say: Money well spent. Beautiful theater that included a 21+ bar and lounge, with a live band... I mean you can’t beat it. The Cinematography looked pretty good, many great shots throughout this entire film, as I’m actually baffled this is getting a limited release because this does not look like a movie made for television at all. I thought the Score was fine, I expected more out of it, however I did enjoy some of the soundtrack selections at least. So let’s talk about the de-aging effect, which came to a surprise to me because never in my life would I think Scorsese would come to this route in film making. In the beginning it looked fake from where we first seen Frank and Russell (Joe Pesci) together on screen, but after that first scene... It looked really impressive, as you can’t tell they de-aged these actors. Given the circumstances of how old these guys are, I’m truly impressed because like Samuel L. Jackson in Captain Marvel, you can tell just a couple incidents that they put a de-aged effect on him, by the way he slowly got up from the ground or walked with a slight limp. I gotta say I thought given the fact these three actors are extremely old, I didn’t think they could handle the tasks required for them to convinced the audience, that they were that young again... But they did an outstanding job fooling them, as we all believed they went back in time and became that young again. The cast of this film all in all was really good. Robert De Niro playing Frank played a pretty good performance, I don’t think this will reward him a nomination, given the fact he’s played this type of character many times in the past, but is still timeless. Frank was a well written character as this is his own movie start to finish. Frank was living a good corrupt life as a hitman, no stress, no worries, as he played everything according to plan as like nothing he did was wrong. But at the end of the day.... Frank basically died a very sad man, due to the fact he had to face the music and that tune just could never sit well, due to the relationship he had with that person. Joe Pesci returns for the first time since 2010’s Love Ranch... I don’t know a single soul that has ever watched that, but heck Scorsese and the gang brought him back possibly for the last time. Joe Pesci in effort gives a great performance in this film as basically Frank’s boss. The chemistry between De Niro and Pesci was great, as when Russell told Frank that he was his son metaphorically, you believed in the connection they had throughout the entire film, as in that moment you shed a tear as well. 2019 maybe the year Al Pacino has finally proved me wrong. I’ve said many years the man should retire, because the lack of effort I’m seeing in his performances have been quite disappointing and even bad at times. With his small role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and now his significant big supporting role in The Irishman playing Jimmy Hoffa... Wow, it looks like there is still life in Mr. Pacino after all, this is his best performance in a good decade. Pacino disappears in this role, as you can’t tell it’s him as he’s giving a new performance this time around and I gotta say.... Where was this guy many years ago?! I missed this guy! Please for the love of God Pacino, keep your performances moving forward exactly like this, this was great! There is actual effort and integrity made by Pacino, where he’s actually bringing in some raw emotion in this performance, felt truly inspiring and refreshing to see from him this time around. Couple supporting performances I like to discuss quickly. I thought Ray Romano playing the attorney was pretty good, he’s been quite impressive in these last few years especially in the roles he’s taking. Jesse Plemons playing Chuckie had a really good performance as well, which isn’t a surprise. Famous Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco had a little part in this film and it was bad ass, hopefully they’ll give him his own movie very soon. Well I do have a couple flaws to give this film and their both involving length. I felt this film was a bit too long, for three hours and thirty minutes I expected this to move smoothly... I just thought it could’ve been cut down thirty minutes at least. Especially the end, where you get the point already but it keeps going on longer than it should have. I also found the middle to be quite slow and a bit repetitive at times. I’ve only seen nine films from Scorsese and what I can tell you is this is my least favorite of his so far. I just felt the other eight were better and I thought his last two The Wolf of Wall Street and Silence were significantly much stronger than this, as I’ve come to think of those films more and more over the course of time. I did however think The Irishman is still an enjoyable solid quality film, as this becomes a strong B film. Though I’ve complained about some length and some pacing issues, I did however found the story to be interesting and engaging enough for the most part. It’s a nice character study with Frank, other than the ending I thought it was an interesting character piece on him. Like any Scorsese mafia type picture, you’re going to get violence regardless. The violence felt more matured this time around just like how it was portrayed in Silence, where it isn’t in your face and couple deaths were well executed. Some may get bored of the violence due to the fact it’s basically Frank for the most part walking up for a hit and gunning them down, but with each and every hit, there is a logical reason behind every hit. The thing that touches me the most about The Irishman really is the craft behind the film, you can easily tell there was a great amount of hard work put into this one. Sure they got granted a HUGE budget, but it seemed every single penny that was put into this was well spent. You can tell every single actor that worked on this, especially the Big Three Pacino, De Niro, and Pesci gave their all into this. They could’ve easily been lazy especially Pesci I mean how they got him to work on this, must’ve cost a lot in terms of money and in begging.... But they gave their all into this, it seemed like everyone put their heart and soul into this project. Plus I believe it was well directed yet again by Scorsese, it just felt like a timeless project for him as he got everyone to do their part and got exactly what he wanted. Sure in the end I didn’t fully love this film, however there is a great amount of appreciation that I have for it, as I still throughly enjoy it for what it is. Overall, The Irishman is a strong good film, that’ll probably age well for years to come. I recommend this year and I highly recommend checking this one out in theaters if it’s playing in your area, I feel you can’t get the full experience if you don’t see it in theaters in my own personal preference, like Roma last year. Well done everyone, I must say I have a great amount of respect for everyone involved with this film, you got another quality film under your belt Mr. Scorsese! -Mitch Smietana