The Irishman

◊ ◊ ½

A note to Mr Scorsese (not that I have any illusions that he’ll read this or care in the slightest): If you’re feeling the need to make a 210+ minute magnum opus, please make it interesting. It’s not like gangsters are an untapped topic in the film industry. And, when you have masterpieces like “The Godfather,” “The Godfather, Part II,” and “Goodfellas,” you have to be careful that you are adding something to the genre. And it isn’t as though the story of Jimmy Hoffa has never been told. It was covered in the movie “Hoffa” starring Jack Nicholson. This time, we get Pacino in the role. God love him, he has done some amazing work in “The Godfather” movies, not to mention “Serpico,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” and a host of others. But, he’s a bit of a ham. And he was full-on honey baked here. It’s hard for me not to see Pacino in everything he plays, and I often find his performance distracting, as I did this time. De Niro and Pesci were great, but they were playing versions of characters we have seen before, especially Pesci. De Niro’s aging criminal, alone, health failing, with regrets, may be a slightly different take, but we didn’t see much of that character. Instead, we got lots of De Niro with a noticeably CGI’d face. As much as the tech is improving, it is far from perfect and, the younger De Niro was supposed to be, the more distracting the CGI. Overall, a detailed look at Frank Sheeran’s life (the eponymous Irishman) is not a bad idea. There is lots to tell, particularly as related to Hoffa. But, Scorsese didn’t know when to stop. Either have some self-discipline and bring the story down to 2-hours, or else make it a series. As it stood, I spent the time reading emails and searching the web. Definitely not what I expected from a cast and crew of this caliber.