The Irishman (2019)

This review is probably going to make a lot of people angry but honesty is what I preach on this account so here it goes. Irishman is a colossal disappointment by Scorsese standards whom I consider one of my favorite directors. I understand the dream of reuniting three iconic actors for one last gangster ride but sometimes the past should be left in the past. The film feels like forcing a Ferrari that won many races in 1970 to compete in 2019 Formula 1 and expecting it to win by painting it in a different color and making it drive in the desert.

Out of the 3 legends, the CGI worked best on Al Pacino who looks and acts like back in his prime. De Niro on the other hand plays a 30 year old hitman with horrendous blue eyes who looks and moves like he is 70. Any time he had to walk, I was afraid that he was going to break some bone. Pesci looks 75 the entire time but thankfully his role is mostly sitting around and as a result he gives a good performance. Overall though, CGI takes away the authenticity of the film and makes it feel soulless.

Scorsese is known for crafting terrific plots with multiple simultaneous events fuelled by juicy dialogue and exciting scenes. The first 40 minutes pass in a breeze as we are introduced to an hitman who narrates the plot by describing his early work with the mob. Then we get immersed into the "wonderful" and "exciting" world of truck driver unions and their political struggles during the 60s which becomes the main topic for 3 hours. I repeat, 3 hours of truck driver unions and no matter how they try to connect Kennedy or Cuba to it, they are still blasted truck driver unions that no one cares about.

People call it a masterpiece because of the filmmaking nuances, beautiful shots and character growth but sadly all of this art gets lost in this mess of a predictably boring plot. Yes it is Scorsese, Yes it is De Niro, Pacino and Pesci, Yes it is their swan song but in the end it is an extremely dull movie and being 3.5 hours long does not help it. Sometimes it is better to look at the old videos of the Ferrari and remember how good it was instead of destroying it in a race.