Review of The Irishman (2019) by Lost-Sock — 06 Dec 2019

Ultimately this film is a tad on the boring side, and utterly self indulgent. I enjoyed the last hour or so, but the first hour in particular was a real slog to get through and I actually watched the film in 3 sittings, not due to time restraints, purely as I became too bored to continue twice.

The casting of Combo from This Is England (I forget his name, some scouser) was dreadful, his attempt at the accent - I think it was New Jersey or similar, is absolutely dreadful and really stands out, easily the worst part of the film for me and he ruined every scene he was in.

The real travesty in the film was the anti-aging used, it simply doesn't work. It's OK making De Niro look 50 again, but when he moves like an old man it's unintentionally hilarious, a scene where he beats someone up had me in stitches, you could blatantly tell it was an old man doing it, with some silly Toy Story style cgi making his face look younger.

Of course you get the standard Rolling Stones song thrown in as per usual as well, I'm not sure if the director is unaware it's a parody now how he crowbars the same damn tune into every film he makes or he's in on the joke.

I've given it a 6/10 as like I said, I enjoyed the last hour, and Joe Pesci is fantastic in it, it's really a shame he doesn't act anymore and I've really missed him the past two decades. Pacino however, well he's the same old hammy, shouty, over-acting self and it's clear why Scorsese hadn't worked with him previously - the guy can't act, and De Niro is De Niro, the man has one style no matter what role he's taking and his constant sniffing and breathing in only gets worse now he's ancient.

All in all though, it's clearly a vanity project by Scorsese, and a last chance for him to get all his doddery old fart friends together before they all start dying. I'm baffled how this film is being lauded so highly, it's very mundane and in parts will make you almost fall asleep, De Niros performance is phoned in, Pacino is as awful as ever, the CGI is immersion breaking, when Gimme Shelter comes on AGAIN in a MS film you'll either laugh or roll your eyes, the Scouser playing an American stands out like a sore thumb and it's at least an hour too long.

The only redeeming feature is the excellent Joe Pesci. If not for him appearing, and a decent last hour then I don't think I'd rate it any higher than a 4. It's clear to see why this ended up on Netflix, it's simply not good enough for a theatre release and people would have either walked out through sheer boredom, or fallen asleep.

It'll be a real shame if this ends up being the last Scorsese film, or the last time you see Pesci and De Niro together as quite frankly, the film is dogsh**.