Review of The Many Saints of Newark (2021) by Moviemitch96 — 02 Oct 2021

This Sopranos prequel film follows a young Tony Soprano and his upbringing and rise into organized crime by his uncle Dickie, who is at war with a rival gang during the 60s and 70s. I was definitely interested checking this one out, considering that 'The Sopranos' is by far my all-time favorite TV series.

It's a masterpiece and I loved every single episode of it from start to finish. I went in, however, with not too high expectations with this, considering that film follow-ups to TV shows usually aren't too stellar, and it's a good thing that I didn't, cause I'm certain it would've hindered my enjoyment of this film a lot.

While it was definitely an intriguing and worthwhile watch, it definitely doesn't hold a candle to the TV show and the epic legacy that it created. This film is fine in its own right, and the cast, particularly Alessandro Nivola and Michael Gandolfini (taking on his late father James' iconic role of Tony Soprano) really shines here as well.

The story, however, feels a little too been there done that as far as mob and gangster stories go. It's the same as the rest and nothing we really haven't seen before, which kind of makes the film feel somewhat underwhelming by the end.

But overall, the cast does an excellent job, and it certainly did bring back a lot of Soprano nostalgia to me, even if the script and story felt a little lacking and uninspired and couldn't come close to living up to the masterpiece of a show that inspired it.