Overrated, not brilliant and not a classic.

Rating: Null/10 (22 May 2015)

I love Bob DeNiro and Joe Pesci. And I think in the right hands Sharon Stone can do a great job. But in this film, the best thing was seeing DeNiro in a brilliant new suit each time he appeared on screen. Here are my issues with the movie:
*The background soundtrack, all popular songs, almost always drowned out the dialog. I find that after watching a lot of movies, if the director doesn't feel 1) that we're going to get the message and/or 2) that there are some concerns over whether the scene is working or not, the quick fix seems to be, "Pump up the jam!" This is a terrible mistake. It makes it difficult to understand what's being said and the audience starts to lose what might be important information. This was a consistent problem throughout the film.
*As the movie went on, Joe Pesci slowly rose to the position of God. There's a scene where he yanks a phone off the wall and smashes it into Don Rickles, who works at DeNiro's casino as some kind of ancient security guard/yes-man. The point is... he works at the hotel and no one, not a single person, came to his defense. Joe, as Nicky, was allowed to slap, kick, sucker-punch anyone he goddamn wanted to without the least bit of concern as to whether there would be any repercussions.
*DeNiro signs a paper (at least the film makes it look that way) giving the contents of a money-filled safety box to Sharon Stone (who plays his wife, former prostitute, Ginger). Okay, that's his business. But, late in the movie, after she's gone on her inexplicable drug/alcohol binges, has tied up her daughter (Really? So she could have a night on the town?), and had an affair with Nicky (like she would!!!), she literally breaks into DeNiro's desk, as a police escort stands nearby, gets the key to the safety deposit box (because... somehow Bob got it back from her, even though he signed over the contents to her so that she would "never have to worry" if they broke up?), then goes to the bank to get her money (it's hers, Bob signed it over to her!) and then Bob is screaming into the phone, "She can't do that. She can't legally do that" ... and yet... he signed it over to her? So, in fact, she CAN do that.
*Marty would like us to believe that Joe returned home every morning, no matter what, to make breakfast for his darling little boy. You've got to be joking. While his wife did what? This man was an inconsiderate pig who thought women were mouths to put on his nether regions. Was this scene put in to show his "sensitive" side? He was a pig! So what that he made breakfast for his kid?! Did he ever think of what kind of role model he was to that child?... Yeah, I didn't think so.
*When Bob and Joe would argue, despite the fact that a lot of the dialog was funny, smart, smack-in-the-face kind of dialog, people don't talk like that. In other words, there was ALMOST no reaction time in between lines. You'd HAVE to know what the other person was saying to respond that quickly! I didn't buy it, although I enjoyed the exchanges.
*As others have pointed out, when Bob is screaming and yelling at people, he's kinda fun. But when he does this pathetically lame speech about what "love" is (no wonder Sharon Stone felt queasy about getting involved with him), all I could think is: This freak is a loser and he'd be better off buying "love" for the rest of his life. Sharon as Ginger tells him quite frankly that she doesn't "feel that way" about him. But Bobby won't take no as an answer... and, boy, does he pay for that.
* The overuse of the F word and every variant associated with. Why, Marty? It got so irritating and tiresome that it lost whatever impact they thought it was going to have.
*The voice-overs!!! Please, no! I was willing to buy one (Bob's), but then Joe chimes in, too, and then later, Frank Vincent, one of the many henchmen, chimes in, too! As others have said, this is lazy storytelling, there are things these people could NOT have known, and forced me to think, "Okay, whose story is this? Am I rooting for anyone? Or is anyone who happens to be sitting in the studio when Marty wants a voice-over forced to get up and start jawing?" I found it be intrusive, abusive and a coward's way out of telling a story.
*The level of violence was gag-inducing, covered with the loud soundtrack I mentioned before. If you like seeing people shot in the head, if you like seeing both men and women violently killed, if you like seeing Cosa Nostra type murders up close, including seeing Joe Pesci's character beaten to a pulp and buried alive, then you will be sure to have a good old time.
IF there was a story, it was about pathetic, stupid, sad, self-involved people whose only interest was money and squashing anyone else, and children, if there were any, bore the brunt of collateral damage. Sharon Stone snorting coke in front of her child! With her pimp berating the child! On the verge of harming the child! Yeah, yeah, I know; "harsh reality" torn from the pages of real life. So, if this is the sad mess of people's lives that you want to wade through... and three hours of it... have at it. IF Marty had actually done a bit more character development and not have essentially 1-2 note performances by every person in the film, then it could have been great. Right now, the best thing about it were Bob's suits.