Overrated

Rating: 1/10 (10 October 2005)

You really have to be an unbridled fan of mobster movies to like this. I will admit I only watched the first 40 minutes because it was so bad. I decided to give it a shot because of all the glowing reviews here at IMDb. Big mistake. The people that wrote those reviews are probably the same sort of people who dress up in Jedi costumes and wait for days in front of theaters for the next opening. I admit I am not a fan of the genre, having watched 20 minutes of one of the Godfathers and less than that of The Sopranos. The characters are cardboard, overly romanticized, embarrassingly conforming to what someone thinks the stereotype is, and the dialogue is pitiful. Scorcese ought to try making a real movie instead of recycling this gangster swill. Mean Streets is the only thing of his I've sat through because it was gritty and real. Everything since - hogwash. You would be better off watching the old gangster movies with Bogart or Cagney or Edward G. Robinson. They were far more believable and at least you and they knew they were acting. Better plots and dialogue too.