Sorry, not the greatest movie ever made

Rating: Null/10 (20 September 2015)

A disappointment. Living proof of 2 old adages: "too many cooks spoil the broth" and "the longer the joke, the bigger the punchline has to be." Too many cooks definitely hurt this flick, and as long as the movie is, it should've had a MUCH bigger punchline. In this case the journey was far more enjoyable than the destination. It would've been nice if the bunch that wrote the first part had communicated a little better with the crew that did the second, so we'd have a more coherent second part. After the intermission we are introduced to a whole new Max, one who suddenly is Bugsy Siegel and flips out periodically (which he never did before) because his old man was nuts (which we never knew before), and whose life ambition is to knock over a Federal Reserve bank--which we not only haven't been told before but he and he crew have (as far as we know) never even robbed a bank! At the inexcusably weak punch line, a long talky confrontation between a still newer Max and Noodles (did we ever find out how he got that stupid nickname?) we also learn that Noodles is a stone cold killer who Secretary Max wants to kill him, for reasons that are muddy at best. Almost as muddy as the way he went from street tough to Cabinet member. This despite Noodles' not having killed a single person in the whole flick--in fact having gone ballistic when people were killed. Say WHAT?? I won't even go into the whole business with the garbage truck and the amazing disappearing whozit. Even the commentary throws up its hands at that. And finally there's the whole "friendship/loyalty" schtick. It works for the kid versions of Noodles and Max, but De Niro and Wood have NO chemistry at all. They act friends because the script says so, but that's all. Woods has never had chemistry with anyone, in any flick. And I thought the first US release was muddled. The movie should've stayed with the kids.