Pretty Good

Rating: 7/10 (13 August 2005)

Once upon a Time in America is a better than average character-driven epic with its strength actually going to the child actor portion of the film. To note, I watched the 229min version which admittedly at times plodded a little bit. Nonetheless I enjoyed the younger boys in their trouble-making and growing up very much. It was a good evolution of mishievousness changing into crime and mayhem. The relationships between the lead boys and then later Woods and Deniro helped pillar the movie. The violence was at times more than needed unfortunately (or fortunately if you like that kind of thing) - note an overlong rape seen which dragged on in poor taste. Music also became repetitive. Nonetheless the setting and characters were well developed and realized, definitely worth a rental especially if you like crime/gangster movies.