OK, but overrated

Rating: 6/10 (29 June 2002)

As a fan of Leone's spaghetti western trilogy and of Robert DeNiro, I was very much looking forward to finally seeing this film. Quite a letdown. Despite good direction and acting, the story absolutely d-r-a-g-s. How anyone can compare
this to the Godfather trilogy is beyond me--that series has movement,
development, continuity, and lives up to the emotions its characters express. This film has characters constantly being deeply introspective ... and that's about all it has. There are a few fun to watch moments such as when the boys
catch the crooked cop having sex and shake him down, but they're all too rare. This is a wistful film that might interest those who were there but like home movies, it won't interest anyone else. Two and a half hours of watching DeNiro long for the olden days in discontinuous flashbacks is two hours too much. If you want to see a good DeNiro flick set in NYC, see "A Bronx Tale" instead.