Who the hell is in chahge heah, anyway??!!

Rating: 1/10 (4 July 2010)

Hard to believe the great Scorsese had anything to do with this laughable stinker.
Even harder to believe the great Thelma Schoonmaker cut it!
There are many terrible things here: the direction, the acting, the music. But far, far worse than any of them is the editing.
The editing is absolutely atrocious. It so overwrought, so desperate to make the scenes succeed, so completely contrived and overdone that it almost defies description. And no, I'm not talking about the jump-cuts or continuity breaks. I'm not talking about ANY of that. That I can deal with. Some of it I even liked.
What I'm talking about is the Academy Award-winner's complete and total inability to edit a simple dialogue scene with cuts that tell the story.
It's as if she's lost every single ounce of talent displayed in "Goodfellas"... or "Raging Bull"... or "Casino." Just about EVERY SINGLE CUT is wrong... arbitrary, poorly timed, ill-advised, non-sensical.
I just watched a 40 year-old episode of "Night Gallery." A 60--minute TV show they cranked out once a week. What a wonderful pleasure to see good, effective, unpretentious editing!!!!!! Editing that serves the story. Editing that's almost invisible. Editing that's just about unbeatable.
And that was 1970.
R.I.P. for now, Thelma. You had it once. You were great.....TRULY great.. You made Marty's scenes jump to amazing, thrilling, exciting life. There was simply NO better editing on display in 1990 than in "Goodfellas." Simply superb.
Now, alas, the magic is gone. Your cutting in "Stutter Island" or whatever the hell it is, kills every bit of dramatic potential this hopeless turkey ever once had. Which of course is not saying much!
Yes, you had it....and now, dear soul, you've lost it. It's gone. I can only hope that maybe, someday, God willing....you'll get it back.