A Headliner Cast - Still Not Enough To Make It A Classic

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2019)

Sadly this wasn't the swan song movie for DeNiro it's been hyped to be. With a runtime of 209 minutes, it's about 89 minutes too long. Filled with far too many "talking heads" scenes, with DeNiro and Pacino rehashing how he's got to do what the mob wants but he's not going to do what they want about 5 times too many. Okay already. We get it. Hoffa was a badass.
This coupled with endless scenes of Pesci & DeNiro's wives smoking, wanting to smoke or arguing about not being able to smoke was beyond a waste of film and time. It would have been fabulous if Scorsese would have used even a fourth of that 89 minutes to showcase Harvey Keitel. Instead we're left with seeing him maybe twice or three times with less dialogue than a glorified extra. It was truly disappointing.
While the film was good, it was far from great. It seemed like the Goodfellas met Scent of a Woman. At the end, the film shows us that DeNiro and Pacino have really not grown as actors as we've been led to believe. Gone are the edgy characters like DeNiro's Taxi Driver and Leonard from Awakenings! There was no hint of Pachino's Bobby Deerfield or even his Michael Corleone. We're left with the typical gangsters they've given us over the decades. Pesci, on the other hand, while still giving us a mild taste of Tommy DeVito from Goodfellas with a dash of Vinny Gambini from My Cousin Vinny, stole the show from the Trio of Headliners.
Is the movie one you should pass on altogether? Not if you enjoy these three stars or gangster movies or even the genre from the Jimmy Hoffa-era. Is is an Oscar winner? Well, it sadly doesn't get my vote but at the end of the (long) night, I am glad I watched it if for no other reason than to see DeNiro, Pesci, Pacino & Keitel all on the same bill.