Unbiased Review for Those Interested in Maybe Seeing It: It's Worth a Watch

Rating: 9/10 (28 November 2019)

Any movie that gets hype and Oscar buzz on here is going to draw lots of biased people reviewing it. Before I watched The Irishman, it was hard to gage which reviews were legit and real and which were just biased, whether it was in a positive way or a negative way. First off, De Niro has made lots of controversial political speeches in recent years, which can affect how people view this, and then there's the sort of de-aging CGI that some people took issue with (Is that really enough to warrant a 1-2 star rating though? Is it that bad?); on the positive side, Scorcese lovers may give it an automatic 10 since he is one of their favorites, which goes on a lot in reviews (let's face it; Tarantino often gets a free pass and 10 ratings even in his erroneous films).
So with all that out of the way, here would be my honest review for people who may be interested but on the fence about seeing The Irishman.
The first 1 hour and a half is absolutely dazzlingly amazing. I want to go as far as to say that I actually liked it more than Goodfellas, but I would have to see them both again to confirm that. It is an absolute masterpiece for the first hour and a half, no doubt.
And Joe Pesci- just hand him the Oscar right now. He gives what is in my opinion the absolute best performance in the movie. I liked him better in this role than his iconic role in Goodfellas, and he is truly outstanding. I was so glad that his character got so much screen time in this because he was by far my favorite, heavily outshining even both De Niro and Pacino. Those two are good, don't get me wrong, but Pesci is just stunning and deserves the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, without question. It's one of the best performances in a mob movie I've ever seen. He has so much screen time, and in every single clip or image, he is "perfect". every look he gives, every line he delivers is nothing short of perfection.
Even though De Niro and Pacino are very good in most of the scenes, I thought Pacino could have toned it down a little bit in some of his scenes. He does in fact give the old, vintage Pacino acting you have come to expect. It's not totally bad, but I would say he was the weakest link of the main actors, and I still love his movies and he is one of my favorite actors.
DeNiro excels in the final half an hour of the movie, which sees him encounter old age and come to terms and closure with what he has done. This will probably at least get him a nomination for Best Actor.
The final act (half hour or so) is worth sticking around for so if you get bored in the long run time, I recommend you stick around for it. It was a little sad and heartbreaking, but it was so well done, I really appreciated how Scorcese took the story to that "place", rather than only keep it more superficial.
Now, as for the drawbacks or negatives of the movie: once the first two hours pass, the pacing really slows down (and the film somewhat gets watered down into some mafia movie clichÃ©s) and begins to feel a little bit generic. It is in fact true that many scenes could have been cut beyond that point, particularly redundant one-on-one conversation scenes between Hoffa, Ed Sheeran (The Irishman) and whoever they were meeting. Regardless, it's never "bad" per say, but it does become less entertaining beyond the two hour mark and is prolonged in a way that was probably unnecessary.
Ultimately, I think this movie is definitely worth a watch one way or another. The CGI de-aging wasn't as much of a problem as some of the people who criticized it said. You do notice it at times, but you quickly get used to it and the story is strong enough that you lose focus of it.
It's not perfect, as a whole (due to the length), but it is a "good" movie, nonetheless...and it takes you out of fantasy comic book land for those sick of those types of movies. You get some interesting historical events in this as well that matures the story for mature audiences.
8.5/10