The Irishmeh

Rating: 5/10 (13 December 2019)

This movie frustrates me. I generally try to not take outside factors into a movie with me but between the anti-Marvel comments by Scorsese and the build up, the promises of an epic movie, sure to be an instant classic.
Nope. This movie's boring.
That seems to not be the popular consensus but oh well. The Irishman is 209 minutes. Three and a half hours of Scorsese's overindulgence. This could have easily been trimmed down to a solid three hours by focusing the story, maybe not having a dozen different, forgettable characters.
The fact that it's yet another Scorsese mob movie doesn't help. I feel like I've seen this all before and in those instances I didn't have aging actors trying to act young during scenes where they obviously weren't physically up to the task. It just feels like a lot of really dragged out rehash.
It might sound like I hated this but I didn't. De Niro andPacino are solid, not amazing or anything to me but they're good. RayRomano delivers a very enjoyable performance for the smaller role that he has. At the end of the day though, this movie is absolutely stolen by the return of Joe Pesci in a far more restrained, calculated but no less dangerous role that makes me really wish we'd gotten to see more of him in recent history.
There are also a few scenes that are legitimately tense. Some events that are performed with shockingly brutal efficiency. Character moments that are fascinating.
I've always been fascinated by the Hoffa story. He was a legendary figure whose demise has reached truly infamous levels. Trying to capture all of that is a lofty task and getting the likes of Scorsese, De Niro, Pacino and Pesci together sounds like it should be a home run. It just suffers from being too bland and drawn out for its own good. Part of me thinks I need to watch it again, but at three and a half hours, it will probably be a while before I feel like enduring this one again.