I just don't know....

Rating: 6/10 (3 January 2020)

I read the reviews before I watched this movie and I told myself that all the negativity was just a result of people's personal feelings. I figured that fans had some unrealistic expectations and that this would be a really good film. I guessed that all those negative nellies had to be mistaken....
They were not mistaken. It pains me to say it, because how can you have a film with De Niro, Pacino, Pesci and Keitel, directed by Scorsese, with a plot revolving around Jimmy Hoffa and have it be utterly forgetful? I'm stunned. I'm confused. I feel like I'm being disrespectful to this cast of all-stars....and yet there isn't much good to say.
I really have no complaints about the acting or the directing. The film just seemed hollow to me. It felt empty, like the characters had no significant substance to them at all. Robert De Niro's loyalty to Pesci's character is all because he got his truck running when they first met? The next thing you know, De Niro's killing people for him? De Niro's love for Hoffa is all because he ran the Teamsters? That's it?
It makes no sense to me. There's no insight into Hoffa or his life. It's typical, generic gangster talk, been done a hundred times already. I feel like Scorsese was asking me to care about this movie but he gave me no reason to care about any of the characters or the story revolving around them. By the time Hoffa is killed, I was well past the point of caring.
This is a got-nuthin-else-to-do movie....don't waste a date night on it.