Slow burn

Rating: 7/10 (30 November 2019)

This movie had the potential to be epic. Spanning a large period of time and over lots of interesting events in history but moved around with no thread tot eh overall narrative. It never got going and the pace in places was glacial. De Niro looked a old man through the whole thing. It was like he just walked off the set of Polar Express. They should have just got a young actor to play the younger Frank. Would have brought way more menace to the role and made the shifts from past present easier to see. He physically moved like a old man, especially the scene beating up the storekeeper. I would have liked Franks character to be developed properly. He had zero depth and edge about him for such a cold killer. Seeing him in the war would have been good.
Felt it 1 hour too long. Pesci was the best in it. Played his character wonderfully. Pacino also excellent.Stephen Graham brought the only reminder of Scorsese's usual gangster threat and menace. It's a solid movie and again edited excellently by Thelma Shoemacker. The movie slowly burns but never ignites. Scorsese went back to familiar territory here and seemed to have forgotten is way. Cant see myself watching this for long time.