Great, but far from perfect.

Rating: 8/10 (3 December 2019)

Let me be clear, it's very difficult reviewing this movie without taking into consideration the names in it. There's obviously bias, there has to be. This movie is like an end of an era, and it features all the actors that made that era as amazing as it was. However, it's clear they're all past their prime, and it's clear they're all just a small fraction of what they used to be. Pesci is great, it might actually be his best role ever, unfortunately, he gets relatively little screen time and plays a side-role. Pacino is good, but overacts a lot. De Niro? Oh boy... what did they do to him. I really, really don't like how CGI-heavy this movie looks, and it's pretty obvious when you know how these actors look in person and how old they are, and then compare that to how they look in the movie... BUT DE NIRO, I've seen animated movies in the last few years that seem less CGI than his face. First of all, his eyes are stupidly blue, like...impossibly blue, you've never seen anyone in your life with eyes as blue as his in the movie. Combine that with the fact that almost every scene involving him is a close up (for a reason I'm getting to now), and it's very hard to ignore.
Now... De Niro is 76 years old, but in the movie they attempt to make him look young... and it REALLY, REALLY doesn't work. Any scene with him walking or doing anything but sitting is really awkward. He looks and moves like an old man. His hands and fingers are all deformed like an old mans hands, but he has a CGI face of a 40 year old. His assassinations look awkward, the way he holds the guns, the way he shoots, the way he fights..looks exactly like a 76 year old doing it.
So CGI is pretty badly masking what it's trying to mask... another bad part is the gore. We all know mobster movies are full of blood, and this was no exception. There are plenty of people shot on camera, with blood splattering around, with bullet holes shown from close by, etc. The issue is, THEY ALL LOOK FAKE. BADLY FAKED, bad CGI, like in a low budget film, not a 160 million one.
As far as the story goes, it's good, it's what you expect from a mobster/political movie, it's slow, long, but doesn't feel like it's dragging. The issue is you know how it's gonna end, and that's always a problem with movies based on a true story.
To conclude, as an homage to these great names, it's a decent send-off. Don't expect a movie like Goodfellas, this ain't it. This is a much darker movie, focused much more on death, on people aging. There's not as much "mobster romance" as in other similar movies, it's more a miserable story showing a movie realistic picture of what it's like to be a mobster, rather than focusing on expensive cars, suits, hotels, food, jewellery, etc. It's the most HUMAN of all mobster movies I can think of. Still, it leaves me feeling a tiny bit disappointed, because it's NOT as good as it would have been and could have been had it been filmed 20 years ago. And that's sad. Not only because of the movie, but because of the actors. Watching this makes it hard not to feel like it's a good bye.