Badda Bing! ... Badda BUST!

Rating: 2/10 (23 November 2019)

Is it just me, or is Robert DeNiro once again portraying the mindless and aging FBI honcho Robert Mueller from SNL fame in this lengthy biographical film????? He sure runs like a 76 year old man so why no stunt double for DeNiro?
Pacino isn't playing Jimmy Hoffa. Every time he opens his loud mouth, Al Pacino is just playing himself. In fact a VERY OLD looking 79 year old over-the-hill version of Al Pacino. Sad. Terribly sad. Jimmy Hoffa is rolling over in his grave or he is breaking through 20 tons of concrete to stop a has been like Pacino ruin his reputation.
Mrs. Shullivan and I were anticipating another long awaited Martin Scorsese 1960's-1970's period masterpiece crime film, but instead what we disappointedly sat through was an over-hyped, (too) lengthy quasi biography on just one of the many here say storylines on the 1975 sudden and mysterious disappearance of former union Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa.
This film version of the missing Jimmy Hoffa focuses on three main characters, Hoffa played by Al Pacino, mob boss Russell Bufalino played by Joe Pesci, and the underling stuck in the middle of Hoffa and Bufalino, teamster labour leader Frank Sheeran, played by Robert DeNiro.
THE GOOD:
Make no mistake, without actor Joe Pesci's strong but silent type mobster boss performance this film would have been most likely rated nothing more than a Grade B film with more than half of the finished product still sitting on the cutting room floor. Unlike the previous Scorsese directed mob films where Joe Pesci plays a raging out of control mobster maniac, in this biographical film Pesci plays a silent, very controlled, smart and resourceful mobster fixer who doesn't say much, but when he does, you better listen. I felt Pesci's strong performance and especially his one-on-one interactions with his underling Frank Sheeran kept the flame from going out on this otherwise forgettable and over rated film. Pesci played a similar role (crime boss) in the 1993 film, one of my all time favorite crime films, "A Bronx Tale", which also co-starred Robert DeNiro and Chazz Palminteri.
THE BAD:
Why did Scorsese have the now 76 year old DeNiro and the now 79 year old Pacino play their respective characters Frank Sheeran (DeNiro) and Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino) from their early days in the 1960's through to the year Sheeran actually died of cancer in 2003? The film would have transitioned much better through the five (5) decades of this biographical story line if two different actors had played a younger version of Frank Sheeran and Jimmy Hoffa. Off the top of my head I could see Milo Ventimiglia playing the younger Frank Sheeran and Michael Chiklis playing the younger Jimmy Hoffa during the 1960's scenes and then transitioning to the (past their freshness date) Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino playing the much older versions of their characters.
THE UGLY:
The film it's way too loooooong and boring. I understand that NetFlix has to fill in 24 hours per day for their millions of subscribers but to just fill in with extended and continuous chatty scenes that were just wasted minutes as were the smoke breaks alongside the highways and motels, ENOUGH ALREADY!
Sadly, I rate it a dismal 2 out of 10. Badda Bing! Badda BUST!