A pretty good movie, but no Scorsese masterpiece

Rating: 6/10 (1 December 2019)

Since there are already countless long and drawn-out reviews of this film, I won't subject you to another one. I'll just hand it to you straight. This movie for me definitely had its good gangster moments, but most of it was a sad reminder of an era that will never be again. I'll just focus on the main three actors since, let's be honest, nobody really cares about anybody else here. From a political standpoint, I think DeNiro has been acting like a lowlife degenerate for his blatant disrespect to the President. I left that part aside and remained very objective while viewing the film. I only mentioned that because I don't want any negative review on his performance to be automatically attributed to that, like I know is the case with many others. Had this been 15 or 20 years ago he may have delivered one of the best performances of his career. Here, his age shows... and shows BIG TIME. The de-aging effect really didn't bother me. Watching DeNiro's physicality made his age abundantly clear and it many times distracted from the character's age during that period of time. DeNiro, like his cohorts, moved very stiff in many scenes, almost like he was in physical pain. Nothing about his portrayal was smooth or graceful, even during the character's younger years. Pacino suffered from many of the same issues. I actually think he was horribly miscast here and didn't even look the part. Maybe I'm a bit biased because the 1992 Hoffa movie with Jack Nicholson is one of my favorites; Nicholson gives an A+ performance of Hoffa in that one and looks just like him. Pacino does a lot of yelling and cussing at people here, most of which comes off as laughable before it does intimidating. They could have used him more effectively in another role here, as Hoffa he most certainly is not. It was nice to see Pesci onscreen again, although if you go into this expecting to see the hotheaded maniac of old from the Goodfellas and Casino days, you are going to be sorely disappointed. He plays a more reserved and reflective gangster here, although his menace is still very abundant. I think he did the best job out of the three main actors, although that's not saying all that much to his credit.
The Irishman is an okay way to kill a boring afternoon, but I don't think it's one that people will be falling over themselves to re-watch. There are a lot of characters to keep track of and the movie had flashbacks of flashbacks, if that makes any sense. I would recommend that anyone who is entirely unfamiliar with the Hoffa story go watch the 1992 version with Nicholson first. Its plot is a bit more simplified and easier to navigate. Then give this one a try. I agree with many of the other posters about the general feeling of depression that permeates the aura of this film. Not because of anything in the plot. But because we, as lovers of the gangster genre, are very much aware that this was probably the last time at bat for the three main actors. Even if they did make another one down the road, it definitely wouldn't be for the better. It would be nice to take these three guys and freeze them in time to the 1995 versions of themselves and keep making these films forever. Reality dictates otherwise and it's quite a shame to watch these guys playing dollar store versions of what they used to be. Time waits on no one. We're all gonna get there some day as well. Hopefully.