The legends are back

Rating: 7/10 (8 January 2020)

The Irishman stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, and is directed by Martin Scorsese. The Irishman tells the true story of Frank Sheeran and his relationship with Jimmy Hoffa. I'm going to start this review out by saying that Scorsese directing gangster films is like french fries with ketchup. And him directing a gangster film and reuniting Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Robert De Niro, is like Christmas. Another thing is that the Irishman tells the story of Jimmy Hoffa who i have no clue who that is. I only know his name because I've seen tv shows or movies mentioning this character. So for Scorsese to bring this character to life, I thought to myself what could go wrong? The problem I have with this is that he doesn't show up until an hour into the movie. By the way the movie is three hours and twenty nine minutes, so if you have the patience and the energy to sit through a three hour and twenty nine minute movie, then hats off to you. I know that this is more to do with the life of Frank Sheeran, and I have no problem with that except that the first hour is repetitive just like all of Scorsese films from Goodfellas to Casino. I was more interested in Jimmy Hoffa, and part of me wishes that Scorsese would focus on this man rather than cramming down an entire history class of Sheeran and Hoffa in a movie that's three hour and twenty nine minutes. But I will say that on a positive note that the run time could've been a lot worse. It could've been slow paced and have scenes that would have nothing to do with the movie and leave us bored out of our minds. But Scorsese knows how to entertain an audience and knows how to pick off which is important and which isn't. And this has been his passion project for quite some time, but part of me feels that he added the extended run time to show us how much he really cared for this. This could've been better if it had been a tv show instead of a movie, because there is a lot to process and I think telling this long epic tale of Jimmy Hoffa and Frank Sheeran deserves to be in t.v. rather than on a big screen. So in the end, while it was nice seeing Scorsese direct a gangster film and reuniting these legends, I think in the end he should've stuck with a specific era, and just made a movie out of that.