In depth review -- spoilers

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2020)

Title: The Irishman (2019)
Scorsese's return to Mafialand, is an ultimate slow burn that lasts around 3.5 hours. Scorsese finds himself in familiar territory in this organized crime flick that is led by a hall of fame cast: De Niro, Pesci, and Pacino. This masterpiece of a movie has a very interesting take on the Jimmy Hoffa story -- which is just one of several theories of what might have happened in the real life events of the late 70s/early 80s.
The movie is seen from Frank Sheeran's eyes, a truck driver who got involved with Russell Bufalino and the midwestern organized crime outfit. Sheeran ultimately proves to be a rising star in the crime family and somewhat surprisingly finds his way to the top as the family's top hit man. The narration of this story is particularly interesting when you consider the fact that the latter half of the movie is about Sheeran himself recalling events that allude to his possible involvement with the slaying of Jimmy Hoffa, who was widely considered Sheeran's best friend at one time.
The Special effects in this movie were phenomenal. The de-aging technology paired with the strong acting from this timeless trio is amazing to see. While it is a bit uncanny to see fresh faces on these three men now in their 70s, the battle had just begun for the producers. They were faced with making the three men look 20-30 years younger in the majority of the movie and then allowing some of their advanced age to show as the scenes cut back to "present day". All in all, these effects were a nice modern touch on an old-school masterpiece.
I think the only bad thing I can say about this movie is that compared to its predecessor Goodfellas, the crime itself (which is largely true) is just not as interesting. Despite a bunch of small crimes and one-off hit scenes the macro story focuses on stealing steaks. They do a good job of building off of it but steaks aren't as inherently fun as casinos and inside mob stories. All things considered, this is a fantastic movie that can't help but seem like a goodbye from 3 of the greatest actors in Mob movie history. Grade A-