Well made but overly long and lacking memorability

Rating: 7/10 (11 December 2019)

I can't remember the last time I watched a movie as long as 'The Irishman'. They just don't make films of this length any more. Mostly that is because audiences don't have the time or patience for it, but I think it is also because it can take away from the film. I feel that once you start approaching the three hour mark (and in this case going well over it) you start to lose some of your power. There is less impact and punch in the product you are providing. Shaving an hour off 'The Irishman' and just leaving in the necessary bits could have made this a whole lot more enjoyable of an experience.
The film uses de-aging technology on its actors, and though it is very well done, it is also quite distracting and I found it took me out of the movie a lot of the time. As good as it was, it was still noticeably creepy how people looked at times. There was a woman early on who I thought was straight out of a horror movie the way it made her look. Also there was a scene where De Niro is kicking a man outside a grocery shop and it was about as poorly filmed as you will ever see in a modern film. You could visibly see the kicks missing by a mile. How this wasn't picked up on I'll never know.
The film is extremely well made from start to finish, but I don't feel it has the same memorable moments that the likes of 'Casino' and 'Goodfellas' had. Those were films with moments that you could never forget. I didn't feel that way about 'The Irishman'. It was good to watch once, but I suspect it will be entirely gone from my memory by tomorrow.