Had great potential, fell short

Rating: 6/10 (30 November 2019)

I've been following the development of The Irishman with great interest since it's initial development and was looking forward to seeing Scorsese reteam with DeNiro. I was eagerly looking forward to a crime flick that would be a fitting addition to Goodfellas and Casino, both movies that are faultless.
Unfortunately I was left less than impressed, the movie still has the fingerprints of greatness, and from
Any other director it'd be their crowning achievement, but Scorsese has previously set a high sets serf for himself and this did not live up
The anti ageing SFX in some scenes looked uncanny, but in others looked like the same animation used in the Tintin movie, not helped by the fact that the 'youthful' DeNiro still moved like an elderly and arthritic old man, especially evident when he gives a beating to the store manager that shoved his daughter
The running time was excessive, normally I'd hope for longer running time but this was about an hour longer than necessary. This is the first Scorsese movie I actually got bored watching.
DeNiro's character was supposed to be a hulking menace, a man that had killed many in the war, and killed many on the streets as a hit man and yet he portrayed the character as an eager to please guy who lacked conviction and seemed to not have a great degree of confidence, he seemed a reluctant passenger to Pacino
Speaking of Pacino, he stole the movie with his performance, dominating every scene he was in.
All in all, too long, dodgy SFX didn't quite do it and DeNiro didn't bring his A Game