Three and a half hours of squalid wallowing in the lowest forms of human nature

Rating: 6/10 (30 December 2019)

Sorry, but I cannot share the common enthusiasm for this monster of a film - well made, indeed, splendid camera work, good acting, but like the earlier "The Departed" hopelessly base in its persistence on discussing and dwelling on only brutality in vulgar bamkruptcy of everything except the lowest forms of human nature, that is relying on violence for the cultivation of brutal egoism only. As one observer reckoned: "Realistic and rather infrequent violence. There are some scenes of killing but not that many. 136 uses of "f**k", 20 uses of "cocks****r", 40 uses of "sh--", and other expletives, smoking and drinking throughout." There is no other meaning or point with the film. It is unbearably tedious and boring in its consistently slow motion, there are only dirty pathetic old men who murder each other throughout the film, Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa is just overacting all the way, and finally there is a catholic priest absolving Robert de Niro for all his premeditated brutal murders, and there is an alarming lack of any sense of humour - a desert of meaningless human viciousness, the only oasis being his daughter Anna Paquin who finally refuses to have anything more to do with him, the professional cold-blooded murderer, who kills just for being told and paid to do so. Sorry, not my cup of tea.