The Godmother Of Mob Movies

Rating: 6/10 (25 December 2019)

Scorsese pulls it off: all the cosa nostra movie stars (apart from Liotta) brought together for a final reflection on life, death and Al Pacino's hairpieces. The bones of the story are clear: Frank Sheeran (Bob deN) is a truck driver who demonstrates his worth to the Mob, while also being factotum to Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino) - and ultimately - SPOILER!!! - his assassin. Shtump-Shtump!
Godfather II meets Once Upon A Time In America Meets Hoffa meets Godfather III meets Goodfellas meets JFK. Yes, it's that epic, and it succeeds on that level. The whole JFK thing is sorted out after only ninety minutes.
Scorsese has nailed it as entertainment. The whole movie is essentially vivid; so vivid that my dog (an HMV-style Jack Russell) couldn't stop watching. Me, I couldn't believe in Al Pacino's hair or crumpled physique; maybe Hoffa's death was really a hit by the Randomly Variable Scalp Doilly Standards Association (RVSDSA). And Stephen Graham achieves mob-movie immortality in spite of being a small Scouser. Good for him - he went where Clive Owen, etc, failed to tread.
Get my drift? It's very, very corny, but knows its audience, and is staged to the highest standards. Up there with the best Godfather movies.