2 out of 5 stars
The mark of a great movie is would you watch it twice? 3 times or more? The Irishman will not be seen twice. Its a gangsta movie by the numbers. The all star cast put in forgettable performances and are really only there to get on the credits and sell the film, methinks. Harvey Keitel plays an old gang boss and gets 5 lines in the whole movie; Joe Pesci plays a softly spoken, gentle crime boss- completely unlike any of the manic, unpredictable smart mouth characters he has played in other movies-which prompts the question as to why he needs to be there at all. Pacino puts in a performance you would expect of him as Jimmy Hoffa but l get the feeling his heart is not in it any more. De Niro seems to be employed only for his facial expressions. He just does not pull off the pensioner aged hitman. The film grinds on for hours, going nowhere. I had to do it in 3 sittings. Its just not compelling viewing. De Niro plays the main character(without CGI) throughout the Irishmans life, so it can be a bit hard to follow the timeline. The 65 yr old young father family man or the middle aged 75 yr old hitman. The only way l could tell that he was younger was because his hair was darker and the cars were older.It has none of the intrigue of Casino or Good fellas and will not stand next to them as one of the Mafia cinematic masterpieces.IMHO.