I watched 'The Irishman'...

just too many good reviews, from both media and friends, to not see it.... What took me so long? Well... I had a bad attitude, and in my mind was: "oh joy, another Mob movie"... which was/is a really poor attitude because all those 'mob' movies were... in a word, 'great'.

This is a really well made movie, and the acting is truly outstanding.. from top to bottom. The cinematography, the editing, the lighting, top notch almost without a hitch. So why did this movie bore the living hell out of me? No... not saying I didn't 'like it'.... couldn't help but like it, (all of the above)... but for the most part I was bored.. with occasional "hmmmm, that's interesting".

So this review is different...it's about how a movie fan, (yours truly), can be jaded, with a fever of skepticism. . IOW, ticky-tack stuff.

First off.. the 'de-aging' process... CGI to make the actors appear younger than they are, or older. Oh but the makers of this film are proud of this achievement. Me? It terrified me. The first scene where they 'de-aged' DeNiro actually got a reaction out of me similar to those horror movie scenes that flash a monster's face in front of you accompanied by some type of loud noise. I jumped. No, "it" did not, DeNiro did not, look 'natural' to me. And neither did any of the other actors in which the de-aging was applied. The unrealism of it was so overpowering that for me it was like trying to thread a needle while someone is whacking you over the head with a hammer... no matter HOW intriguing the 'speculation of real events' in the storyline was. I was ashamed of myself... "It is what it is, JamesJM, forget it.. it's a movie, a very good one. The story is great, the acting is great, the speculative facts being presented are intriguing..... stop thinking about the pink elephant in the room, errrrr, I mean the de-aging process".

This certainly didn't effect the actor's "acting"... so why let it bug me... or at least bug me so much? Shouldn't the storyline have, at least eventually, carried the day and make me put aside this pettiness? I think so. But it didn't.

The storyline... this movie reminded me of JFK... which I consider so much BS. BUT... I knew more about the JFK story than the Jimmy Hoffa story so I should have been more amenable... but it didn't matter to me, I still watched while thinking, (constantly), "what the hell are they basing this on?"

Then there was the level of utter corruption by every character in the movie except one... Peggy, The Irishman's daughter... but that bugged me as well, NO one is that incorruptible without saying something. (note: This was intentional... by Scorsese, and I think "Brilliant"... (the Peggy character)... so I'm pointing out how petty I am being in reviewing this). As for the corrupt nature of the rest of the characters... twas hard for me to swallow.. not that everyone can be corruptible, (I think everyone is, to varying extent)... but rather.. every single character lives as if the 'corruption' was the God of a religion you belong too... full dedication to 'corruption', not even a moments pause to ponder ones morals... and NO, if you saw this movie and are thinking "WAIT, he felt very guilty"... yes he did, NOT the same thing, or what I'm talking about.

Ok.. do I recommend this movie? No doubt about it, it's great. It's 3.5 hours long, however... and if you are anything like me and get bored within the first 5 minutes it's HARD to get to the ending credits... EVEN WHILE appreciating, loving, the art that went into making this film.

I now conclude the strangest movie review ever written. - JamesJM