Robert De Niro (Raging Bull, Taxi Driver) reunites with director Martin Scorsese (Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street) for this crime drama that sees everything from the mob to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in this three-and-a-half-hour effort that, if you stick with it, will give at least some sense of satisfaction to those willing to endure it. This all-star cast, which includes Scorsese teaming with Al Pacino (The Godfather, Scent of a Woman) for the first time, also includes Joe Pesci (My Cousin Vinny, Casino), Harvey Keitel (Bugsy, The Piano), Anna Paquin (The Piano, Almost Famous), Ray Romano (The Big Sick, CBS’s Everybody Loves Raymond), Jesse Plemons (Hostiles, The Post), and Bobby Cannavale (I, Tonya, Ant-Man).
Category Archives: Al Pacino
Any Given Sunday (1999)
Oliver Stone’s (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July) Any Given Sunday was a movie I saw in the theaters in 1999. While I saw bits and pieces on cable television over the years, my second watch of this film wasn’t until 2019. So first, it doesn’t feel like this film is 20 years old. Second, except for a few technology pieces (mainly cell phones), it felt like this movie could have been released this year and still give the same message with a nearly identical look and feel. The movie holds the test of time; sometimes, that’s one of the best things you can say about a film. Unfortunately, that is the best thing about this movie.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is arguably my favorite Quentin Tarantino’s (Inglorious Bastards, Django Unchained) movie. However, that isn’t saying a lot since he is not one of my favorite directors out there. I admit that there is an audience for his movies. I’m just not a part of that audience. For me, his films are too often over the top, are loaded with extreme and unneeded violence, and contain the foulest language you’ll hear from a big-budget movie any year that one of his movies was released. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was FAR different than his previous eight films. The story was not over the top. The cursing, while present, was used to accent a verbal exchange rather than serve as the root of it. And outside of a 10-15 minute sequence, there wasn’t any over-the-top violence. This movie was long and a bit boring, but it wasn’t bad. It also had excellent acting performances.
Frankie and Johnny (1991)
To say that Frankie & Johnny capitalized on the success of When Harry Met Sally would be an understatement. While When Harry Met Sally was new, fresh, and celebrated, Frankie & Johnny felt played out, stale, and sometimes tiresome. This movie has all of the cliches that a romantic dramedy should have. A middle-aged woman is down on her luck after a number of failed relationships. Off the street comes a man who enters her life. She doesn’t want to like him. She doesn’t want to be involved because she knows she will inevitably be hurt again. So, instead, she spends her nights alone. He keeps pressing, and eventually, she lets him in. They have complications. She questions why he likes her. He responds with the “just let life happen” type response. We’ve seen this movie a million times and will see it a million more.