If you took my advice or the advice of pretty much everyone that has seen the blockbuster new release from Netflix, The Irishman, although long, is a tremendous piece of cinema.
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While the film undoubtedly has a very similar theme to other Scorsese classics (especially Goodfellas,) it does an excellent job of portraying the interior of the mob underworld, this time complete with "subtitles" explaining what happened to real life gangsters (spoiler: Most were murdered.) For me at least, this helped to complete the overall picture of how truly unique the Jimmy Hoffa situation was.
I felt it was one of the most compelling pieces of film I have seen in quite some time. I say this as someone who hates knowing the ending of films right from the start and well, even if you don't know much about Jimmy Hoffa, you already know what happened to him.
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Despite "bringing the gangster band" back together including the elusive Joe Pesci, Scorsese said "no studio wanted to do it and if it weren't for Netflix, it likely wouldn't have been made."
This comes at the helm of Martin Scorsese being extremely critical of big money-making franchises such as the Marvel Universe and he is on record as having said that cinemas are being "invaded by theme parks."
Now I actually enjoy the Marvel films (for the most part) and i think it is safe to say, since all of these films make hundreds of millions of dollars, that it is understandable why the big studios would continue to make them. However, Scorsese is not wrong - the featured films these days are almost exclusively something about superheroes and the ending (except for one, which wasn't really an ending anyway) are always the same.
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Long-time friend of Scorsese and frequent addition to his cast Harvey Keitel chimed in in a separate interview saying "Hollywood is aiming only for commercialization."
Now here's the thing: I'm not going to "booo" these guys even though I think what they are saying is obvious. Hollywood films, for the most part, have become quite a mix of the usual things that they know is going to make money even if it sucks. These films are even more likely to be made if merchandising is going to become an additional part of it (find me a child that doesn't have at least one piece of Avengers gear.)
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Mark Hamill said in an interview when he appeared to be drunk: "It doesn't matter if its good, so long as it makes money...and oh my God I just realized all of this is on film!"
On the other hand though, i think that we have a tendency to forget that the big studios in Hollywood and anywhere else in the world are first and foremost, businesses.
If you owned a company that sold two products, one that was a labor of love and you were really proud of but routinely lost money, and another one you were friggin sick of but always turned a large profit.... which one would you manufacture?
I agree with you Martin and I am happy that streaming services like Netflix exist because of this. However, money drives literally everything in the world and unfortunately this is very unlikely to change.
I can actually relate with Scorses on his point. Movies don't particularly pique my interest these days because they're all the same.
Take Hobbs and Shaw for example; it was just another big budget movie with a good guy better than bad guy in the end theme with no particular need for acting prowess or surprise plot that a purist like Scorses would accept.
With most big grossing/mainstream movies about superheroes, you just know the end from the beggining and though I enjoy watching explosions, fight scenes and whatnot, I'd also like to see something extra
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well maybe i am starting to sound like a broken record but especially in Asia, the movies that aren't just explosions and robot or superheros rarely come to the cinemas here at all and if they do, it is just for one weekend or so. You gotta stay on your toes because Once upon a time in Hollywood was in theaters here for like 4 days and I'm pretty sure Avengers is still playing. I speak in jest of course but that is pretty much how it works here.
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I think thats the case here too. The Irish man barely sold tickets when it came out but people flocked to watch Hobbs and Shaw because it had a giant gym junky and the british Jackie Chan. The only time non-action movies trend here, is when they're made locally.
Aladin and Charlie's angels trended too but thats because they were children movies, besides, I'd rather watch paint dry to go through the torture of seeing Will Smith dressed like a whatever the hell he was or another pointless unrealistic action movie.
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You vote with your wallet what kind of movies you want to have made in the future.
Unfortunately most movies are not my cup of tea but every now and then there comes a movie like Joker which is totally different and successful.
With the quality of TV shows in the last years I am more interest in series nowadays anyway.
I love mob movies and this one is pretty high on my to watchlist.
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you keep giving me reasons to sign up with Netflix lol 😁😁
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well i was really anti that sort of thing until i got it and now while i do probably waste too much time on it, it keeps me out of the bars... or at least that is how i justify it :)
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I saw an article the other day that was talking about how The Irishman just wasn't really that good. That was the headline anyway. I didn't bother to read the article. The fact that basically everyone I know thinks it is so good tells me enough. I have never seen GoodFellas though, I know, how shocking is that. Should I really watch it before I watch this one? I have seen parts of Donny Brasco and I have never seen any of the Godfather movies. For some reason Mob movies weren't a big deal in our house growing up I guess. I remember when I was younger movies had more of an awe factor to them. Not so much the effects and cinematography, but the actual story and being able to take you to a different place than you had ever been before. One of the few that really stand out to me is StarGate. It is probably one of my most favorite movies of all time anyway, but I remember walking out of the theater and my mind was just blown by what I had just seen. All of the concepts and ideas and theories were amazing. Anyway, I agree, cinema is definitely different these days.
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Goodfellas is remarkable the only bad aspect about it in my mind is that Ray Liotta is the main character and is IMO not a strong actor. He is outdone by everyone around him throughout.
It's probably not popular to say this, but i found the Godfather movies to be boring.
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Very Interesting!
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Yet another outstanding review for "The Irishman." I am going to have to watch this movie. The case of Jimmy Hoffa has always been very fascinating.
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It is sad when movies get discarded and they would rather make crap. I understand they need to make a profit but what happened to just making decent movies with a decent script. I can't stand the commercialized crap and when something "decent " comes out they wreck it making it into a love story.
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Very true gooddream, money rules. Thanks for the recommendation for The Irishman, I'll be sure to see it, I like all those great old actors. I haven't seen Joe Pesci in anything since Good Fellas, has he been acting?
Lol...the Mark Hamill quote is a classic!
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