The Irishman (2019 Martin Scorsese)

We were debating afterwards that Warner Brothers in the 1930s would have only needed an hour and a half to tell the same story - and  they would have shown the infant version of Robert de Niro and had room for a good female lead (Bette Davis, for example). Marty's gone and done it again, turning Charles Brandt's novel 'I Heard You Paint Houses' (actually a better title) into a three and a half hour film. Whilst it isn't boring, and the acting and production design and incidental music choices are great, it just doesn't warrant that running time - think about how much happens in GWTW by comparison, for example, or Once Upon a Time in America.

The scene in which he decides which gun to use seems very similar to one in Taxi Driver.

Did someone call for a Taxi Driver?

Joe Pesci is particularly good, de Niro and Pacino fine. With Bobby Cannavale, Christopher Walken, Anna Paquin, Stephen Graham, Stephanie Kurtzuba, Jack Huston (Bobby Kennedy), Jesse Plemons, Domenick Lombardozzi. Didn't really notice the de-ageing CGI.

Adapted by Steven Zaillian, DP Rodrigo Prieto, edited by Thelma, music by Robbie Robertson.

With no great set pieces or twists or emotional climaxes, it's something of a disappointment.

It's funny how Marty's New York contemporary Woody Allen manages to always make such short films and pack them with plot..

Martin Scorsese is 101.