Designed to be an authentic gangster flick in the vein of Scorcese classics we all know and love, 'Kill The Irishman' aimed high but missed by a distance due to some poor choices in fundamental areas.
I wont recite the plot for you, you can read that above if you want to. The aim of this review is to highlight 3 reasons why lovers of gangster films like myself, will find this one lacking: 1. The main character, Danny Greene aka The Irishman. The central character pulls the audience in and holds the story together. Why cast someone incapable and completely devoid of any emotion? Every single scene Ray Stevenson appears to have turned up to read some lines, then left with his paycheck.
If I'm not emotionally invested in the character the movie centres around, every scene, not matter how well it's shot, will only ever be eye candy at best. There was clearly budget for some real talent, since the supporting roles made this watchable. Why not invest it in the right place? 2. The hook. (spoiler alert) The scene which pulls the audience in is a car bomb which Greene survives. This is a key scene right at the beginning, why cut corners and super impose fire on a car that clearly isn't burning? It cheapens the scene and insults the audience. This was repeated on other scenes later in the movie although there were some well done genuine explosions towards the end so it defies logic why the key scene was so poorly handled.
3. The script. It wasn't awful but everyone pretty much just said what they were expected to say at any given time. There were no quirky characters, everyone was either a generic gangster or a generic civilian. Great characters in a gangster movies; Joe Pesci's characters in both Goodfellas and Casino, Ray Liotta's character in Goodfellas. Every gangster in this movie could just as easily been listed as 'Gangster no. X'. Cookie cutter. This extends to how the story unfolds too. When a key character is uncharacteristically happy and the background music is the same, it's blatantly obvious he/she is about to meet their end. Cookie cutter, meets but does not exceed expectation.
The sets, wardrobe and cinematography were great so if sight is the only sense available to you, you'll rate this flick highly (the only explanation I can give for the current 7.1 stars it has on IMDb).
Overall this flick could've been great had the fundamentals been right. As it stands, it's a swing and a miss.
I wont recite the plot for you, you can read that above if you want to. The aim of this review is to highlight 3 reasons why lovers of gangster films like myself, will find this one lacking: 1. The main character, Danny Greene aka The Irishman. The central character pulls the audience in and holds the story together. Why cast someone incapable and completely devoid of any emotion? Every single scene Ray Stevenson appears to have turned up to read some lines, then left with his paycheck.
If I'm not emotionally invested in the character the movie centres around, every scene, not matter how well it's shot, will only ever be eye candy at best. There was clearly budget for some real talent, since the supporting roles made this watchable. Why not invest it in the right place? 2. The hook. (spoiler alert) The scene which pulls the audience in is a car bomb which Greene survives. This is a key scene right at the beginning, why cut corners and super impose fire on a car that clearly isn't burning? It cheapens the scene and insults the audience. This was repeated on other scenes later in the movie although there were some well done genuine explosions towards the end so it defies logic why the key scene was so poorly handled.
3. The script. It wasn't awful but everyone pretty much just said what they were expected to say at any given time. There were no quirky characters, everyone was either a generic gangster or a generic civilian. Great characters in a gangster movies; Joe Pesci's characters in both Goodfellas and Casino, Ray Liotta's character in Goodfellas. Every gangster in this movie could just as easily been listed as 'Gangster no. X'. Cookie cutter. This extends to how the story unfolds too. When a key character is uncharacteristically happy and the background music is the same, it's blatantly obvious he/she is about to meet their end. Cookie cutter, meets but does not exceed expectation.
The sets, wardrobe and cinematography were great so if sight is the only sense available to you, you'll rate this flick highly (the only explanation I can give for the current 7.1 stars it has on IMDb).
Overall this flick could've been great had the fundamentals been right. As it stands, it's a swing and a miss.