Tag Archives: Martin Scorsese

movies

Watched “The Irishman”on Netflix last night and I’m like, “Wow, this is the best film of the year!”

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Yesterday evening on Thanksgiving, I watched the Netflix movie “The Irishman” that was directed by Martin Scorsese. I’ll have to say like the title of this topic says that this is the best movie of 2019… well so far anyway and I really mean that too. It’s definitely another winner for Scorsese. Marty Scorsese is a genius film maker, no doubt. He has made a lot of great films over the years like “Goodfellas”, “Cape Fear” and “The Departed” being a few of my favorites that he did. Well Marty’s new film, “The Irishman” I’ve been looking forward to for a long time and it’s finally here.

I was totally impressed with it and blown away. The movie grabs you right from the start as the movie begins. As soon as the movie starts, I watch it from start to finish without any interruptions and yes, it’s a 3 and half hour movie. The movie has an all star cast too… it has everyone from: Robert Deniro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, Anna Paquin, Jesse Plemons, Steven Van Zandt, etc.

This wasn’t the first film Deniro and Pacino teamed up together in. They did a few other movies together like “The Godfather Part II’, “Righteous Kill” and “Heat”. So I think “The Irishman” would be their 4th film together… correct me if I’m wrong? Even though I think Deniro is a shitty person in real life and absolutely hate his left-wing politics, he’s still a great actor and I’m not afraid to admit that. I thought he did a great job in this film, though and this is definitely one of his best roles.

Yes, there was another movie based upon the “Hoffa” disappearance & murder which was a film directed by Danny Devito and starring Jack Nicholson as Hoffa released in the year 1992. You probably remember that film and I remember re-watching that one on Netflix not too long ago. This film and Marty’s “The Irishman” are two different films, though even though they’re similar stories.

“The Irishman” was based upon the book titled, “I Heard You Paint Houses” by Charles Brandt.

“The Irishman” just simply tells the story of Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran who is telling the story of his criminal past being a part of the Buffalo crime family and former union labor high official. The film also tells its own story of the mysterious Jimmy Hoffa disappearance and murder in which Sheeran confessed to. Jimmy Hoffa who was once a labor union leader himself.

I thought “The Irishman” was a brilliant movie and it’s not only the best film of the year, it’s also the best original movie on Netflix. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Netflix has too many original films. Most of them bad and a few of them actually pretty good but finally Netflix released a really good one. “The Irishman” was mind-blowing and I love how Marty is trying to keep mobster movies alive ’cause those type of movies are fading. Marty is the best at making mob movies, though.

Not only that Robert Deniro kills it with his acting… can’t ignore the talent of Pacino, Pesci and Keitel. Those guys killed it too like they always do. We haven’t seen Joe Pesci in a movie in a long time and obviously that man still got it even though he’s 76 now. I just love Pesci’s fast talking voice and that’s probably why he is so popular, really… people just like the way he talks.

The movie was also well filmed, well written and well directed. No complaints at all. Just a perfect all around movie all the way through. I’m definitely gonna give it another viewing, probably next weekend.

Check out “The Irishman”. The movie was amazing and I hope it gets a nomination for Best Picture at the next Oscars.

Kev

 

movies

Martin Scorsese is in a backlash by saying Marvel films or superhero films of any kind are like “theme parks than true cinema”… do I agree with him? He’s not wrong…

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Martin Scorsese who is a legendary film maker and still is making movies today is in a lot of trouble over comments he made about Marvel films and superhero films. While promoting his first Netflix movie, “The Irishmen”, he said some things about Marvel that set off a firestorm of movie fans. Movie fans online have been bashing him like crazy for it.

What Scorsese said about Marvel films, he said he tried to watch ’em but he can’t ’cause to him they feel like “theme parks” and not true cinema. He also feels that stuff isn’t what young people of today shouldn’t be watching.

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/martin-scorsese-marvel-criticism-james-gunn

At first I was a little angry with him on that and started to piss me off but after thinking about it a while long and hard, he is right. He is dead on pretty much. In his defense, I think what he’s thinking is that when you see a Marvel movie, it feels like a theme park ’cause of all the CGI in these movies and all of these Marvel superhero costumes seem like they’re “theme-park” like. Kind of like when you go to Universal Studios, Sea World, Sixx Flags and Disney World… that’s what you’re seeing in Marvel movies, ya know. That’s kind of what Martin is saying.

He also brings up a valid point that Hollywood doesn’t know what true cinema is anymore. I think what Martin is saying is that he doesn’t want kids today watching these “theme-park” like movies. Superhero movies are getting old and tiresome and I hear him. He’s totally right.

Why won’t kids watch true cinema like in the old days with the “Godfather Trilogy” and I’m sure kids today haven’t even heard of those. Why won’t kids watch movies like “Casablanca”, “Citizen Kane” or any Orsen Welles and Humphrey Bogart film. What about true cinema like the old Clint Eastwood westerns, old John Wayne flicks like “True Grit” and Marilyn Monroe films. How come Hollywood isn’t making movies like those anymore? Instead we’re getting too much CGI crap and too much action movies with no story. We want Hollywood making serious movies again which we haven’t had in a long time. When Hollywood does make a serious movie, it only gets put in selected theaters… not being played everywhere like the old days. It’s always the big CGI action movies that gets played everywhere and marketed heavily. It’s tiresome.

I like superhero movies too, though… some of them are pretty cool but it is getting out of control. Hollywood needs to settle down on that stuff. I wanna see movies with good storytelling and that’s what we’re missing. Everybody’s obsessed with CGI and popcorn flicks nowadays. It’s terrible.

Kev

movies, TV

Martin Scorsese stands up for the 1st Amendment by cancelling the Bill Clinton documentary…

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Legendary filmmaker, Martin Scorsese has a slew of documentaries to make and the Bill Clinton documentary is one of them. The documentary was almost done but Scorsese shelved the project ’cause he felt he was getting controlled and bullied by none other than Bill Clinton himself.

What Mr. Scorsese did here was pretty amazing. He stood up for the 1st amendment. Martin probably thought to himself, “Man, fuck this bullshit. These guys are on their own”.

http://natmonitor.com/2015/01/24/bill-clinton-and-scorsese-clash-over-documentarys-contents/

I wonder what was it that Bill didn’t want in the film? Probably all the Monica Lewinsky stuff I bet.

I love Martin Scorsese, though, he’s one of my favorite film maker of all time. He has made a lot of good movies. I don’t think I have seen any of his documentaries yet, though.

Kev

movies

Report: Deniro/Pacino to play Dean Martin, not Frank Sinatra…

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Reports have hit the web that Martin Scorsese says he wants Robert Deniro to play Dean Martin and Al Pacino as Frank Sinatra. No. That’s not that what Mr. Scorsese told everyone. Re-read Scorsese’s comment again:

“I’m yet to spot the actor who can bring back Frank Sinatra alive on screen.  My choice is Al Pacino, and Robert De Niro as Dean Martin.”

What he’s saying is, that he haven’t yet found an actor to play Frank Sinatra. He made it clear he wants both Al Pacino and Robert Deniro to play Dean Martin.

Ah, the press and the movie industry, gotta love it when they take a director’s comments out of context. Reports mistakenly said that Scorsese wants Pacino to play Frank Sinatra such as this report here:

http://www.collider.com/2010/05/24/martin-scorsese-robert-de-niro-al-pacino-frank-sinatra-dean-martin/

and AICN:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/45227

Even the press can have bad reading comprehension.

Kev

movies

Film Review: Shutter Island

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Starring: Leonardo Dicaprio, Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow, Michelle Williams, and Jackie Earle Haley

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Today on a day off of work, I finally got to see, “Shutter Island” the newest collaboration of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Dicaprio. Before the movie, I did a little shopping at Best Buy. I bought Ozzy Osbourne’s new book, “I am Ozzy” and picked up the game “Heavy Rain” for the PS3. I will talk about that stuff in another post, but lets go on with this review:

Plot/Synopsis: Leonardo Dicaprio plays a cop named, Teddy Daniels, he was also a former US Marshall. Teddy goes to Shutter Island with partner, Chuck Aule who is played by Mark Ruffalo. The two cops go to the Ashecliff Hospital on the Island to investigate a patient who disappeared from a locked room. This is a hospital for the insane, it is not a prison. Teddy and Chuck were on a case to help find a missing patient named, Rachel Solando. Rachel was put in the hospital a long while back because she drowned her own three children in a lake by her home. Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingley’s role) who is the head psychiatrist of the hospital wants Teddy and Chuck to help him find Rachel and bring her back to the hopsital alive. As Teddy and Chuck investigate, they begin to find strange and uncomfortable things about this hospital.

This film “Shutter Island” was actually made in the year 2008. It was supposed to be released last year around Halloween, I remember, but the film got pushed back to the month of Feb. of this year. So it’s been a long time. This is a film we’ve all been waiting for and it’s finally here.

On with the film, I thought the film was very impressive for a lot of reasons. It was a perfect movie. Is it a horror flick? I would think so. The storytelling of this movie is what impressed me the most. I liked the acting, the cinematography, the musical score was also great, but it’s the story that’s what got to me. The story to this movie was very dark. I think it’s the darkest movie Scorsese has ever done. Yes, Scorsese has done some pretty dark films over the years, but this one is totally different than his earlier films. Scorsese has done thrillers/horrors before like “Cape Fear” for example. So he’s no stranger to doing dark films.

The story kept you at the edge of your seat. You just want more and more. Never know what is going to happen next ’cause the film was very unpredictable. You think this is going to happen and that will happen, but nope, something else happens. I love films like that! I don’t want to talk about the whole movie ’cause there are some huge shockers toward the end of the movie.

This is Leo’s best acting in a long time too. Some may not appreciate him because Leo haters think he’s the type of actor that women drool over, but Leo’s role in this film I think was aimed at the “male” audience and not toward the women this time. This was more of a guy Leo Dicaprio movie, not a chick flick Leo Dicaprio movie. Hope you know what I mean by that. This is not the best Martin Scorsese flick ever made but it certainly is one of my favorites and it certainly is the best Scorsese/Dicaprio movie for sure.

If you like a good bone chilling horror flick, this is a good one for you. I’ll warn you, a flick like this will get you talking  and will get you thinking to yourself like, “wtf?” I mean, when the movie got over with and “Directed by Martin Scorsese” poppped up on the screen at the end of the film, the theater was dead silent for like ten minutes, then people started talking to each other. That’s how incredibly shocking this movie is. Do yourself a favor and see this soon.

Score for “Shutter Island” = **** (4 stars as in “Excellent”)

Kev

movies

Report: Johnny Depp in negotiations to play Frank Sinatra?

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I guess you can say that Johnny Depp maybe the first choice to play Frank Sinatra in Martin Scorsese’s “Sinatra” biopic. Depp is reportedly in negotiations to play the “I Love New York” singer. Could be just a rumour though.

More on it here:

http://news-briefs.ew.com/2009/05/johnny-depp-top.html

I hope it is true that Johnny Depp will play Sinatra. This could finally give Johnny Depp an Oscar win for “Best Actor in a leading role”. Depp is a decent choice, actually.

Kev

movies, music

Top 5 Music Biopic films…

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With the recent Frank Sinatra music biopic that just got greenlighted by Universal Pictures, I wanted to name 5 of my favorite music biopics of all time… here is the list…

1. “Walk the Line”

(Joaquin Phoenix’s best role, enough said!)

2. La Bamba

(It’s one of these films I’ll never get tired of watching. I’ve seen this film hundreds of times and entertains me everytime I see it. Such a wonderful and powerful film. I love it so much!)

3. Ray

(Amazing film, great performance by Jamie Foxx!)

4. Great Balls of Fire

(Dennis Quaid was great in this…)

5. The Buddy Holly Story

(A kick ass film, Gary Busey made a great Buddy Holly!)

Next post coming up, “Top 5 Music Biopic unmade films that need to get made!”

Kev

movies

Report: Martin Scorsese and Robert Deniro reuniting to “Paint Houses”…

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Legendary director Martin Scorsese and Robert Deniro will reunite to make “I Heard You Paint Houses” which is an adaptation from a novel which will be about a mob assassin who many believe was involved in the death of Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa. The film will be made through Paramount Pictures.

Scorsese and Deniro made quite several films over the years including “Mean Streets”, “Taxi Driver”, “New York New York”, “Raging Bull”, “The King of Comedy”, “Goodfellas”, “Cape Fear” and “Casino”. “Paint Houses” will be the 9th film that Scorsese and Deniro will re-team in.

Scorsese will direct of course, Deniro will play Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran.

Variety Reports:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117993218.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Woah! Scorsese and Robby D back together again! This is even better than Pacino and Deniro reteaming in “Righteous Kill”!!!!!

Although the movie hasn’t even be made yet, I just know Scorsese will make “Paint Houses” a great one. Scorsese is one of the best film makers in Hollywood!

I’m glad Scorsese is finally making a fictional film that is not a music documentary!

Kev

movies, music

Report: Scorsese out, Jonathan Demme in for Bob Marley documentary…

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Legendary director Martin Scorsese dropped out of filming the Bob Marley documentary due to busy scheduling conflicts, director Jonathan Demme immediately took over Scorsese’s place. Demme does have experience in directing music documentary films to such music artists as the Talking Heads, Robyn Hitchcock and Neil Young. Demme’s other movies include “Philadelphia” starring Tom Hanks, “The Manchurian Candidate” and more.

Variety Reports:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117986278.html?categoryid=13

I am kind of shocked that Scorsese pulled out. He seems too committed to this project until now. I guess Scorsese has too many upcoming films to make on his hands.

Kev