This weekend Martina Scorsese’s latest film The Irishman finally released on Netflix. 

I’m a big fan of Scorsese’s movies. Goodfellas is one of my favorite mob movies followed closely by Casino. Scorsese also proved he could work with non-mob material with The Wolf of Wall Street. 

The Irishman is a return to the mob universe starring three of the all-time great actors: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci (who came out of retirement). First things first–the movie is 3.5 hours long. This doesn’t bother me because I have grown weary of formulaic movies that have to wrap everything up in 90 minutes or two hours. The Irishman has a slow, deliberate pace, and I enjoyed that it allowed the actors room to do what they do best. 

I enjoyed the story, which is loosely based on real people and historical events that span over decades. This last point has led to a controversial aspect of the film. Scorsese had the same actors portray the characters at different ages using “de-aging” special effects to show the actors quite a bit younger than their current ages (all in their 70s). Some scenes were more obvious than others, but I think overall the effects were used successfully.  

If you are a Scorsese fan or a fan of these actors, you will definitely like this movie.