Blade trilogy - While Spawn, Steel and ofc Batman & Robin were utterly lambasted, Blade was the only comicbook movie at the time getting some praise. The first movie has tons of schlock cg but at least (again) it's not the Spawn movie. I got some enjoyment out of his mentor Whistler (who's inexplicably brought back in the second movie and killed off again in the third). They're still 90's/early 00's relics with not much to offer other than mindless action and don't do anything remarkable other than not totally sucking.
The Departed - Only watched because it had Jack Nicholson and Leo DeCaprio. Being directed by Scorsese was a bonus. This was basically junk-food and the similar events happening in parallel was pretty cheesy (both the undercover cop and traitor cop are told by their puppet masters to get the names and social security of everyone they're back-stabbing). MS phoned in the direction a lot of the time, with claustrophobic shots and constant back-and-forth with two-three people. Really didn't care for the ending that neatly tidied everything up with most of the main characters dead. This is a B-/C+ at best, Nicholson carries most of it.
The Irishman (rewatch) - Somehow I was able to get through all 3.5 hours of it again, though partly as background noise (and still taking a break with an hour left). Two voices in my head say this is a brilliant movie and a bloated, self-indulgent turd. What MS does right: the world feels lived-in, like we're actually experiencing all the food and mundane objects his characters use. Their moods change convincingly. The lengthy epilogue that has Sheeran, his contemporary gangsters and the whole genre aging into irrelevance was a nice touch. DeNiro and Pesci are good together and the latter pulls off a more serious character than he usually did back then.
The bad: I don't give a damn about wiseguys and their corrupt lackeys as people and even a brilliant movie can't make me. DeNiro and Pacino don't have the chemistry to sell their bromance (incidentally, their first movie together, "Righteous Kill", blows) and while I believe DeNiro feels bad about having to kill him, I don't give a damn when it happens nor when he gaslights it to Hoffa's wife. Goodfellas was great because it went all-in with contrasting the depravity and genteel lifestyle of Henry, Tommy and Jimmy. Some of the cutesy wiseguy dialogue was a bit tedious and seriously, 30-45 minutes of it should've been cut (please don't tell me there's a 4.5 hour director's cut). Pacino's usual overacting results in a few funny moments, but probably not in the way MS wanted. There's also this feeling they didn't know what to do with Jimmy Hoffa as a character and so constantly hammer his bitching about people being late into the ground.
Overall, it comes off as a superficial exercise in craft. And in a few years I'll probably watch it again.
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