RickDanger78

Astounded to see respected reviewers give this a positive review. The script seems written by the AI prompt “be sure to include every tired sequel cliche, make the dialog wooden and unrealistic, and be totally predictable.” Pedro Pascal is wasted here, and his performance is sleepy and lacks any fire. The two emperors are cartoonish and ridiculous, and i feel like Ridley Scott is deliberately insulting his audience for buying this dreck. While Mescal and Denzel deliver good performances, this is clearly a money job for Denzel, and it shows. The most disheartening thing about this is the decent reviews from professional critics… i’ll never give a second look at any review by those that praised this garbage; they either lack ethics or taste. Even the spectacle elements are insultingly bad; the CGI baboons were laughably phony; was using real animals too much trouble for Scott? I’d call this a top contender for worst (and most insulting to the audience) film ever made.

Del Toro’s remake of this classic is a fool’s errand; how do you update a perfect masterpiece? More importantly, why? Is there a more modern or more complex idea you want to express? Are there cinematic techniques that can add depth? Sadly, the answer to all these questions is no; there’s no compelling reason to recreate this, and Del Toro’s attempt is rote, unconvincing, and ultimately redundant to the original. Sure, it looks great, and there are some strong performances, especially Jenkins and Blanchett, but the script is weak and wordy. The story, so convincing and passionate in its original context, is here a pantomime of a period piece. The culminating twist was a stretch even in the original, and it’s forced and ultimately silly here, despite Blanchett’s seductive best efforts. Most damaging is that Cooper just can’t carry the Tyrone Power role, unable to portray the incremental corruption of an earnest hustler into a debased monster. When Powers delivers his famous final line, it perfectly sums up everything that went before. When Cooper delivers it, it looks like an acting class exercise, and fails to deliver the devastating kick required. In the portrayal of the rise and progressive fall of a con, Powers was born for it. Cooper, not so much. Overlong and underwrought, this is a disappointing time sink with nothing new to say and no innovative way to say it.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Pointless and gratuitous. Without its tenuous connection to the Sopranos series, this rambling and disappointing film would have sunk without a trace. If you enjoy the nostalgia guessing game of figuring out who is the youthful incarnation of your favorite character, you may have a hint of amusement. For anyone else, this hodgepodge of Jersey junior mafia cliches will be a couple of hours you'll never get back.