The first problem with this "movie" is the endless opening long shot that takes us over a NY street and buildings and traffic. We keep waiting for something to happen. While this shot is going on endlessly, we are forced to listen to a bizarre Cy Coleman score which sounds like it was salvaged from an off-Broadway show based on the "That Girl" TV series. It's ghastly. When the shot finally ends, it ends on the top of a building and it looks like it is focusing on either pigeon sh*t or cocaine -- it's hard to tell.
The second problem with the movie is the casting. We are asked to believe that Dustin Hoffman shows up with his wife at a Seder--and yet, he's not the Jewish one! Oh, come on. So, they named him Vito so he'd be Sicilian? And then his father is supposed to be Sean Connery? And Dusty's son is supposed to be Matthew Broderick? What a joke! Maybe that was the joke.
Matthew Broderick is a rude, obnoxious, ungrateful brat and there is one fabulous scene in where he keeps telling Dusty, after he's made his grand plan to rob someone, "There's nothing you can do about it." Dusty says, "There's nothing I can do?" And then he SLAPS him as hard as he can. It was gratifying, it really was.
But then, later on in the movie, Dusty is seen brutalizing some poor Hispanic man who's been caught stealing meat while on the job at Dusty's meat factory. You have to see it to believe it. Is that Dusty's "Mafia" blood coming out?
In the midst of this "film" there is this ENDLESS funeral scene with all these people we don't give two flying f's about because we don't know who they are.
We watched this film and kept staring at each other: What's it about? When does it start? Has it started? Why is Sean Connery Dustin Hoffman's father when it's obvious that there's no way in hell that he could be?
We nodded off half way through to the "delightful strains" of Mr. Coleman's "they should have used this score the first time I wrote it!" score -- which only made me think of a 60s TV show... oh, right, "That Girl." Except -- that isn't what this movie was supposed to be about - - unless it was.
Don't waste your time--unless that's what you like doing.
The second problem with the movie is the casting. We are asked to believe that Dustin Hoffman shows up with his wife at a Seder--and yet, he's not the Jewish one! Oh, come on. So, they named him Vito so he'd be Sicilian? And then his father is supposed to be Sean Connery? And Dusty's son is supposed to be Matthew Broderick? What a joke! Maybe that was the joke.
Matthew Broderick is a rude, obnoxious, ungrateful brat and there is one fabulous scene in where he keeps telling Dusty, after he's made his grand plan to rob someone, "There's nothing you can do about it." Dusty says, "There's nothing I can do?" And then he SLAPS him as hard as he can. It was gratifying, it really was.
But then, later on in the movie, Dusty is seen brutalizing some poor Hispanic man who's been caught stealing meat while on the job at Dusty's meat factory. You have to see it to believe it. Is that Dusty's "Mafia" blood coming out?
In the midst of this "film" there is this ENDLESS funeral scene with all these people we don't give two flying f's about because we don't know who they are.
We watched this film and kept staring at each other: What's it about? When does it start? Has it started? Why is Sean Connery Dustin Hoffman's father when it's obvious that there's no way in hell that he could be?
We nodded off half way through to the "delightful strains" of Mr. Coleman's "they should have used this score the first time I wrote it!" score -- which only made me think of a 60s TV show... oh, right, "That Girl." Except -- that isn't what this movie was supposed to be about - - unless it was.
Don't waste your time--unless that's what you like doing.