I was just at a bit of a loss with it really. I couldnt really grasp what the story was.I'm with you on that. I rate the Sopranos as the best television show of all time, and have re-watched it numerous times.
That movie was horrendous in so many ways. I could rant, rave and nit pick so much about it, but that would probably be more effort then was actually put into the script.
There were only two decent parts to it.
I was just at a bit of a loss with it really. I couldnt really grasp what the story was.
I enjoyed seeing silvio and paulie etc but i just feel so much more should have been made of tonys journey into the mafia
it wasnt the worst film ive seen , it was ok. It couldve just been so much better
ah well
Youre barry normanI just felt so much of it was simply callbacks and fan service and added nothing to the story at all, and that includes Paulie/Pussy/Silvio. You could have replaced them with any other mafia goon and it wouldn't have changed anything. They shoehorned so many of the past references that again added absolutely nothing to the story (varsity athlete, shooting the hairdoo, poor you etc etc). I groaned every time one of them was there.
There was zero subtlety to so much of the movie. One example is the following, and I'm not going to spoiler tag it as the actual directors and writers spoil it themselves. There's a scene in the warehouse where they talk about a shipment they've just stolen. One random character who's line is the only one in the whole movie says something about "boosting some tv trays". So any fan of the show knows exactly what happens next. It just treats the audience like an idiot and has to be spoonfed. A better way would have simply been to have Sil say something like "that latest shipment we boosted, I left you a Christmas present in your car". Then have Dickie drive home, get out of his car, open the trunk, have a POV shot of what's in the trunk and then a second later the shot rings out.
The whole racial subplot was tenuous at best, and just seemed extremely forced. And don't get me started on how they fucked up the relationship between Tony, Junior and Dickie. There was a nice way they could have wrapped up their respective story's rather then the hamfisted way they attempted.
The only things that I thought they did well was the revelation of who was responsible for Dickie's hit (but they really messed up the motive), and that I thought the actress who played Livia was a cross between Carmela and Livia from the series - I thought the mannerisms were a blend of both which was a subtle nod that maybe Tony chose Carm because he was trying to replace his mother, but given how bad the rest of the film was I can only conclude that was purely by chance as opposed to design.
I thought it was a decent enough film but the thing is the Sopranos was just so utterly brilliant, it was never going to compare favourably. The series was and is the best tv drama of the last 30 years.
HAHA Fair enough. The Wire was also amazing television. I honestly never knew when watching it that Iris Elba was British. And I loved the big detective who called everyone “Good Po-Lice“. Bunk I think he was called.The Wire pats this post on it’s little head.
I agree with this. Every scene with Paulie, Sil etc I found distracting as I was expecting them to add something and they barely did (except for poor impressions and catch phrases) - as mentioned above the scenes could've played out exactly the same without them in it... and they made Tony look wetter than AJ, which is actually pretty impressive!I just felt so much of it was simply callbacks and fan service and added nothing to the story at all, and that includes Paulie/Pussy/Silvio. You could have replaced them with any other mafia goon and it wouldn't have changed anything. They shoehorned so many of the past references that again added absolutely nothing to the story (varsity athlete, shooting the hairdoo, poor you etc etc). I groaned every time one of them was there.
There was zero subtlety to so much of the movie. One example is the following, and I'm not going to spoiler tag it as the actual directors and writers spoil it themselves. There's a scene in the warehouse where they talk about a shipment they've just stolen. One random character who's line is the only one in the whole movie says something about "boosting some tv trays". So any fan of the show knows exactly what happens next. It just treats the audience like an idiot and has to be spoonfed. A better way would have simply been to have Sil say something like "that latest shipment we boosted, I left you a Christmas present in your car". Then have Dickie drive home, get out of his car, open the trunk, have a POV shot of what's in the trunk and then a second later the shot rings out.
The whole racial subplot was tenuous at best, and just seemed extremely forced. And don't get me started on how they fucked up the relationship between Tony, Junior and Dickie. There was a nice way they could have wrapped up their respective story's rather then the hamfisted way they attempted.
The only things that I thought they did well was the revelation of who was responsible for Dickie's hit (but they really messed up the motive), and that I thought the actress who played Livia was a cross between Carmela and Livia from the series - I thought the mannerisms were a blend of both which was a subtle nod that maybe Tony chose Carm because he was trying to replace his mother, but given how bad the rest of the film was I can only conclude that was purely by chance as opposed to design.
I agree with you that it seemed rushed, and potentially a mini-series would have been better, One thing I liked about the original series was that it felt like a movie that never ends. There was always space for reflection in it, which allowed the audience to draw their own conclusions to the events and characters.I agree with this. Every scene with Paulie, Sil etc I found distracting as I was expecting them to add something and they barely did (except for poor impressions and catch phrases) - as mentioned above the scenes could've played out exactly the same without them in it... and they made Tony look wetter than AJ, which is actually pretty impressive!
Also Harold shot at made guys (and killed Joey Diaz's character) so surely there was beef that wasn't resolved. I thought his character was interesting though and it would've been good to explore his world post- riots more.
It would've been much better had it been made as a short stand alone series (6-8 EPs) rather than trying to cram so much in just two hours imo. We could see the fall out of Dickie's slaying, who got blamed (Harold?) And any war that would then ensue and Tony getting more involved - maybe even see the Feech's card game he and Richie Aprile rob.
On Livia being reminiscent of Carm I saw an interview with David Chase where he said that was an intentional choice and wanted people to make the Freudian connection.