Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: Steven Zaillian (screenplay)/Charles Brandt (source material)

It’s like a beautiful paint by numbers picture. It looks exactly like what it’s supposed to look like. Pretty, to be sure, but safe. There’s everything you would expect, but very little you wouldn’t. And for me, that’s what made it just a bit disappointing. It was long, although that in and of itself isn’t a reason to malign a film. Here, though, I just felt like we had seen all of this before from Director Scorsese and his merry band of gangsters in earlier films. What draws me to crime films is that glimpse into a world so unfamiliar, so if you want me to invest three hours, you’ve got to give me something a little different. I will say that it was worthwhile to see Joe Pesci cast against type as the calm, circumspect one. And Al Pacino FINALLY gets to play the loud boisterous guy for a change! (I kid, I kid!)

IMDb voters give it an even 8.0. I’ll go with a 7. There’s nothing really wrong with it, and maybe my expectations were too high going in, but it just didn’t “wow” me in the way that his previous films have. If you can spare the three-plus hours, it’s definitely worth a watch, but I don’t see myself going back to it again and again, like I do with, say, Goodfellas. (running time 3:29)