#79 Once Upon A Time In America

1984

Staring

Jennifer Connelly, Robert De Niro, James Woods, Paul Bettany, Grace Hightower

I think to myself, "Ive got a couple of hours spare today, Ill watch another movie on the list, oh its a gangster movie, brilliant, I like them" (starts movie) "WTF!!!! its 3 HOURS AND 49 MINUTES long" Now, to quote Youtube "Aint nobody got time for that"

So I had to do this one in two sittings, I did consider it in 1, but after the first hour there was no chance of that happening. When this came out on the big screen, the whole world got their monies worth with this one, other than one country who were too uncultured to be able to sit and digest the complex intertwining's, flash backs and epicly long cut scenes, Never mins and endless ringing of a telephone for about the first 15 minutes. Of course America decided to cut the film by a whole 90 minutes, rendering it utter 'jibberish' just a car crash of random scenes forced together to create zero continuity and a story that makes little seance.

So I did endure the full version as the director had wanted, and my initial thought was "this is going to be slow" and it didnt disappoint, almost 4 grueling hours of my life spent watching this. It was long for a very good reason, to be able to fully tell the story that spans over 3 decades of the lives of a group of friends turn gangsters who form a bond like no other set of criminals, that takes the all the way from childhood to death.   

The scores

Visual
7/10 pretty standard

Sound
5/10 Nothing too sparkling here 

Acting
8/10 real good acting

Plot
5/10 So I love a good gangster film and this one didn't disappoint, apart from the length.

Ending
5/10 wasn't the best part of the movie, so a middle of the road score.

Final Score
30/50



Total Movie Minutes So Far ~ 2840

Next up - Lion King