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Movie Review: The Many Saints of Newark

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The idea behind the prequel of the HBO series of the “Sopranos” called “The Many Saints of Newark” is the hope that most fans of that series would be curious about the early life of Tony Soprano and this idea would easily make money.

The problem with all Mafia movies is that they will always be compared to “Goodfellas”, 1990, “The Godfather”, 1972 and “The Godfather: Part 2”, 1974 – and nothing can ever favorably compare to these best ever movies about people in the Mafia. The Many Saints of Newark is produced by HBO and in the last few days HBO has been replaying the entire series on several of their channels, to remind people of the great Sopranos series and build interest in this new movie. Like Goodfellas, Ray Liotta, once again stars in this movie and narrates certain parts of the story, right from the beginning.

It is greatly unfortunate that this movie is nothing more than a disjointed series of vignettes that when strung together over a very long two hours result in no real story. This is probably why HBO decided to show the Soprano’s series again, because the producers knew that the word of mouth about this film along with the critics opinions would not be good. It turns out they were right, with the IMDB rating only 7 and Rotten Tomatoes 72%. What makes no sense here, is how could such an anemic and boring script be written about a great HBO series, wrecking a great opportunity to create a brand new movie franchise and make a great deal of money? This screenplay seemed like it needed about 5 more re-writes before it was ready to be made into a film. From the reviews I have read on IMDB, the consensus is that there is no real story here and worse, this movie is boring in too many areas.

There is a good deal of cruel violence in this movie that includes a gang war between the Mafia and Afro American gangs in Newark in the 1960s and once again like all violent mob movies show, if you choose a life where killing other people is as easy as brushing your teeth, then your day is coming, its only a matter of when.

The main character is played by Alessandro Nivola as Dick Moltisanti along with Jon Bernthal as Johnny Soprano who seems perfectly cast for his role as Motlisanti’s best friend. The scene that stood out the most for me in this mostly bad film was when Johnny Soprano was driving with his wife with Nivola and his wife in the back seat. When Johnny got tired of hearing his wife talk while he was driving, he shot off his gun near her head, to get her to shut up. A scene like this reminded me of Goodfellas, where the characters thought they could do just about anything they wanted, with no fear of the consequences.

Unfortunately and for so many reasons, I rate The Many Saints of Newark (another title that makes little sense) a pass and another great potential movie franchise ruined.

Movie Review: The Eyes of Tammy Faye

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The movie “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” is about Tammy Faye Baker who along with Jim Baker went from preaching the bible to millions of people on TV, to slowly turning that noble cause into cheating people with a huge Nationwide con. Most of us have wondered that if two people believed in God as much as they did, why were they not afraid that using God to help them cheat hundreds of thousands of people out of their money would be the ultimate sin? Given the obvious stupidity and National exposure of what they were doing, why were they not afraid of being caught by the FBI and just about every other law enforcement agency? Eventually they were caught and Jim Baker was ultimately sentenced to 100 years in prison. Why he was released early was never fully explained, and now he is once again on TV preaching about the Bible. Tammy Faye passed away in 2007 of both colon and lung cancer. We learn about her constant drinking of diet coke during this film and could speculate that this could be part of her reason for getting two cancers. Tammy Faye was a woman who believed that the more made up you are the better looking you are, even to the point of tattooing permanent eyebrows and lip liner. Why she thought this was a good look is anybody’s guess.

Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield play Tammy Faye and Jim Baker expertly in this film, unfortunately the majority of the story is about their lives during their years of being a big hit on TV, and not enough real story. Too much of this period in their careers is also repetitive and boring. I would have preferred learning much more about the details of their scams and how they rationalized stealing so much money from so many good people. There were some examples of their charitable causes in this story, but that was never enough to justify what they did for so long on while preaching the Bible on Television.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for The Eyes of Tammy Faye (a poor title for this movie in my opinion) are a low 64%. I agree with this rating and do not recommend this movie.

Movie Review: Dear Evan Hansen

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The movie “Dear Evan Hansen” is based on the Broadway play with the same name. This film starts out with the main character singing and at the beginning I was worried that this movie was going to be entirely a musical. The good news is this film is right on the line where musical lovers will like it and people who hate musicals will be able to tolerate the singing. Regardless, the star of Dear Evan Hansen Ben Platt is an outstanding singer and actor. So much so that I thought he should be the odds on favorite to win best actor in a movie this year.

This story is about high school, bullying, trying to fit in, trying to feel good about yourself within a group of people you are forced to be with because you have no other choice. You care so deeply about what others think of you, especially when you are a teenager in high school. What is this almost unidentifiable sickness that is at its worst during our youth, when so many young people derive a sadistic high from destroying someone else – very often to the point of suicide?

I thought this story was outstanding, with numerous complicated twists and turns that demonstrate so well the anomalies of human emotion, empathy, jealousy, cruelty and the phenomenon that when some of us die, others who knew us when we were alive forget who we really were. In this story a young boy who had major emotional problems and who bullies Evan Hansen and others, later takes his own life and then, only because he died, becomes a hero with all his fellow high school students. The mother of this boy, played very well by Amy Adams is so filled with denial and grief – Evan decides to do a good deed that backfires, setting the stage for a complex series of events proving that even the whitest of lies can sometimes become a bad thing. That old famous phrase, “No good deed goes unpunished”. Julianne Moore plays Evan’s mother and she has several scenes with Ben Platt that stand out in this movie.

Much to my shock and surprise, the across the board ratings of 36% of Rotten Tomatoes and 5.7 on IMDB are idiotically low. By far, the most inaccurate opinions I have ever read about any movie. Ben Platt’s performance and singing in his film, give it at least an 85% rating. The real shame is that because of the low consensus opinions for Dear Evan Hansen, Ben Platt might not even be nominated for best Actor. Go figure. I hope I am wrong.

For those who hate musicals and I am one of them, this movie has just enough singing where you will not run screaming in the parking lot and enough great story and acting to be a very enjoyable two hours. For this one, ignore the stupid critics this time around because Dear Evan Hansen is a must see.