braddelany

Bobby shoulda only played Frank and it coulda been better had he woulda.

Fine lead actor and to some degree he can perform character actor but playing opposite himself was distracting for me. His voice inflections and tonality, mannerisms, and basic personality made scenes with both characters very monotone. That carried over to solo scenes as well. Makeup was good but not good enough to dispell.

Overall I enjoyed the movie, but would have appreciated it with Keitel, Pacino, Hoffman, or many other possible actors playing opposite in the Vito role.

Messing was great.

PS Joe Bonanno would slap you senseless had he seen where you made him old and frail before his time. I knew him in the 1970s and he still presented a formidable presence.

Like the gambler characters, the writer clearly didn't know when to quit. Or perhaps it is better stated, if you don't have an ending, don't start. Someone once told me, in relating to screenwriting, if you want to end up in Philadelphia, and you have no idea of where it is, you could traverse the universe without a map and still end up in Kansas. I really question the hand near the end standing on a beach holding a ball of fire. Of course, to go beyond that point was playing with fire, but to think that this ending was a fair point to pitch a sequel, when the first round didn't deliver the goods as promised, is like wrapping an empty box and putting it under the Yule tree. With that said, I enjoyed much of the movie, just thought the ending was as frazzled as a hungover me in a 40 year old dream.