Movies: The Many Saints Of Newark (Sopranos Movie)

[Kurtz]

Paulie's age group in the movie, which begs the question, can you have such aggressive hair loss in your early 20s?

Oh, absolutely. Here is NBA superstar Alex Caruso when he was playing college ball at the age of ~19:

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

I thought the new stuff — Dickie, Harold, Ray Liotta — was pretty good. And overall I liked the movie.

But I felt like everything comes screeching to a halt whenever one of the Sopranos Babies characters has a moment. It like there's a record scratch and then "Hey look it's Sil!" or "Hey look it's Paulie!" or "Hey look it's Carmela" every time it happens. It's not like any of the performances of those legacy characters are good or bad necessarily but each one felt more like an SNL skit than part of the movie. A lot of impersonations, but no real there there. Thought Michael Gandolfini was solid (and the only one that wasn't just mimicry) but didn't think his story line was all that compelling. Thought his pushing his mom to go on meds was a really awkwardly forced plot point.

 

[Bowski]

Weird movie.

In the first part, an Italian whooa comes over to screw anything she can find.
In the second part, some hustling black guy is trying to climb above the mafia. I don't remember if he lived or not, to be honest, it dragged on far too long.
Finally, everyone seems to get killed except the main protagonists for The Sopranos.
Many cameos had this going along. Biggest LOL@ Silvio/Paulie. Those "actors" should be shamed.

End of the day, not sure what the purpose of this movie really is. Who actually gave a crap to find out about Dickie Moltisanti or his twin dads?
More Sopranos material? Think that's better served in a new series.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

Oh, I was wondering, how did Junior get away with killing another made guy for such a stupid reason?

 

[loudi94]

Oh, I was wondering, how did Junior get away with killing another made guy for such a stupid reason?

As far as I can tell, the murder was blamed on a rival black gang. Makes sense as it could have led to Tony's openly racist demeanor.

 

[Voight]

Oh, I was wondering, how did Junior get away with killing another made guy for such a stupid reason?

Didn't Chris say at the start Dickie was just an associate of the DiMeo family? I'm not certain he was made guy. Swear he said "he and my grandfather pulled in more money than the made guys..."

As for the actual movie.... I always thought Silvio, Paulie and Big P were Tony's age/close to it? The movie shows them as being way older than him

 

[Scandale du Jour]

Didn't Chris say at the start Dickie was just an associate of the DiMeo family? I'm not certain he was made guy. Swear he said "he and my grandfather pulled in more money than the made guys..."

As for the actual movie.... I always thought Silvio, Paulie and Big P were Tony's age/close to it? The movie shows them as being way older than him

If Dickie was not a made guy, then, it makes more sense.

Paulie and Big p***y are definitely older than Tony on the show. I was sure Silvio was his age.

 

[Voight]

I didn't think the movie was too bad and I enjoyed it since I love the Sopranos lore, but it also left me wanting more and I had more questions. Then again there's a lot of room for another movie or even a series given that we have not seen how Tony enters the mafia.

I think as long as you don't compare it to the series, it should be enjoyable.

One of my theory's has been that after his father died he joined the mob to help provide for his mom. In the movie they show how close they were and either way as a son you're going to want to help your mom out in most cases.

I don't understand what the point of this movie was supposed to be. Just a bunch disjointed Easter egg scenes thrown together and called a movie.

The whole Harold storyline was nonsense. Like, wtf was the point of the Christmas tree scene? Or the post-credit scene? Hell, what are his motivations in general?

Wasn't Dickie supposed to be a junkie? We barely see any bonding scenes with Tony and Dickie, but Tony apparently worshipped him.

Don't forget the rioting thrown in for good measure.

I'm actually impressed that you could take so many fascinating characters with millions of possibilities and produce that.

I did enjoy Johnny shooting Livia's hair though lol, never scene anything quite like that before.

I could be wrong but I thought Dickie was made to be a junkie so Christopher wouldn't ask too many questions. Hard to explain to your kid that his father was a mobster who got whacked. Or they are retconning.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

I could be wrong but I thought Dickie was made to be a junkie so Christopher wouldn't ask too many questions. Hard to explain to your kid that his father was a mobster who got whacked. Or they are retconning.

pretty much this.

no different than how they tell family members the guy they whacked (Ritchie and p***y especially) was a rat and is in witness protection

 

[Bounces R Way]

It was OK. B-
Didn't really have high expectations and I would say only some of them were met.

Started strong and then seemed to lose focus. Good performances from young Tony, Livia, Junior, Ray Liotta, and Dickie. Didn't buy Jon Bernthal as Johnny Soprano, just seemed like an odd casting choice. Trying to do too much following like 3 major storylines and 3 separate subplots, agree that it probably would have worked better as a mini-series.

 

[Scotianhab]

It was OK. B-
Didn't really have high expectations and I would say only some of them were met.

Started strong and then seemed to lose focus. Good performances from young Tony, Livia, Junior, Ray Liotta, and Dickie. Didn't buy Jon Bernthal as Johnny Soprano, just seemed like an odd casting choice. Trying to do too much following like 3 major storylines and 3 separate subplots, agree that it probably would have worked better as a mini-series.

I think Chase wants a mini series. All depends on how well this does probably. Would be the rise of Tony mini series.

 

[Megahab]

I watched this tonight and really enjoyed it. Not something I'd recommend to a non-Sopranos fan though.

Vera Farmiga (or whatever her name is) was awesome as Livia. And the guy that played Silvio had the mannerisms down so well.

There were a lot of little fan service moments that I really liked too like Junior's varsity athlete line and Johnny shooting into Livia's hair.

Only thing I thought was weird was the Ray Liotta double role. He should have just played the prisoner uncle and they should have just got someone else to play Moltisanti Sr.

 

[Megahab]

Also, I didn't realize until reading up on it after that the kid in the car next to Tony when Dickie dropped by Harold's was Artie Bucco.

 

[ColonialsHockey10]

So apparently the teen with Tony that called him Joe Jerkoff was Jackie Aprile

Also almost positive the kid Tony rode the bus with as a kid was Artie as well. He mentioned working in his father’s restaurant.

Edit: didn’t read the post above mine, but I guess both were Artie lol.

 

[Megahab]

Also almost positive the kid Tony rode the bus with as a kid was Artie as well. He mentioned working in his father’s restaurant.

Edit: didn’t read the post above mine, but I guess both were Artie lol.

Also, apparently Jackie was the one driving the stolen ice cream truck while Tony and Artie were holding the driver down.

 

[Jeffrey Pedler]

What people need to understand was that it wasn't supposed to be a movie focusing on Tony Soprano. It was supposed to be based on Tony's relationship with Dickie Moltasanti and how it made Tony what he was today.

They really should have gotten rid of the carnival scene though, it was basically a shot for shot remake as the on in the series.

The actor playing Silvio was way too old, I wish they had sticken to age consistency.

The Harold parts were needed, to show how Dickie ended up meeting his demise.

 

[ManwithNoIdentity]

Lol

 

[Martinez]

I liked it a lot, hopefully they make another one

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Didn't think it was a good movie, I should watch it again though. Does feel more like the start of something rather than a stand alone movie so it might be better in retrospect. Falls into the trope of unnecessarily and unrealistically calling out names all the time so the audience knows "oh thats Carmela!" As if a blond Tony was with would be anyone else. Another complaint I had was that Tony and Dickie were supposed to have a brother relationship but they are shown to be a father-son relationship

One of my theory's has been that after his father died he joined the mob to help provide for his mom. In the movie they show how close they were and either way as a son you're going to want to help your mom out in most cases..

Tony was already into organized crime before his dad died. Tony B was in jail for hijacking that Tony famously missed, he had his first kill and I'm pretty sure the infamous feech la manna card game heist was all before Johnny boy died

Also, apparently Jackie was the one driving the stolen ice cream truck while Tony and Artie were holding the driver down.

Well considering Tony says "Hey Jackie" ... Though I thought the other kid was Ralph and not Artie

 

[Perennial]

I put it on a couple of days ago... made it about 30 minutes in before bailing

The portrayal of a young Silvio was embarrassing

I'm a huge Sopranos fan... watched the series at least twice... so I'll probably get through the rest of it at some point, but it don't mean I'm gonna like it!

 

[Megahab]

Didn't think it was a good movie, I should watch it again though. Does feel more like the start of something rather than a stand alone movie so it might be better in retrospect. Falls into the trope of unnecessarily and unrealistically calling out names all the time so the audience knows "oh thats Carmela!" As if a blond Tony was with would be anyone else. Another complaint I had was that Tony and Dickie were supposed to have a brother relationship but they are shown to be a father-son relationship



Tony was already into organized crime before his dad died. Tony B was in jail for hijacking that Tony famously missed, he had his first kill and I'm pretty sure the infamous feech la manna card game heist was all before Johnny boy died



Well considering Tony says "Hey Jackie" ... Though I thought the other kid was Ralph and not Artie

Yeah I didn't catch any of that when watching. Just read about it afterwards.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

This was very meh and boring. Felt like it was about a few months in the life of Dickie Moltisanti and not much else. Lots of fan service some of which seems it wouldn't line up with The Sopranos. Would have rather it been about Johnny Boy and Junior than mostly about Dickie. I also wish they would have resolved the Harold stuff. Maybe they left that open ended for a potential sequel/mini series?

 

[Primary Assist]

I'm about halfway through... And wow this movie is just bad. A waste of these characters and intellectual property. The Sopranos is supposed to challenge its audience, not just give them fanservice up the "ase." It was hard not to turn off the movie when Junior said the asinine "varsity athlete" line - this show is supposed to be way better than "Hey he said the thing!"

A disjointed narrative and the absurdity of so many situations just takes the audience right out of the sense of realism and suspension of disbelief. Ray Liotta playing two characters? What a contrived bunch of nonsense. And what's the point of giving him two roles if he's just playing the same character he's been playing since 2000, but twice in one film?

Then you have how on the nose some of the dialog is. The National Guard waving Dicky through when his car is covered in blood and saying "It's OK, he's white." Is that what passes for nuance these days? Obviously I get the motif they're trying to establish with the film, but at least let your audience figure that out instead of just saying it plain as day.

A real shame. Imagine how critically panned a "The Wire" movie would be if it came out today and was a standard buddy cop action flick. That's how I feel about this gimmicky cash grab.

Final point before I put my phone down: why the hell are these Newark wiseguys talking in Boston accents?

Two last points now that I'm done:

I did actually like the way Dickie's fate paralleled his father's. Dickie murdered his father in a jealous rage because his dad was beating the Italian woman, then Dickie goes ahead and murders her in a jealous rage, and gets what was coming to him from a family member. Some actually nice symmetry there, and it does reinforce a major point of "The Sopranos" which is that the ones you think you love the most will be the ones who hurt you the worst.

Now, last point, Storytelling 101: Show, Don't Tell. You don't need to tell us the guy with the kooky hair and a funny gait who scrunches his face up is Silvio before the character even appears on screen. Let the character breathe a little bit and let the audience make that connection. To do otherwise is to infantilize the audience. Who was the movie for? A shrewd film watcher, or someone who just wants to munch on popcorn and say "Hey! I remember that guy!"

To quote a character who may or may not have been given his due justice, "Remember when is the lowest form of conversation." I think that adage can apply to filmmaking as well.

 

[ManwithNoIdentity]

It was always going to be Dickies story and then for some reason once Michael Gandolfini’s hype rose the movie they added more of that aspect

That said, I loved the movie and it makes sense that apparently David Chase wanted an 8 episode or so series as opposed to a movie, although he signed a deal with HBO recently so I’m guessing we’ll be getting more sopranos stuff

I’m thinking it’s possible I liked MSON a lot more than most people because while I like the Sopranos, thinks it’s a good show and appreciates what ir did for all the prestige TV we have now, I never found it to be the best ever

 

[Jumptheshark]

Lol

I was about to post this--he not happy