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New York, New York (1977)
Director: Martin Scorsese
I don't know if I've ever hated a movie more than New York, New York. It's flawed beyond belief and that's what happens when an acclaimed director makes a movie while high on drugs.
It's a pity because you can tell if Scorsese was working with his full brain he could've made one great film. There are some great shots that are both innovative while adding to the film's narrative. Liza Minnelli sparkles in the film. She looks great in her 1940s fashions and sings wonderfully. Liza brings alot of heart to the movie. But Robert DeNiro was all kinds of wrong in this film. It's apparent that Scorsese aloud DeNiro to have free reign with improvisation of his dialogue. The trouble with actors improvising without the watchful eye of a director to reel them in, is that actors tend to go on and on with their improvisation lines. Here scenes go way too long as DeNiro keeps using his trademark moody ranting and raving, which doesn't allow editing of the scenes, so scenes go on way too long. Even worse he ends up repeating the same things over and over, aka hamming it up.
I fully expected that by the end of the film DeNiro's deranged sociopath character who had controlled and abused his wife the entire time would kill her in the end over jealousy. Actually that would've made the film great as it would've been one helluva a dark musical and made sense of DeNiro's character. But that's not what the film was saying and the story is not about a sociopath abuser, which makes DeNiro's Raging Bull type character inappropriate for the film's story. If the director hadn't been wasted on cocaine he might have realized this.
It's a pity because you can tell if Scorsese was working with his full brain he could've made one great film. There are some great shots that are both innovative while adding to the film's narrative. Liza Minnelli sparkles in the film. She looks great in her 1940s fashions and sings wonderfully. Liza brings alot of heart to the movie. But Robert DeNiro was all kinds of wrong in this film. It's apparent that Scorsese aloud DeNiro to have free reign with improvisation of his dialogue. The trouble with actors improvising without the watchful eye of a director to reel them in, is that actors tend to go on and on with their improvisation lines. Here scenes go way too long as DeNiro keeps using his trademark moody ranting and raving, which doesn't allow editing of the scenes, so scenes go on way too long. Even worse he ends up repeating the same things over and over, aka hamming it up.
I fully expected that by the end of the film DeNiro's deranged sociopath character who had controlled and abused his wife the entire time would kill her in the end over jealousy. Actually that would've made the film great as it would've been one helluva a dark musical and made sense of DeNiro's character. But that's not what the film was saying and the story is not about a sociopath abuser, which makes DeNiro's Raging Bull type character inappropriate for the film's story. If the director hadn't been wasted on cocaine he might have realized this.
(Also, I can only take DeNiro when he's used in certain ways and this sounds like he's allowed to just DeNiro the place out which I have no use for.)
and Paul Lynde's too. He's her cranky father who also wants to get on the Ed Sullivan show, he's funny as always but playing a different character than his Bewitched Uncle Arthur. Nice to see cameos by Ed Sullivan and John Daly of What's My Line fame.
I didn't stream it but I just checked and it doesn't seem to be available to stream at the moment.
