The Sopranos

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bearcuborg
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:30 am
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Re: The Sopranos

#176 Post by bearcuborg » Thu Dec 19, 2019 3:00 am

Pretty much everything with Tony was great. Gandolfini was a true artist. He is missed.

flyonthewall2983
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Re: The Sopranos

#177 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Dec 25, 2019 3:04 pm

Danny DeVito had a funny story about a similar rejection to Scorsese's he had to the show on Marc Maron's podcast a few months ago

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bearcuborg
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Re: The Sopranos

#178 Post by bearcuborg » Tue Jun 29, 2021 5:50 pm


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bearcuborg
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Re: The Sopranos

#179 Post by bearcuborg » Mon Oct 11, 2021 4:00 pm

It feels easier to list the things that don’t work in The Many Saints of Newark, than the things that do. It took about 45mins for me to realize this movie wasn’t going to be great, and towards the end I accepted that the movie was a disappointment.

What works is the performance of Gandolfini’s son. One wishes Chase knew that before writing the script, or even envisioning as a film in the first place. You can’t take your eyes off him. It’s difficult to tell from the trailer, but Vera Farminga, under all that make up, is able to bring some humanity to such a vile but pivotal character in the series. The film is easily at its best when those two are on screen together.

Likewise Corey Stoll manages to bring an iconic character to life without getting bogged down with simple imitation. Silvio, Pussy, and Paulie all work from a distance, but foolishly Silvio gets a long scene that feels like parody. The stunning Michela De Rossi, along with Alessandro Nivola turn in fine performances as well.

Unfortunately their characters, and his hood arch nemesis, Leslie Odom, get little to none (especially in Odom’s case) of the rich characterization that even the guest stars got on the show. Ray Liotta, in a odd bit of casting, seems to have a part that substitutes for Dr. Melfi, but that too is done better in the show. In the end one wishes Chase had been convinced to write this as a mini series.

All the young Sopranos hoods were well enough casted, and Nivola can definitely hold down a series lead. Odom and race relations deserved a deeper look than what we get here.

For Sopranos nerds, there’s some retcon stuff here and there-but none of it ruins the show-but it doesn’t help either-except perhaps for the end, which has the biggest shock for diehards.
Last edited by bearcuborg on Tue Oct 12, 2021 9:50 am, edited 2 times in total.

flyonthewall2983
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Re: The Sopranos

#180 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Oct 11, 2021 4:16 pm

jedgeco wrote:
Mon Mar 18, 2019 1:13 pm
Deadline Hollywood wrote:UPDATED with official title: New Line’s Sopranos prequel feature now officially titled The Many Saints of Newark....
Newark is a better title. Too many m titles as opposed to n titles as it is anyway.

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Toland's Mitchell
Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2019 2:42 pm

Re: The Sopranos

#181 Post by Toland's Mitchell » Sun Oct 31, 2021 1:51 pm

Very good points by bearcuborg. I, too, was a little underwhelmed by The Many Saints of Newark. First off, I wasn't a fan of the opening sequence and the decision to have Christopher narrate the story. That was uninspired, tried too hard to connect the movie with the show, and needlessly gave away a major spoiler or two of the show. I assumed those who haven't watched The Sopranos could watch Newark without any show spoilers...and that proved false literally in the opening shot of the film. Not to my liking, however the film recovered as we moved into the story of Dickie Moltisanti, played very well by Allesandro Nivola. We meet him, his father, and his soon-to-be stepmother. We also meet young Tony, his parents, and a younger (but still bald) Uncle June. And lastly we meet Harold, a black associate who works for Dickie. Meanwhile, the 1967 Newark Race Riot was raging on. There were many positives here. I appreciated the development of the family dynamics, and how the ongoing riot shed light onto their characters as well as creating an interesting plot point I prefer not to spoil. However, when Saints of Newark jumped from '67 to '72 around the 45 minute mark, this is when the film began to lose me. The story-lines weren't bad but I found them a bit clunky as they bowled along from one plot point to the next, without providing sufficient motivation. It felt very rushed, and was thus unable to fully explore themes and characters that made the show such a deep and rich viewing. To echo bearcuborg, Many Saints of Newark probably would have benefited had it been made as a mini-series.

flyonthewall2983
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Re: The Sopranos

#182 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Jul 09, 2022 10:29 pm

Even as lukewarm I am to the show’s magnanimous influence on the culture I couldn’t help but think that in death he found the Russian.

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