By Peter Killip.

This whole film brought to mind the heartbreaking moment that Dennis Pennis asked Steve Martin ( promoting “SGT. Bilko” at the time I think…) “Hey Steve, how come you’re not funny anymore?”. Well……Do you remember when Robert De Niro could still be referred to as an “Actor” ?

Somebody who had easily put forward some of the more impressive moments of performance in contemporary cinema and less prone to shamelessly mugging for the camera? So does Luc Besson, the awkward embarrassment of some thinly veiled nudges at other genre mainstays ( be it “The Sopranos”, “The Godfather” or erm…..”Analyze This” ) come a distant second place to the supposedly “Meta” moment we see De Niro’s former mob boss in hiding, giving a critique on the realism of “Goodfellas” while a sorrowful Tommy Lee Jones ( clearly, no longer able to sanction his buffoonery ) shakes his head as he sits in the audience, judging like the rest of us. Everybody involved in this tarnished turd of an endeavour need to take a step back and have a word with themselves.

Luc Besson hasn’t made a note worthy film since “Leon” , De Niro makes the occasional cameo in David O Russell output to keep his soul afloat but is far from the force he once was and even with Scorsese as producer, this is a film that cheapens all that has come before it and stares a little too hard at the past but can’t stop blinking through the tears. Truly bloody awful.

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