Last I Heard

Without knowing much beforehand with the title "Once Upon a Time.." I first expected some epic sweeping three hour movie (like "Once Upon a Time in the West", "Once Upon a Time in America", etc).

What it was instead a nice drama and part mobster movie with a nice sprinkle of humor. I don't normally like dramas but I liked this one.

Being Italian my self I liked the nice positive sentiment it had about traditional Italian ways. Kind of nostalgic even.

In the movies, particularly in mobster/gangster ones, you see a lot of Italians being violent, uncaring, and generally acting pretty stupid. But nothing could be further from the truth. Most Italians in America from "the old country" (the previous generation or two) are some of the most kind, loving, and sincere people you will ever meet. It's not about the "me", it's about family, friends, and making sure your guests feel welcomed, etc.

With out giving anything away, I liked some of contrasts pointed out about the old and the new ways, etc.

It's a little slow at points maybe, but not a very enjoyable movie if your into the occasional drama.

This was billed as a comedy drama, it was neither. It was 1 hour 41 minutes of shear boredom.

Bad acting, bad screenplay an all round bad movie. How this drivel got a 6.2 score is unbelievable.

Do yourself a favour and steer clear of this lemon.

This surely had to be a straight to DVD release as there is no way this thing could have done anything at the cinemas.

It is basically a movie about absolutely nothing.

The strained continuous crying scenes were pitiful to watch. The characters were one dimensional unconvincing, and just made you dislike them altogether.

Some of the more fantastic scenes involved character talking to each other without any audio other than music. Extremely annoying and must be just there to pad this rubbish out a bit.

Paul Sorvino plays an aging mobster released from jail after two long decades and earnestly struggles to find his place amidst a rapidly changing world. This isn't a gangster movie per say, it's not even Good Fellas in a retirement home, it's more of a retrospective character piece of what an aging mobster ripped from the pillars of power and left to be mostly forgotten would subsequently face when released after so long. And I guess it begs the question in all of its soul searching and kitschy "east coast neighborhood" dialogue was this move absolutely necessary? Sorvino and Rappaport certainly play their roles well but the movie feels like it's operating in some sort of invisible sandbox that unfortunately only superficially scratches the surface of its characters, leaving us with a fairly empty feeling after it's all over. One can't help but ask what was the point exactly? The largest character arcs are written and served on a convenient platter rather than developed organically. It's certainly a different take on the gangster movie and the refreshing aspect of that point ends right there, what it doesn't do is reinvent the character study, slogging along tiredly trying to find footing somewhere. If the directors point was to give us hyper realism then it certainly beats watching someone vaccum for 90 minutes, but I think the main point is lost somewhere in another movie. So you can't teach an old dog new tricks and criminals don't change...the end. It's not completely far fetched to understand that older adults who leave prison are certainly disenfranchised, thrust into a brave new world thats busy with distraction. But Shawshank Redemption did this concept better in 15 minutes than this could do in 90. It's not a horrible movie by any regard but it's certainly missing that something to set it apart.

A very mild gangster film but interesting drama. Despite not being a typical mafia movie I found it realistic and true to life. An ageing gangster is released from jail and is subject to strict conditions to keep his freedom. He has to deal with issues as the world has changed. There was a good story with his daughter who played a really good role. It also had a great cast and some old familiar faces such as Johnny roast beef from goodfellas. All in all a chilled out mafia melodrama which I found surprisingly enjoyable.

I admit I saw the Once upon aaa. title, then the cast, and assumed it was the same old... But with a spare afternoon, what the heck. How wrong could I be!! Simple, different, and strangely touching. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and reaffirmed the life lesson, don't assume anything.