by: keaton marcus

“The Irishman”: Will it be Good? Will it be a Hit?

Masterful filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s long-in-development, passion project “The Irishman” has landed its first trailer, and it’s a star-studded, expensive political thriller. The film circles on a WWII veteran Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) reflecting on his career in the mob, primarily him taking part in the tragic disappearance and murder of Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). The film has a massive 200 million production budget, and will be released in a limited bout, soon before a release on Netflix, hoping to have another sleeper hit. Otherwise, we will also determine whether will it be any good, fans should know that Scorsese should have some creative fuel left, but will it be executed well enough?

So, will it be a hit? The chances are varied, but in the past, audiences have fueled many hits for the popular Scorsese, though with the expensive budget, it’s obviously a gamble. The limited start might make around five to ten million for the indie, but its anticipated Netflix release is where everyone is supposed to watch it. There are chances that “The Irishman” could become another “Bird Box” type phenomenon, which would be huge for the filmmaker, but there are also chances that it could be the next big-budget bomb. Scorsese’s biggest film in North America remains “The Departed”, which grossed 132.3M domestically, and his biggest global release is “Shutter Island”, which earned 294.8M in its worldwide release. However, even his biggest films couldn’t take a budget the size of 200 million, his most expensive release caps only 110 million. It looks pretty foggy for the new picture. Overall, our early predictions say it will be a flop, but it could surprise.

Will it be good? While the trailer looks a little like a jumbled, expensive mess, it still has a great cast, and the director almost never fails in creating more than satisfying films for audiences. One of his newest films is a Liam Neeson-starring drama dubbed “Silence” which scored 83% “Certified Fresh” on RottenTomatoes along with a positive 79/100 on Metacritic, they called it thoughtful and emotionally resonant. His films are generally very well received with the critics, with his highest rated films on RT being “GoodFellas” 96%, “The Last Waltz” at 98%, “Raging Bull” at 96%, and “King of Comedy” at 91%, with many more acclaimed pictures. This proves that Scorsese was a great director, and still is. For “The Irishman”, we are expecting similar turnouts, but look for our review later this year.

The film will have its world premiere in New York, while the picture will debut on Netflix somewhere in October.