Sadly Over-hyped

Powerful

Just perfect...

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Coming from the success of his previous films, Scorsese went back to the 40s and made a tribute to his home town and the classic Hollywood genre – although he refused to call it a musical, mentioning Billy Wilder's statement that you can't call a film a musical unless characters sing in situations where you don't expect them to.With almost a three-hour running time, this highly stylized film filled with music and a rambling plot was a box-office failure and only a few critics giving a positive review, including Roger Ebert who said that if we forgive the movie its confusions we're left with a good time. Robert De Niro, collaborating for the third time with Scorsese for his least memorable character with the director, was not charming in this film and almost coming off as an annoying selfish character (and maybe that's the point), but Liza Minelli was great when performing the songs, especially in the highest point of the film when she sang its theme song, which is more memorable than the film itself – an indication that it was one of Scorsese's rare miscarriage as a director.The failure of the film led his cocaine addiction into rock bottom, which obviously he will recover from with flying colors – bouncing back in the next decade for a brand new chapter of his life and career.

It's V-J Day in New York. Jimmy Doyle (De Niro) is an aggressive, volatile saxophone player. He relentlessly pursues USO singer Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli). She eventually goes with him on an audition and it's a long rocky relationship as her star rises.This Martin Scorsese film comes right after Taxi Driver. Jimmy Doyle is essentially Travis Bickle with a little more social graces. There is a split in intention from the two movie leads. Jimmy Doyle is driving towards a dark disturbing story like Taxi Driver. It is off-putting but fascinating. On the other hand, Liza Minnelli seems to be pushing for a Broadway musical. There are a couple of good songs including the iconic New York, New York. I just don't see why she would ever go with him since she doesn't have the prerequisite damage. Neither really works and they certainly don't work together. I'm wondering if the movie would function better with an even darker ending.

I know that some people consider New York, New York (NYNY, for short) extraordinary. OK. Fine. But, you can bet, Derringer here ain't one of 'em. No way.When NYNY was first released, back in 1977, it was a super-staggering 4 1/2 hours in length. Like, can you just imagine having to tolerate listening to the vocal "talents" of Miss Liza Minnelli for that unendurable period of time? Phew! Now, that would've been pure torture to the 10th power! At present NYNY has a lengthy enough running time of 2 1/2 hours, which, to be sure, is unbearable enough as it is. But still much easier on the eyes, ears, nose, and, yes, stomach, than a super-deadly 4 1/2 hours.Directed by Martin Scorsese (of all people), NYNY may, in fact, be a super-duper, splashy-dashy musical extravaganza alright, but, by the same token, I found its story to be so utterly insipid that it quickly put me off completely even before I realized what was happening.Set in 1945, during the "Big Band Era" - NYNY amounted to being nothing more than a total "rags-to-riches" story with lots'n'lots'n'lots of musical interludes thrown in for good measure.Insufferably arrogant saxophonist, Jimmy Doyle (Robert De Niro), and infuriatingly naive VSO singer, Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli), a couple of typical "nobodies", meet in (where else?) New York on V-J Day at the end of WW2. These 2 bozos end up loving a little, bickering a lot, but most of the time spending their lives apart, just clawing their own way to the top of the heap, as "wannabe" big-time celebrities.This relationship between Jimmy and Francine was so irritatingly strained and rocky at times that it all got real tiresome, real fast.And, how was I feeling after watching this gruelingly-long picture? Well, let me tell ya' - I was certainly not in any "New-York-State-Of-Mind" by the end of it, that's for sure - No way - I mean, it was more like a splitting head-ache state of mind, if you wanna know the truth about it.Uh..... Pass the aspirins, please.

Ah the infamous directorial dud. I can't seem to escape you lately. And this time you appear with one of the greatest directors of all time, Martin Scorsese. But I suppose it would make sense that you would appear in the form of a three hour musical romance. New York, New York chronicles the story of two lovers, Jimmy Doyle, a talented saxophone player, and Francine Evans, a very talented singer. The two meet on V-J day and continuously fall in and out of love as they try to elevate their careers to grand heights while trying to cope with the other. It is a story of two people so wildly talented that they almost cancel each other out and cannot contend with each other because of their own immense talent. The film is an epic love saga that I don't really think needed to be that at all.What I can say about this film, and what I will always say about a Scorsese film whether I like it or not, is that the visuals are great. The settings are immaculate and beautiful and all aspects of the production fit a thriving and grandiose time period excellently. The scenes are eloquent, the costumes dazzling, the overall atmosphere is vivacious and carefree. Plus, Scorsese directs with elegant precision, capturing a lively and spirited mood throughout the film. His huge dedication to filmmaking is very evident through the style which he imprinted this film with. Few directors can capture a time period in both a physical and mental aspect but Scorsese is one of them. There is a real hint of nostalgia in this film as we return to the glorious and romantic time of post-war America.These visuals can only keep one intrigued for so long, however. And that amount of time means nothing when your film is close to three hours long. There are certain films that demand three hour runtimes because of their depth and complexity. New York, New York is not one of those films. Too many scenes in this film just seem to be there to pad the film, making it longer so as to achieve the status of romantic epic. The film is bubbling over with scenes that could have been cut or shortened significantly and the film could have played out just the same. And so as the film neared the two hour mark I became terribly bored. The film opens with a bang that is a glorious explosion on the eyes and ears but its all downhill from there. The film gets slower and slower and drags more and more thing out way longer than they need to be. I'll admit that the ending is good and closes the painfully long story as best it could, but its an ending that shouldn't have taken three hours to arrive at.I wanted to like New York, New York because I adore Scorsese. However, I couldn't bring myself to fully enjoy this film simply because it is just too long and not interesting or deep enough to warrant this kind of runtime. Scorsese certainly created a visual spectacle, but that spectacle really starts to lose its shine about two hours into the film when you know you have almost an hour left. I can't say I hated this film because it tries to be very good and succeeds in some areas, but overall it misses the mark and falls short of being great.