
![Picture from the movie The Many Saints of Newark](https://media.newyorker.com/photos/6157766c98f04d6502e9e8db/master/pass/Brody-TheManySaintsOfNewark.jpg)

# Oh, how I wish this could have been different.

My favourite movie genre? Mob movies. My favourite TV show of all time? The Sopranos. Put the two things together and 
you arrive at the perfect mob movie right? Evidently not.

I'm so disappointed by this movie that I actually don't know where to start. 

Let's start with the things I think this 
movie had going for it, the advantages if you will that David Chase had over any other mob movie writer.

The Sopranos, often voted the #1 show ever created for TV. A show that was so revolutionary and ground-breaking 
that it literally changed the way people thought about TV and ushered in the so-called "Golden Age" of TV. The show is
filled with characters that people genuinely love and know inside out after spending 86 episodes with them. The show 
that ended 14 years ago with so many original fans from the time and now all those new fans that have discovered the show 
since it ended. The hype was unreal for me after a 14-year hiatus! 

They had Michael Gandolfini. The real life son of the legendary James Gandolfini playing a younger version of the Tony 
Soprano character. What more could you possibly ask for in a prequel? 

As if that wasn't enough there was even a cherry on top for me. Joey 'Coco' Diaz was finally getting a role in The 
Sopranos. I've been a big fan of Joey and his comedy for years. I was made up when I learned he got a role in this movie.

So considering all the above I was beyond excited to watch the movie. It started off strong I thought with a surprise voice
narrating the intro. Christoper Moltisanti talking from beyond the grave. Immediately this conjured up memories of classic
Scorsese movies like Goodfellas and Casino. But sadly the narration stopped far too quickly. I think it was used 3 times 
in total. The start, the middle and the end. What a waste. Fans of the show were then forced to spend most of the rest of 
the movie trying to guess who each character on screen was from the original show. Christopher's narration could have 
solved this so perfectly. Then the movie gets going and things go from bad to worse. I've seen the movie twice now and I 
still don't really know what the plot was or the point of this movie. The movie seemed to be another victim of the 
current Hollywood obsession with Woke and instead of giving us a Sopranos story as advertised we got a commentary on 
Race riots and so many pointless new characters, one of which was Frank Lucas! Frank Lucas in a Sopranos movie? What? 
We had it already it's called American Gangster, Denzel nailed it. So much of the movie was wasted on these new Black 
characters that nobody knows or needed in the movie and seemed to walk into scenes and mock the wise guys as if it's 2021
with the current attitudes and culture. It just makes zero sense at all in a Sopranos prequel movie.

Putting that aside the movie really fails in its stated objective. This movie is supposed to centre on Dickie Moltisanti
and the influences he had on Tony Soprano which would eventually lead to Tony joining the life and becoming the boss we 
all know and love. I'd say the movie concentrated on anything other than that to be honest. We barely saw Tony with Dickie.
Tony was very young in the movie and nowhere near the mob life. Instead, we get a story of Dickie's love life and then by
the end of the movie he's dead. We barely saw him do any work. He definitely didn't do anything noteworthy that would 
have inspired Tony, and now he's dead so can't even rectify in a follow-up movie. (Please don't make a follow-up movie.) 

Remember how I said that the movie had problems with characters? How we couldn't tell who was who? Well get this. The 
movie focuses on Dickie Moltisanti. But also on "Hollywood Dick" Moltisanti. A character played by Ray Liotta. As if this
wasn't confusing enough Ray Liotta dies in the movie, but then comes back as another character (Sal Moltisanti). So we 
have 2x Dick Moltisantis' and 2x characters played by Ray Liotta only one of which is "Hollywood Dick" Moltisanti who 
is also not the Dick Moltisanti we're told the movie centers around. MENTAL.

Drawing our attention to the Sopranos characters we do know. Junior Soprano. Absolutely wasted. In the original show we're told 
he was cunning and sharp and not to be messed with. Didn't see that in this movie, he did nothing at all except throw 
out the odd familiar lines. (Which I did like I won't lie). Johnny Soprano also wasted. Great in the scenes he was in, 
and probably the only character that seemed to have a attitude that fit with the time, but barely in the movie and does 
practically nothing. 

But that's nothing to how they wasted Michael Gandolfini. I'm pretty sure every Sopranos fan was dying to see Michael in
the role of a young Tony Soprano. To see him in those early years when he's just learning his trade in the mob. Instead,
we got a couple of scenes with him, in school, around the dinner table and getting into a little bit of trouble as a 
school kid. Absolutely nothing at all to do with joining or forming a crew. Wasn't he supposed to be forming a crew in 
this movie? Wasn't everyone expecting to see him and young Paulie, young Silvio, young Pussy etc. actually doing some gangster shit?
I know I was. Instead these guys seemed way older, and were already running with the older crew. I think this was Dickie's
crew? I assume it was. Rather than being Johnny and Juniors. But it's near on impossible to tell as nobody really did any
gangster shit at all in this movie, and Johnny as I've already mentioned, whilst being excellent was missing for the most 
part. In the end we didn't see anything that we expected or that was promised. We didn't learn anything about Tony and his crew or how they 
got together or why they were all so tight as a group. Then it ended. What a waste of time.

In the end there was very little I really liked about this movie. The one completely stand out spectacular feature of 
this movie was the performance of Vera Farmiga as Livia. She nailed this and stole absolutely every scene she was 
in and was the only person that ever made me feel like I was seeing a real character from The Sopranos. The only other 
person that did this in any way at all was Joe Magaro as Silvio Dante. I've seen people complaining that his performance 
was more like a Saturday Night Live skit or an impression of the amazing Steven Van Zandt original, but I liked it. At the
end of the day aren't they supposed to be doing impressions of the originals. I actually appreciated how similar he was, 
from the way he walked, stood and spoke.

If I had to pick a single scene from the movie that I recommend, that made me feel like I was watching younger versions
of The Sopranos characters it has to be the scene in which Tony and Livia are in the kitchen discussing medication. That
scene was excellent, and I do not remember any others coming close to topping it.

So to summarise I think this was a massive fail. A huge disappointment and not something I think they can even save now
with a second movie. This should have been an HBO TV series or should have simply concentrated on the Sopranos characters
and told a story that the fans wanted to see.



THE MANY FAILS OF NEWARK

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