"The Many Saints of Newark"

[DaveBrown74]

For those who don't know, "The Many Saints of Newark" is a movie coming out in October that is the prequel to the hit show "The Sopranos." David Chase, the creator of "The Sopranos" is one of the writers of the show, so it does seem potentially promising. Interestingly, they went with the late James Gandolfini's son with the role of Tony back from his teenage years.

It remains to be seen how good this movie will be, but it certainly seems promising. Here is the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHa95iy2lF0

I am not sure if the Sopranos has been discussed here already, but I am a huge, huge fan of the show. For me it is easily my favorite show of all time, and by a huge margin. I am probably a little biased because I have always loved the mafia genre, but The Sopranos in my opinion succeeded in being much more than just a good mafia show. There is a lot more to it than that. I hope with this movie they managed to achieve something good. I guess we'll find out in a few months.

Are there any other big Sopranos fans here?

[LennG]

Count me in also, huge, huge fan. I never had HBO so IU watched the series when it came out on Tape or DVD. I rewatched it when it was on broadcast TV, but that ended very quickly as they cut out all the violence, nudity, and cussing. How can you watch the Sopranos without all of that?
I remember watching the final episode on a VCR tape and thought, WOW, something was cut out as I made it my business not to know what happened until I was able to watch. Silly me until I really understood the ending (or did anyone really understand the ending).

I would love to discuss it, but if you discuss the details, my memory lags. I remember most of the series but some things are blurs, but I loved every episode of every year. Funny, I used to listen to Mike and the Mad Dog every day while I was working and they LOVED the Sopranos and always discussed every episode as it was aired, so I knew a lot of what was going to happen.

As far as the trailer, Gandolfini's son does look a lot like him. Is he playing the part of Tony? And my choice for most underrated person on that entire series was Edie Falco. yes, she was a main character but many times she got lost in relation to Tony. She was a joy to watch.

As for best series ever, it is in my top 5. For me, I still go with Breaking Bad as my BEST series ever, followed by Game of Thrones, and anytime you or anyone wants to discuss any of them, let me know. There is no one here who has ever discussed GOT, and I can't believe no one else hadn't watched it.

With that clip, it has peaked my interest and I will be looking forward to the prequel.

[DaveBrown74]

Count me in also, huge, huge fan. I never had HBO so IU watched the series when it came out on Tape or DVD. I rewatched it when it was on broadcast TV, but that ended very quickly as they cut out all the violence, nudity, and cussing. How can you watch the Sopranos without all of that?
I remember watching the final episode on a VCR tape and thought, WOW, something was cut out as I made it my business not to know what happened until I was able to watch. Silly me until I really understood the ending (or did anyone really understand the ending).

I would love to discuss it, but if you discuss the details, my memory lags. I remember most of the series but some things are blurs, but I loved every episode of every year. Funny, I used to listen to Mike and the Mad Dog every day while I was working and they LOVED the Sopranos and always discussed every episode as it was aired, so I knew a lot of what was going to happen.

As far as the trailer, Gandolfini's son does look a lot like him. Is he playing the part of Tony? And my choice for most underrated person on that entire series was Edie Falco. yes, she was a main character but many times she got lost in relation to Tony. She was a joy to watch.

As for best series ever, it is in my top 5. For me, I still go with Breaking Bad as my BEST series ever, followed by Game of Thrones, and anytime you or anyone wants to discuss any of them, let me know. There is no one here who has ever discussed GOT, and I can't believe no one else hadn't watched it.

With that clip, it has peaked my interest and I will be looking forward to the prequel.

My wife and most of my friends absolutely swear by GOT. I started watching it and somehow fizzled out. I know it's a good show and I have no doubt about that, but I just don't think it's my type of genre. What I'm not going to do is force myself to watch something I'm not into just because other people like it. Life is too short for that. Having said that I suspect I'd like it if I gave it more of a chance. But as I said before it's not really my genre.

Breaking Bad I liked a lot. Definitely a top five series for me, but I didn't like it as much as Sopranos. The Sopranos just really spoke to me for some reason. And no I cannot imagine watching it without violence and harsh language. That would be like going to a great steakhouse like Peter Lugers and just ordering nothing but a salad.

[LennG]

I belong to a sort of discussion group that used to meet in a local library every week. Now we talk via zoom until libraries start opening again. Anyway, we started this group many years ago watching The Walking Dead (which we have discussed here many times also). We then went to GOT and now onto other shows like the scifi The Expanse, Star Trek Discovery among others.
So some of the people recommend certain series that we may watch. Myself, I watch a few of the episodes and if it doesn't sort of 'grab you' I leave it be. A show that many loved, 'Westworld', I tried but for the life of me, I just couldn't understand a lot of it. I made it thru season one but when I tried season 2, that was it. Just not me.
Like with some movies and I'll use the Matrix for example. I watched it on my own and just couldn't understand it and turned it off mid-way. Both my sons raved about it, so I gave it another shot. Maybe I was in a more receptive mood, but this second time I really paid attention and LOVED it, really loved it. So it may take another viewing to try a great series out.
I, like you, love movies about the mafia, organized crime, etc. That genre peaks my attention. But, like GOT, I LOVE these action movies set a long time ago. I never got into the superhero genre, but Vikings, King Arthur type movies, Robin Hood type, and movies like Braveheart and Gladiator (Roman epics) also are in my wheelhouse. I guess it's the man cave effect. 

[DaveBrown74]

Just to circle back with my thoughts on this movie (please stop reading here if you don't want anything spoiled):

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I thought it was just ok. In fact, relative to my hopes and expectations, I thought it was rather disappointing. I felt the acting was strong overall, excellent in some cases, and things like the set design, cinematography, costume design, etc were all really good. All of the above carried the movie to some degree.

What I didn't like was the disjointed pacing that was all over the place and the lack of any real central plot. It was kind of just a meandering mess jumping from scene to scene without ever really drawing you in. I found that aspect of it really disappointing. I also thought the writing and quality of the dialogue was just fair at best and could have been so much better. This was a movie I wanted to like so badly but just couldn't.

It's a bummer, but anyone going into watching this hoping to be entertained to anywhere remotely near the degree that we were by "The Sopranos" is in for a major disappointment. I would go in expecting to watch an average at best mafia movie set in the late 60s/early 70s and leave it at that.

There are some good aspects to this film, like the things I already mentioned. The music is also good and thoughtfully curated. And some of these younger actors that play the young version of Paulie, Sil, and Big Pussy do a really commendable job. It's not a total bust of a movie. But it really needed to be edited and written better, and the plot needed to be tighter and more interesting. Unfortunately it fails on these fronts. My overall grade is a C-. I wish I could say it was better than that, but I can't.

[LennG]

I want to try and watch this. Do you have to be 'up' on the Sopranos to really 'get' this movie?

It has been quite a while since I watched the Soprano's so ty has been fuzzed up a bit.

Funny, I mentioned that our cable provider, Optimum, gave us a free weekend of HBO a couple of weeks ago. I guess, in anticipation of this new movie. They were showing the Sopranos from season 1 thru its conclusion. I wish I had the time to rewatch it all but I did watch a couple of episodes and really realize how great this show was. I happen to watch the episode when Paulie and Christopher went out into the snow-covered woods to dispose of a body that wasn't all dead yet. They got lost and had to hold up in some beaten old truck and Bobby and Tony had to rescue them. If you just tuned it in and saw that show, you would scratch your head thinking what is all the fuss about, but knowing the characters, Paulie, Christopher, Bobby, etc. made it truly a great watch and so typical of the entire series.
I do really need to rewatch the entire thing.

[DaveBrown74]

I want to try and watch this. Do you have to be 'up' on the Sopranos to really 'get' this movie?

It has been quite a while since I watched the Soprano's so ty has been fuzzed up a bit.

Funny, I mentioned that our cable provider, Optimum, gave us a free weekend of HBO a couple of weeks ago. I guess, in anticipation of this new movie. They were showing the Sopranos from season 1 thru its conclusion. I wish I had the time to rewatch it all but I did watch a couple of episodes and really realize how great this show was. I happen to watch the episode when Paulie and Christopher went out into the snow-covered woods to dispose of a body that wasn't all dead yet. They got lost and had to hold up in some beaten old truck and Bobby and Tony had to rescue them. If you just tuned it in and saw that show, you would scratch your head thinking what is all the fuss about, but knowing the characters, Paulie, Christopher, Bobby, etc. made it truly a great watch and so typical of the entire series.
I do really need to rewatch the entire thing.

Lenn,

I would say you don't need to remember the Sopranos in great detail to watch this movie, although you should know who the main characters are. If you don't, you can still watch it and follow along, but you'll get more out of it if you recall the main characters.

Putting Saints of Newark aside, I strongly recommend re-watching the Sopranos if you haven't watched it since around the time it came out. I have recommended this to a number of people, and they have all been very happy that they did. It is by far my favorite show of all time, and there are so many details in it that are incredible that you will notice more on a second viewing. In my opinion, it is as entertaining as anything ever put on television, and that remains the case today despite all the stuff that has come out since. It would be well worth the investment of the time to watch it again. I am confident you will find the second viewing highly enjoyable. You might find yourself binging even.

[LennG]

Lenn,

I would say you don't need to remember the Sopranos in great detail to watch this movie, although you should know who the main characters are. If you don't, you can still watch it and follow along, but you'll get more out of it if you recall the main characters.

Putting Saints of Newark aside, I strongly recommend re-watching the Sopranos if you haven't watched it since around the time it came out. I have recommended this to a number of people, and they have all been very happy that they did. It is by far my favorite show of all time, and there are so many details in it that are incredible that you will notice more on a second viewing. In my opinion, it is as entertaining as anything ever put on television, and that remains the case today despite all the stuff that has come out since. It would be well worth the investment of the time to watch it again. I am confident you will find the second viewing highly enjoyable. You might find yourself binging even.

Since I do not have HBO on my cable, I would need to get it out of our library or maybe watch it thru the library on their outside link. My only problem is I do watch stuff on my own, but I also try to watch several things with my darling wife, and if she watched one episode of the Sopranos she would first kick me and then run out screaming. Her idea of a good TV is the Hallmark Channel.   

I already have so much I would like to watch, just never seem to have the time to do it all the Sopranos eventually, same as I would love to rewatch Breaking Bad, which, to me, was the best show ever on TV. (I've said it a few times, my top 3 would be BB, GOT and then The Sopranos)

[LennG]

This afternoon I got to watch this movie.

I can't say I really liked it, but I did like it better than Dave did. I agree with him on some of the points he made, the movie was choppy and if you were a fan of the Sopranos on TV, I can see where the script of this was nowhere near even a bad episode of the TV series. But that said, I found the younger characters of the series, like the younger characters in The Godfather, to be nicely played. There is a lot of violence, as was the series, mucho cursing et al. If you were a fan of the TV series, this is a must-watch and you have to determine how much you liked, or did not like, this movie.

I LOVED the music of the movie

Couple of questions for you Dave. As I said, it has been quite a while since I watched the TV series and really only saw it in its entirety once. So

If I am correct, Tony never had a father in the TV series--what happened to him as the movie didn't say very much about him?
The Black fellow, Harold, was he in the TV series at all?
Personally, I didn't like the ending of this unless this plays into the TV series later on, that Harold got away with the murder and showed him living the 'high' life at the very end. Again, was he part of the TV series?
And the uncle who was in jail, I don't remember his name, was he in the TV series also? Personally, I think his entire character was wasted here as really, he added limited value to the entire movie.

Overall, since I do love these gangster genre movies, I would give it a B or B- or 3 stars out of 5.

AND, I would add, you could watch this as a stand-alone movie, but like Better Call Saul in relation to Breaking bad, it does add so much more that you know the characters beforehand.

PS--I LOVED when Sil's haorpiece came off and he had to readjust it. Something that never happened in the TV series (I think)

[DaveBrown74]

This afternoon I got to watch this movie.

I can't say I really liked it, but I did like it better than Dave did. I agree with him on some of the points he made, the movie was choppy and if you were a fan of the Sopranos on TV, I can see where the script of this was nowhere near even a bad episode of the TV series. But that said, I found the younger characters of the series, like the younger characters in The Godfather, to be nicely played. There is a lot of violence, as was the series, mucho cursing et al. If you were a fan of the TV series, this is a must-watch and you have to determine how much you liked, or did not like, this movie.

I LOVED the music of the movie

Couple of questions for you Dave. As I said, it has been quite a while since I watched the TV series and really only saw it in its entirety once. So

If I am correct, Tony never had a father in the TV series--what happened to him as the movie didn't say very much about him?
The Black fellow, Harold, was he in the TV series at all?
Personally, I didn't like the ending of this unless this plays into the TV series later on, that Harold got away with the murder and showed him living the 'high' life at the very end. Again, was he part of the TV series?
And the uncle who was in jail, I don't remember his name, was he in the TV series also? Personally, I think his entire character was wasted here as really, he added limited value to the entire movie.

Overall, since I do love these gangster genre movies, I would give it a B or B- or 3 stars out of 5.

AND, I would add, you could watch this as a stand-alone movie, but like Better Call Saul in relation to Breaking bad, it does add so much more that you know the characters beforehand.

PS--I LOVED when Sil's haorpiece came off and he had to readjust it. Something that never happened in the TV series (I think)

Lenn,

Tony's father is not an active character in the series, as he is dead by then, although there are a number of episodes that show flashbacks, where he is of course played by a different actor.

Tony's father died in the mid 80s from lung cancer or emphysema. At that point, Tony takes over as head of his father's "crew", which included Silvio, Paulie, and Big Pussy.

The black character was never mentioned in the series, nor did the uncle in jail. I fully agree that the uncle in jail was a wasted opportunity as a character. I felt the same way about Tony's father (he had infinitely more personality in the show) and to some extent Junior.

I agree that the younger actors did a strong job.

In the series, Dickie Moltisanti was said to have been a drug addict, which never came up in the movie.

There are definitely some good points to the movie, and I have no regrets for watching it. I just can't say I thought it was particularly good overall.