Good movie but grossly overrated

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Even NEW YORK, NEW YORK is Scorsese's notorious box-office snafu, it is still branded with his undeniable virtuosity of camera compositions and sleek cinematography which can feasibly best most of the films made by his peers in retrospective, the version I watch is a 163-minute re-issue in 1981, it is a veritable ode to the golden era of jazz standards.Along with a chronic but episodic story-telling, our two leads are Francine Evans (Minnelli) and Jimmy Doyle (De Niro), she is a promising lounge singer while he is a saxophone player and they first meet in a party on V-J Day where Jimmy's brazen flirting meets with Francine's feckless cold-shoulder, it is ever a stereotyped gambit to anticipate their romance blossoming although the ill-feeling exuded from a rakish scoundrel ever since Jimmy's very first appearance overtly portends that they' re a misfit match. A more problematic hiccup is Scorsese's unmethodical narrative strategy (with most dialogue impromptu), which meshes with random sappy moments, fails to elucidate what really goes wrong in their rocky relationship, superficially it is just an tiresome story of a poor girl falls for a giant pain-in-the-neck, and Scorsese and his screenwriters merely stick to this surface, as if all they want from viewers is to generate enormous sympathy for Francine and give Jimmy a free pass since he is so charmingly irresistible despite of his horrendous personality. If it has failed to do that in 1977, roughly forty years later, it is still a failure in this regard. Be that as it may, if the love story bores me to death and even comes off as a shade intolerable, the musical numbers have the exactly opposite effects, in addition to a haute couture parade for Ms. Minnelli, her renditions of BUT THE WORLD GOES 'ROUND and the sensational THEME FROM NEW YORK, NEW YORK are timeless earworms and Diahnne Abbott's performance of HONEYSUCKLE ROSE in the Harlem club is irresistibly soothing and enchanting, not to mention a young Mary Kay Place is also a brassy songbird. Albeit the inadequate character setting, Minnelli is the one who offers a positive momentum for the film to roll in the right direction, to be a star under the spotlight one has to make other sacrifices, in some way, it is her version of A STAR IS BORN (1954, 8/10), a homage to her mother's road to fame. Francine may be a dumb chick who inclines to make wrong choices in selecting her man, and too blind to see it, but thankfully, her rationality finally catches up with her in the ending scenes.But the same cannot be referred to Mr. De Niro, whose Jimmy is like a ticking time-bomb ready to go off anytime anywhere, it is not a cinch to establish such an off-putting egomaniac persona, which frankly speaking is quite praiseworthy for his acting chop, but on the other hand, ultimately viewers are prone to a certain perturbation generated by an assumption that all the acting may implicitly betray the thespian's real life temperament. There is also sheer contrast between his perfectly camera-friendly poise and the soused foreheads of his big band members during his show-stopping fanfare, as we have to swallow the fact that De Niro is just faking it whereas Minnelli has the bona-fide artistry.It is plain painful to see Ms. Minnelli's following silver screen career peters out rapidly after the failure of this project, no second chance or whatsoever meanwhile things go more kindly for men and it doesn't stop Scorcese and De Niro from ascending to their apex and maintaining their credibility up to this day.

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.

Even though their respective careers in the film climb upward,why was I reminded of James Mason and Liza's mother, the great Judy Garland in "A Star is Born?"Both ladies played vulnerable characters. Robert De Niro stole the acting as a conflicted sax player who really didn't know what he wanted. He is compulsive by nature and orders the Minnelli character around.This is basically a story of two people who loved one another dearly but could not live with one another. De Niro and Minnelli showed what true acting is like in that famous car scene near the end of the film.Liza does definitely come across as the subordinate character. It is really after her split with De Niro that she comes into her own.

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.