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or is only big with the Sopranos diehards

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This is the big question. When the Sopranos debuted, we weren't that far removed from the big Five Families cases and the Gotti trials being all over mainstream news. Tony's thoughts about "getting in at the end" set a realistic tone for the series that grounded it in a familiar reality. Today, I'd imagine the Sopranos brand is more of a draw than the subject matter itself.

On the other hand, the theme of local losers clinging to the glory days and wanting to be seen as big shots is kind of universal.

Yeah, thought it was good but wished they would've spent more time on Tony's teen years when he took over for Uncle Dickie.

If you would've seen this & never watched an episode of Soprano's, you would wonder wth is going on here.

I thought it was ok, but mostly nostalgia I suppose. I think this could have been much better as a limited series of some kind. Had a very hard time figuring out who was who, but there was a good short on HBOMax that connected all the dots.

EclipseAg said:

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TXAGFAN said:

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Had a very hard time figuring out who was who ...

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Ha! Me too ... glad I'm not the only one.

Also, was the whole Hollywood Dick/his brother both being played by Ray Liotta kinda threw me. Was the brother in jail real? Or was that Dickie pretending he was talking to him to ease his conscious?

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No Dickey's Uncle was in jail

I have never seen a minute of the Sopranos; would I enjoy this movie?

Just saw it last night, I'm mixed. After finishing it I was happy as a clown, now that I've let it sit and mull over I feel that Chase was being to cute with the references. Silvio was a ducking caricature, wish they had done more with Johnny boy, junior and dickie. Gandolfinis son was great. Idk it felt really weird towards the end

I also was wondering why we didn't see a young Jackie Aprile since he and Tony grew up together and were in a crew together. Jackie later become Boss

We did, that was one of the guys tony was with in the ice cream truck. And the guy he beat up at the phone booth

hedge said:

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We did, that was one of the guys tony was with in the ice cream truck. And the guy he beat up at the phone booth

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that's what I thought but wasn't 100% sure

Just finished watching it. Yes, we saw Jackie but I didn't see Richie. Was he in there and I missed him?

Also, with subtitles on I saw a reference to Johnny's feeble minded brother, Eckley (not Corrado). That was kind of cool.

Definitely should've been a miniseries. Italian hooah was hot but I wanted to rip that mole off her chin.

CheeseSndwch said:

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Also, Giuseppina sleeping with Harold, and going so far as to admit it to Dickie just felt like too much of a stretch.

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You knew that was coming in the very first scene they were together in. Dickie told her "Don't stare...they don't like that".

They definitely telegraphed that one.

the whole thing felt rushed. stretch it out to four hours if you have to

Corporal Punishment said:

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Also, with subtitles on I saw a reference to Johnny's feeble minded brother, Eckley (not Corrado). That was kind of cool.

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I caught this too, but in the series, I don't think Tony ever met his other uncle. He didn't even know about him until he was way older because he made a comment about his mom talking about Johnny's feeble-minded brother but Tony thought she was talking about Junior.

He was in high school in the scene with Eckley. Surely he would have remembered the guy by that point.

I also thought there were some timeline issues with the movie. In the series, Christopher mentions him playing with Tony S and Tony B at the farm in the summers, but in this movie, Christopher was way too young to have done that or even remembered it.

I feel like a lot of it was just references to things from the series (poker game at the carnival, Johnny shooting his wife's hair, etc). Didn't feel like there was a whole lot of substance to it.

I think I enjoyed this more than most.

Not saying it was great but there were 10-12 great moments for me anyway - mostly nostalgia and references to things that would come up again of course. It was great to have more Sopranos for me. I was a bit surprised at how much time we spent with 11 year old Tony like half of the movie.

I also thought the performances were amazing - Farminga and Stoll especially as Liv and Junior but also Ray Liotta in dual role and young Gandolfini who felt natural not a caricature of Tony.

The Paulie and Silvio roles felt caricature-esque for sure but damn did they nail those mannerisms. lol

The story itself was not that gripping but the backdrop of all the riots etc. and the period piece parts of it were great.



****SPOILER AHEAD*******
tags don't work with bullet points so you have been warned


The ending however was great and I mean great - what a twist that had massive impacts. And some are saying it was just petty and vengeful but that is 100% in character for the Junior Soprano we know. It ties into so much and yet nobody ever suspected him:

• the S1 fights with Tony and trying to have him killed. Junior had so much disdain for Tony; he was Dickie's protege and that resentment carried over when he was passed over after Johnny's death.
• when Tony made Junior the butt of jokes with a rumor (that was true) about him sexually we now see that Junior had some performance issues directly tied to that fall and Tony making jokes reminded him of Dickie laughing at him.
• explains why Junior never had a close relationship with Christopher distancing from him would be natural having had his father killed.
• also Liv never getting the medication Dickie had, that might have changed her life and Tony's and so many other people.
• and his death directly led to Tony deciding to have the mob life when he was maybe on the way to staying away from it.
• the irony of the line "he never had the makings of a varsity athlete" went all the way back to then and yet it was Junior that never had the makings of a leader.
• ironically it was a crooked cop that killed Dickie just not the one Tony blamed it on and had Christopher kill.

This isn't some shoehorn fit to make a plot twist - it fits naturally and explains so much but nobody ever knew. I think that's incredible writing there. Makes me wonder if Chase always had that idea.

SPOILER







Junior killing dickie added a new level of depth to the show

Swarely said:

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Zombie Jon Snow said:

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ironically it was a crooked cop that killed Dickie just not the one Tony blamed it on and had Christopher kill.

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How do you figure this? Maybe I missed something, but did they ever say it wasn't the same cop?

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We know this because

When Tony told Christopher he said the guy was hired by Jilly Ruffalo a rival of Dickie's (not seen in this movie) for the hit.

Tony just used a convenient guys name that could have been the one who hired the hit.

The ex cop in the show was really really convincing too - that he never heard of Dickie or Jilly. So much so that Christopher believed him but killed him anyway because as he said "it doesn't matter Tony wants you dead".

I don't think there is any question it is a different cop - everyone believed that was blatant manipulation on Tony's part not actually letting Chrissy exact revenge.

I though liotta was great, theres a bunch of nuances that the sopranos subreddit pointed out. Go have a read

I'd like to check that out. Mind posting a link?

hedge said:

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I though liotta was great, theres a bunch of nuances that the sopranos subreddit pointed out. Go have a read

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Ditto. I thought he was great and added authenticity some of the others lacked.

Was he an over the top sociopath? Yes. But when you saw the difference with the brother that showed it was the character not the actor.

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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****SPOILER AHEAD*******
tags don't work with bullet points so you have been warned


The ending however was great and I mean great - what a twist that had massive impacts. And some are saying it was just petty and vengeful but that is 100% in character for the Junior Soprano we know. It ties into so much and yet nobody ever suspected him:

• the S1 fights with Tony and trying to have him killed. Junior had so much disdain for Tony; he was Dickie's protege and that resentment carried over when he was passed over after Johnny's death.
• when Tony made Junior the butt of jokes with a rumor (that was true) about him sexually we now see that Junior had some performance issues directly tied to that fall and Tony making jokes reminded him of Dickie laughing at him.
• explains why Junior never had a close relationship with Christopher distancing from him would be natural having had his father killed.
• also Liv never getting the medication Dickie had, that might have changed her life and Tony's and so many other people.
• and his death directly led to Tony deciding to have the mob life when he was maybe on the way to staying away from it.
• the irony of the line "he never had the makings of a varsity athlete" went all the way back to then and yet it was Junior that never had the makings of a leader.
• ironically it was a crooked cop that killed Dickie just not the one Tony blamed it on and had Christopher kill.

This isn't some shoehorn fit to make a plot twist - it fits naturally and explains so much but nobody ever knew. I think that's incredible writing there. Makes me wonder if Chase always had that idea.

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I agree with a lot of this.
I think Tony was most likely going to end up in control at some point, but maybe it would have taken him longer to fall into it if Dickie had not died when he did. You could see he was drawn to it.

It was fun. Watched it at home on a Sunday night - just like the old days.
Lots of throwbacks and Easter Eggs - some obvious, some not so much. Didnt like Harold and Dickie's goomah storyline. No way Harold goes there, and really no way she confesses.
Would love to see a sequel that closes the gap to watch Tony's rise to boss.

hedge said:

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Silvio was a ducking caricature

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I actually thought the guy nailed Sil.

https://www.reddit.com/r/thesopranos/

Big Al 1992 said:

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It was fun. Watched it at home on a Sunday night - just like the old days.
Lots of throwbacks and Easter Eggs - some obvious, some not so much. Didnt like Harold and Dickie's goomah storyline. No way Harold goes there, and really no way she confesses.
Would love to see a sequel that closes the gap to watch Tony's rise to boss.

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Sounds like it is a possibility.

Chase just signed a development deal with HBO - could easily result in a sequel.

Chase was asked about more Sopranos content and said "maybe"... he is the always an ambiguous person but there is a high possibility imho.

I liked the young Gandolfini as Tony not sure he was ready to carry a movie which he did not have to here. But I could see him aging a few years and being ready. Filming of this movie wrapped over 2 years ago so he already has aged some.

Michael Gandolfini (Tony), Farminga (Liv), Stoll (Junior) and Bernthal (Johnny) could be the centerpiece of the next story maybe up to Johnny's death. Johnny died in 1986 and Tony would be 27 then. Michael Gandolfini is currently 22.

I'm disappointed that dickie moltisanti won't be explored more. Alessandro Nivola did a great job