First look at ‘Sopranos’ prequel…

[Cheech]

Im rewatching now. I dont like the vito genovese reference. again made no sense. Budha take a call from Joe Dimaggio from Boiardos mansion? no sense.

[CabriniGreen]

I actually thought the Sopranos last season was pretty "Woke".

Tony's stay in the hospital was a huge commentary on the Health Care industry. The whole Vito thing, you could almost point to that mainstream storyline as a turning point in pop culture for LGBT. So that's covered. White guys beat up black guy. Racial component, check. They clearly have an opinion on Hip Hop, because they did another fake rapper storyline. The argument at dinner on whether Jennifer Hudson shoulda won American Idol.

I could probably keep going, but.......

[CabriniGreen]

Oh, I forgot... the commentary on Hollywood excess with the gift bag gag.... I'm sure there were others I'm forgetting...

[CabriniGreen]

Like beyond any racial stuff, I thought there was a plethora of political issues they kinda shoehorned into the show.....

[Cheech]

The racial didnt bother me as much as the movie just didnt make sense.

[InCamelot]

Whole thing was Chris' deluded bullshit beyond the grave man
Gotta be. lol

[Wiseguy]

Chris must have been broadcasting from that Irish bar where it's St. Patrick's Day forever and ever.

[West Coast1]

I don't know if this was already brought up, I felt like they made tony'd mom look like Carmella.
I need to watch again

[Extortion]

Im rewatching now. I dont like the vito genovese reference. again made no sense. Budha take a call from Joe Dimaggio from Boiardos mansion? no sense.

Joe Dimaggio was friends with Richie the boot Boiardo

[Cheech]

Im rewatching now. I dont like the vito genovese reference. again made no sense. Budha take a call from Joe Dimaggio from Boiardos mansion? no sense.

Joe Dimaggio was friends with Richie the boot Boiardo

Ya I know that. And frank lucas was really alive. I dont see what the point was in a sopranos prequel

[Costigan]

I don't know if this was already brought up, I felt like they made tony'd mom look like Carmella.
I need to watch again

I thought the same thing, Livia actually looked like Carmella.
Overall, it was a bunch of scene's slapped together with little or no development. It's hard to believe Chase even had a hand in the making of this movie. Better luck next time.

[Cheech]

I don't know if this was already brought up, I felt like they made tony'd mom look like Carmella.
I need to watch again

I thought the same thing, Livia actually looked like Carmella.
Overall, it was a bunch of scene's slapped together with little or no development. It's hard to believe Chase even had a hand in the making of this movie. Better luck next time.

pretty much

[Nick Prango]

The racial didnt bother me as much as the movie just didnt make sense.

Yeah, I was just confused the whole time while watching it. What was the main conflict? What's the purpose of these scenes? Why feature the race riots at all? What is Harold doing here? Why isn't Johnny Boy doing more? Etc., etc. I spent the first half of the movie thinking it was still setting up the first, only to pause it and be hit with the terrible realization that the movie has no focus. It's a bunch of jumbled ideas that didn't coalesce into a singular vision. They should have made this into a 8 episode mini-series! There are way too many characters, events, and storylines to properly cover in a 2-hour movie. Everything felt like a jumbled-up mess that was rushed out. I get that DC originally wanted the Sopranos to be a movie, but this story just works better in TV form.

[PolackTony]

Finally bit the bullet and watched it. It’s not great. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’s awful, exactly, but it was a pretty poorly executed and underwhelming film. There were some high points in the form of some decent acting (Gandolfini, Alessandro Nivola, the actresses that played Livia and Giuseppina, Leon Odom), but this was at least outweighed by the numerous questionable decisions and odd portrayals. Paulie and Silvio were painful to watch. The last scene with Silvio and Dickie was cornball and awkward to the point of being nauseating (“beyond this thing of ours”). I agree with other comments that they tried to do way too much with too little time (while wasting what little they had to work with on seemingly pointless scenes and cheap nods to the series like Johnny shooting through Livia’s hairdo). I thought it was actually quite a bit less “woke” than some comments had led me to expect, but I agree that it was difficult to really understand what Chase et al were trying to accomplish with the riot stuff and the Harold subplot (or is it the main plot?). It would be one thing if the war with Harold tied into Dickie’s death, then there would be a narrative arc there, at least.

Don’t even get me started on Junior. Painful to watch and, to me, a bizarre choice. We know that Junior was vindictive and Machiavellian and could harbor bitter grudges even against family. But no way do I buy him as a bumbling cuck in his prime, who would’ve let a pissant kid like Paulie talk to him like that in front of other made guys. I understand that this was part of building towards Junior having Dickie clipped, but c’mon. For me, the pathos of Junior’s character in the series (apart from being how utterly alone he really was), was seeing him reduced to what he became from old age, bitterness, and dementia. It just doesn’t work if he was a doofus in his prime.

Since when were Silvio and Big Pussy that much older than Tony? These guys got their start running around together. But then Sil is already well into the life and greets Tony as “kid” here. How is Sil freaking bald as a teenager (or even early twenty-something, if they’re really stretching it)?? No way was Sil’s hair fake, I mean c’mon. Super cheap move and odd choice, again. Also, not for nothing, but why would Tony be skeeved about taking the JBLs when he apparently had no problem jumping an ice cream vendor and hijacking the truck?? Incoherent.

Chris voiceover: completely unnecessary. Chattering dead in the opening scene: cornball. Frank Lucas: for the love of God, why?? Junior’s “comedian” comment to Joey Diaz’s character: cheap.

As someone else already stated, this just didn’t feel at all like something from the Sopranos universe. Much of it was muddled and glib and superficial. My favorite scene was the one with the guidance counselor (they should’ve had Coach Horseface back on), as this was one of the only ones that felt “in universe”. Most strikingly, the movie was terribly unfunny. This was almost criminally offense to me, given how unbelievably funny the series was. Amid all of the eye-rolls and groans, I don’t think I even so much as smiled.

Lastly, the biggest question of all: how did Johnny Boy get away with the mustache??

[InCamelot]

Finally bit the bullet and watched it. It’s not great. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’s awful, exactly, but it was a pretty poorly executed and underwhelming film. There were some high points in the form of some decent acting (Gandolfini, Alessandro Nivola, the actresses that played Livia and Giuseppina, Leon Odom), but this was at least outweighed by the numerous questionable decisions and odd portrayals. Paulie and Silvio were painful to watch. The last scene with Silvio and Dickie was cornball and awkward to the point of being nauseating (“beyond this thing of ours”). I agree with other comments that they tried to do way too much with too little time (while wasting what little they had to work with on seemingly pointless scenes and cheap nods to the series like Johnny shooting through Livia’s hairdo). I thought it was actually quite a bit less “woke” than some comments had led me to expect, but I agree that it was difficult to really understand what Chase et al were trying to accomplish with the riot stuff and the Harold subplot (or is it the main plot?). It would be one thing if the war with Harold tied into Dickie’s death, then there would be a narrative arc there, at least.

Don’t even get me started on Junior. Painful to watch and, to me, a bizarre choice. We know that Junior was vindictive and Machiavellian and could harbor bitter grudges even against family. But no way do I buy him as a bumbling cuck in his prime, who would’ve let a pissant kid like Paulie talk to him like that in front of other made guys. I understand that this was part of building towards Junior having Dickie clipped, but c’mon. For me, the pathos of Junior’s character in the series (apart from being how utterly alone he really was), was seeing him reduced to what he became from old age, bitterness, and dementia. It just doesn’t work if he was a doofus in his prime.

Since when were Silvio and Big Pussy that much older than Tony? These guys got their start running around together. But then Sil is already well into the life and greets Tony as “kid” here. How is Sil freaking bald as a teenager (or even early twenty-something, if they’re really stretching it)?? No way was Sil’s hair fake, I mean c’mon. Super cheap move and odd choice, again. Also, not for nothing, but why would Tony be skeeved about taking the JBLs when he apparently had no problem jumping an ice cream vendor and hijacking the truck?? Incoherent.

Chris voiceover: completely unnecessary. Chattering dead in the opening scene: cornball. Frank Lucas: for the love of God, why?? Junior’s “comedian” comment to Joey Diaz’s character: cheap.

As someone else already stated, this just didn’t feel at all like something from the Sopranos universe. Much of it was muddled and glib and superficial. My favorite scene was the one with the guidance counselor (they should’ve had Coach Horseface back on), as this was one of the only ones that felt “in universe”. Most strikingly, the movie was terribly unfunny. This was almost criminally offense to me, given how unbelievably funny the series was. Amid all of the eye-rolls and groans, I don’t think I even so much as smiled.

Lastly, the biggest question of all: how did Johnny Boy get away with the mustache??

Except the Chris VO, agree 100%.
Strange movie, so far not in a good way. Gotta see it again