Sopranos Prequel: James Gandolfini's Son Michael to Play Young Tony in The Many Saints of Newark THIS FRIDAY!

Mastermind2002

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It would've worked better as a series. As a movie it felt rushed and a lot of the characters come off one dimensional because there's not a lot of time to flesh them out. I thought the acting performances were hit and miss. Alessandro Nivola who plays Dickie Moltisanti was great and Ray Liotta was solid but Vera Farmiga didn't quite capture Livia in the way Nancy Marchand did. There's hints of it but I thought it fell short. The guy who plays Silvio Dante was horrible. If I was Steven Van Zandt I would feel offended by that performance. While Michael Gandolfini looks like his father his acting is rather bland. The movie visually looks good as it captures the atmosphere of that time but the story is razor thin. Nothing of any real significance happens until the third act in a movie and even then it comes off anti-climatic because the build was weak. Honestly, we didn't need this movie at all and I hope they don't make anymore.
 
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Lurk Diggler

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It would've worked better as a series. As a movie it felt rushed and a lot of the characters come off one dimensional because there's not a lot of time to flesh them out. I thought the acting performances were hit and miss. Alessandro Nivola who plays Dickie Moltisanti was great and Ray Liotta was solid but Vera Farmiga didn't quite capture Livia in the way Nancy Marchand did. There's hints of it but I thought it fell short. The guy who plays Silvio Dante was horrible. If I was Steven Van Zandt I would feel offended by that performance. While Michael Gandolfini looks like his father his acting is rather bland. The movie visually looks good as it captures the atmosphere of that time but the story is razor thin. Nothing of any real significance happens until the third act in a movie and even then it comes off anti-climatic because the build was weak. Honestly, we didn't need this movie at all and I hope they don't make anymore.
Yeah Sil was bad it was like a SNL performance
 

Helico-pterFunk

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yaBoi

X-pert Professional
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watching now... not really feeling how they are trying to shoehorn a black story line in this

hell i Don't remember any black people in the OG series.. this is a prequel.. why now..
 
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Ceenote

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Platinum Member
watching now... not really feeling how they are trying to shoehorn a black story line in this

hell i Don't remember any black people in the OG series.. this.. is a prequel.. why now..

Agreed!! I watched half way n turned it off...
 

BAG

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BGOL Investor
I love this movie you have to be a hardcore Sopranos fan to enjoy it even though it lacked true substance other than Tony's family was fucked up. but it does give a glimpse of how shiesty Uncle Jun and the grown Tony soprano was.

Having Chris kill a cop that had nothing to do with killing his father and Uncle Jun killing Dicke just because he laughed at him for falling down the stairs.

I also love the way this movie highlighted that the mob did not completely dominate all the black kingpins and control the hood in the 40s 50s 60s and the true gangsters like Bumpy Johnson. Frank Lucas and Im sure other gangsters were willing to take it the Italians if they didn't do straight business when it came to number running and heroin sales. The cacs on Reddit and other websites are mind fucked that David Chase showed that part :lol:

This move is 5 out 5 for me I hope they turn it into a series.
 

joneblaze

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Sopranos Lite

PRAISE : After watching 6 seasons of the great The Sopranos series on HBO this epilogue to the series has its moments.
It was great to watch some of the situations that were merely mentioned in the series play out in this film.
The cast including: Alessandro Nivola, Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Ray Liotta do a good job for the most part. The standouts are Ray Liotta and Vera Farmiga
Michael Gandolfini son of the late great James Gandolfini does pretty well he actually made me feel sympathy for the young Tony Soprano in his portrayal. You have this kid who really has no one to turn to for guidance except for one person that reaches out but is also involved in sinister things but because he's the person in your corner you still look up to him. I thought this played out well in the film.Some nice nods to the series.

PROBLEMS:One story thread was so forced I kept saying is this going somewhere? I laughed at the "bonus" part of it and said so what? There's a hollow feel to some of the film.Some character portrayals felt like odd impersonations of actors from the series.
At times certain scenes felt like extended flashbacks never hitting the right notes the writers and Director were hoping to hit.
I have to agree with others that have said this may have worked better as a 4 to 6 part series.

Scale of 1 to 10 a 7
 

XXXplosive

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BGOL Investor
I watched it and thought it was decent. Definitely not on the level of the Sopranos show at its height.
It felt like a couple of the less interesting episodes of the Sopranos wrapped into one.
I was just happy to see black actors and characters in the movie and see things from the perspective of black people back then.
I think there were more black actors in this movie than in the entire series of the Sopranos combined. Nice to see Frank Lucas' character in there.
I knew they were going to have to work around the fact that James Gandolfini's son is not an experienced actor, but damn dude looks just like his dad.
I can see this being the pilot for a new series going forward.
 

XXXplosive

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BGOL Investor
Agreed!! I watched half way n turned it off...
watching now... not really feeling how they are trying to shoehorn a black story line in this

hell i Don't remember any black people in the OG series.. this is a prequel.. why now..
Y'all do know that black people did exist back then, right? I don't see how seeing them in this movie would make you turn it off.
That sounds like some white boy Reddit shit.
Yes, there were very few black people on the Sopranos but I'm glad they made up for it in this movie by showing that it's not just Italian mobsters running shit.
 

Ceenote

Thinkn with My 3rd Eye!
Platinum Member
Y'all do know that black people did exist back then, right? I don't see how seeing them in this movie would make you turn it off.
That sounds like some white boy Reddit shit.
Yes, there were very few black people on the Sopranos but I'm glad they made up for it in this movie by showing that it's not just Italian mobsters running shit.



:lol: yeah i guess everyone that was poor n black had a stripped car in front of their house..:lol:
 

yaBoi

X-pert Professional
Platinum Member
Y'all do know that black people did exist back then, right? I don't see how seeing them in this movie would make you turn it off.
That sounds like some white boy Reddit shit.
Yes, there were very few black people on the Sopranos but I'm glad they made up for it in this movie by showing that it's not just Italian mobsters running shit.
you miss my whole point
 

spider705

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BGOL Investor
Good not great... when Johnny Boy shot that gun at Olivia while driving I was like HOLY SHIT!!! And that lady that played Liv was good she captured the early stages of the character we saw later on in the show...

Silvio is one of my favorite characters on the sopranos.... that was some BULL SHIT the way they played him....

Wish they would have showed Jackie and Tony robbing feech card game...

Junior so fuckin petty bro... you killed that man FOR THAT????

Young Paulie was good.... but Michael Gandolfini.... bruh.... that dude looks SO MUCH like his old man that shit is crazy... he even frown up and look upset just like him

Now the black story.... that shit didn't fit to me.... felt like it was forced in...."hey look niggas was getting money back then and fuckin them EYE-talians up.... let's show their side of the story...." only to have them be non muthafucka factors in the OG series....

Man fuck them for that in living color Jim Carey portrayal of Silvio.... shit still got me heated
 

Duece

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BGOL Investor
I agree with the Youtuber who said that David Chase's talent is better used on TV

This should have been a limited series.
 
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Soul On Ice

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Initial rating
A 5.5 maybe 6 out of 10.
I gotta go back and maybe rewatch a few scenes.
I'm a HUGE Soprano's fan too.
Silvio rendition ain't really sitting right lol.

I'm going to sleep on it.
 

Soul On Ice

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Drew Magary trashed this film something major lol


'The Many Saints of Newark': Answering every question about the 'Sopranos' prequel on HBO Max
SFGATE columnist Drew Magary spoils the highly anticipated film
Drew Magary
Oct. 5, 2021
1200x0.jpg

Michael Gandolfini as a teenage Tony Soprano and Jon Bernthal as Johnny Soprano in "The Many Saints of Newark."
Michael Gandolfini as a teenage Tony Soprano and Jon Bernthal as Johnny Soprano in "The Many Saints of Newark."

Barry Wetcher
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Four months before it was due to be released for Christmas in 1972, Robert Evans told “Godfather” director Francis Ford Coppola that his new movie was a piece of s—t. Evans was the head of Paramount Pictures at the time and had just seen Coppola’s first cut of what would become the greatest mafia story ever told. He hated it, and he had no compunction telling his young director so.

“The picture stinks,” Evans told Coppola. “You shot a great film. Where the f—k is it — in the kitchen with your spaghetti? It sure ain’t on the screen.”

I thought about that story a lot while I was watching “The Many Saints of Newark: A Sopranos Story” over this past weekend. There’s a movie to be had here, and you can see it in brilliant flashes over the course of two hours. But what you see more of is the strain.
 

geechiedan

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
just saw it...underwhelming... the whole prequal concept was part fanboy driven/cash in on a popular show scheme anyway.

You didn't learn much more about the characters or dynamics then you already knew... and it just reinforced my issue with doing prequals involving characters that died in the main story. it mostly doesn't matter because we know how they end up. The whole thing with dickie and his father was just spinning wheels. :dunno:

And the black gangster narrative was the same for godfather of harlem and I said for that show:

The most frustrating thing about shows like these is that we're not watching Black gangster vs white gangster... we're watching Black gangster vs white supremacy...when gigante was hitting bumpy with that "I'm above you" speech that was what he was referring to. Even though bumpy is as smart and ruthless as any of those guineas...at the of the day he's not just fighting them he's fighting a whole system.

Same deal for Warrior Bruce Lee's show...the Chinese may be organized and kill with the best of them... doesn't matter...it's Whitey's country....

We've seen this before in boardwalk empire and chalky white...

Let any one of them walk one block away from their turf and they're just another nigga or chink
that ANY cac can throw in jail.

That's what's knawing at me watching the show.


so overall.. i give it...meh:dunno::dunno::dunno:
 
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playahaitian

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Sopranos Creator David Chase FINALLY Confirms What Actually Happened to Tony
By Sarah RumpfNov 3rd, 2021, 2:05 pm
33 comments


Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images.
David Chase, creator of HBO’s The Sopranos, is finally breaking his silence about the fate of his antihero Tony Soprano, confirming the meaning of the fade-to-black scene at the end of the series finale in a sprawling interview with the Hollywood Reporter.
Chase spoke with reporter Scott Feinberg about a variety of topics, including how his own mother was the inspiration for Tony’s difficult mother Livia, his experiences growing up on the periphery of “connected” families in New Jersey, and James Gandolfini’s “off the rails” audition for the lead role.
But it’s Chase’s discussion of that infamous final scene in the show that — at last! — puts to rest one of the longest-running debates in this era of prestige television that The Sopranos launched.
The series finale episode “Made in America” first aired on June 10, 2007 (spoilers follow, but come on, the show ended over a decade ago), and ends with Tony meeting his family at a local diner as “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey plays. Tony’s daughter Meadow, the last family member to arrive, enters the diner, causing the bell on the door to ring. Tony looks up and the camera cuts to black, ending the show with several seconds of silence.
The ending shocked some viewers, who worried their cable had suddenly cut out at the worst possible time, and sparked countless articles debating whether the ending really meant “lights out” for Tony or if the Mafia boss lived on.
Chase has avoided settling the debate for years, refusing to answer direct questions — until now.
Drum roll, please: Tony Soprano, in fact does stop believin’, stop breathin’, and just stop livin’, period, at the end of The Sopranos.
Feinberg brought up a 2018 book about the show by two reporters for the New Jersey Star-Ledger, and how they had asked Chase about the series finale. In the interview for the book, Chase had referred the final moments as “that death scene,” and Feinberg got him to confirm that was not a slip of the tongue (Feinberg’s quotes in bold, as in the original):
They interviewed you and asked you to talk about the June 10, 2007, series finale with of course, “Don’t Stop Believin’” and the famous cut to black. You said, “Well, I had that death scene in mind for years before.” A) Do you remember specifically when the ending first came to you? And, B) Was that a slip of the tongue?
Right. Was it?
I’m asking you.
No.
No?
Because the scene I had in my mind was not that scene. Nor did I think of cutting to black. I had a scene in which Tony comes back from a meeting in New York in his car. At the beginning of every show, he came from New York into New Jersey, and the last scene could be him coming from New Jersey back into New York for a meeting at which he was going to be killed.

Chase went on to describe how he had thought of the “notion” of how the show should end about two years beforehand, as he drove past a little restaurant near the airport, “and for some reason I thought, ‘Tony should get it in a place like that.’ Why? I don’t know.”
He added that he was surprised by how viewers fixated on the ending, and nothing else in the episode itself, describing it as “incredible” how it took over the news cycle.
“I had no idea it would be that much of an uproar,” said Chase. “And was it annoying? What was annoying was how many people wanted to see Tony killed. That bothered me.”
“They wanted to see it,” said Feinberg. “They wanted confirmation.”
“They wanted to know that Tony was killed,” Chase agreed. “They wanted to see him go face-down in linguini, you know? And I just thought, ‘God, you watched this guy for seven years and I know he’s a criminal. But don’t tell me you don’t love him in some way, don’t tell me you’re not on his side in some way. And now you want to see him killed? You want justice done? You’re a criminal after watching this shit for seven years.’ That bothered me, yeah.”
Listen to the interview below, or read a transcript at The Hollywood Reporter.
 

OutlawR.O.C.

R.I.P. shanebp1978
BGOL Investor

Sopranos Creator David Chase FINALLY Confirms What Actually Happened to Tony
By Sarah RumpfNov 3rd, 2021, 2:05 pm
33 comments


Photo by Evan Agostini/Getty Images.
David Chase, creator of HBO’s The Sopranos, is finally breaking his silence about the fate of his antihero Tony Soprano, confirming the meaning of the fade-to-black scene at the end of the series finale in a sprawling interview with the Hollywood Reporter.
Chase spoke with reporter Scott Feinberg about a variety of topics, including how his own mother was the inspiration for Tony’s difficult mother Livia, his experiences growing up on the periphery of “connected” families in New Jersey, and James Gandolfini’s “off the rails” audition for the lead role.
But it’s Chase’s discussion of that infamous final scene in the show that — at last! — puts to rest one of the longest-running debates in this era of prestige television that The Sopranos launched.
The series finale episode “Made in America” first aired on June 10, 2007 (spoilers follow, but come on, the show ended over a decade ago), and ends with Tony meeting his family at a local diner as “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey plays. Tony’s daughter Meadow, the last family member to arrive, enters the diner, causing the bell on the door to ring. Tony looks up and the camera cuts to black, ending the show with several seconds of silence.
The ending shocked some viewers, who worried their cable had suddenly cut out at the worst possible time, and sparked countless articles debating whether the ending really meant “lights out” for Tony or if the Mafia boss lived on.
Chase has avoided settling the debate for years, refusing to answer direct questions — until now.
Drum roll, please: Tony Soprano, in fact does stop believin’, stop breathin’, and just stop livin’, period, at the end of The Sopranos.
Feinberg brought up a 2018 book about the show by two reporters for the New Jersey Star-Ledger, and how they had asked Chase about the series finale. In the interview for the book, Chase had referred the final moments as “that death scene,” and Feinberg got him to confirm that was not a slip of the tongue (Feinberg’s quotes in bold, as in the original):


Chase went on to describe how he had thought of the “notion” of how the show should end about two years beforehand, as he drove past a little restaurant near the airport, “and for some reason I thought, ‘Tony should get it in a place like that.’ Why? I don’t know.”
He added that he was surprised by how viewers fixated on the ending, and nothing else in the episode itself, describing it as “incredible” how it took over the news cycle.
“I had no idea it would be that much of an uproar,” said Chase. “And was it annoying? What was annoying was how many people wanted to see Tony killed. That bothered me.”
“They wanted to see it,” said Feinberg. “They wanted confirmation.”
“They wanted to know that Tony was killed,” Chase agreed. “They wanted to see him go face-down in linguini, you know? And I just thought, ‘God, you watched this guy for seven years and I know he’s a criminal. But don’t tell me you don’t love him in some way, don’t tell me you’re not on his side in some way. And now you want to see him killed? You want justice done? You’re a criminal after watching this shit for seven years.’ That bothered me, yeah.”
Listen to the interview below, or read a transcript at The Hollywood Reporter.


He pretty confirmed it years ago but people won't accept it unless he says it and spells it out which is unnecessary at this point.

It's like a dude who knows his girl is fucking another dude but keeps asking her if she's sucking dude off like it would change what he already knows.
 
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