Raging Bull has been on my watch list for about a decade, when I went I tried to watch all the Robert De Niro movies at Blockbuster. This movie has been praised for almost 40 years and after finally watching it this past weekend, I got to wonder why. I thought this story about a washed up boxer, who psychological mess, ended up being kinda crappy. My hope is that the aspect of the film people praise is De Niro’s performance and not the screen writing. Although the boxing sequences were some of my least favorite parts, to watch him unravel at home and cause total destruction was really a sight to see. When he punched his wife in the face, that had to be the best and worse part of the entire film. It was executed to perfection and was so believable that you have to wonder how real the acting was. I liked that Joe Pesci teamed up with his best pal De Niro, but unlike several of his other supporting roles, his character didn’t have as much of an impact as I had hoped. Maybe I’m being too harsh on a classic film, or maybe my expectations were too much, either way now I can cross Raging Bull off my list and can now say I don’t have plans on revisiting it again. 5/10
Ten Stars or Less 