10 Worst Movie CGI Of 2019

1. "Young" Frank Kicks Some Ass - The Irishman

And finally, we have Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, an excellent work of cinema that also boasts the most ambitious and extensive digital de-aging in any movie ever - to the extent of bloating its budget out to $159 million.

But as terrific as the effect mostly is when applied to the film's three leads, there is one scene roughly 20 minutes into the 3.5-hour epic which draws unfortunate attention to the limitations of de-aging tech.

The already-infamous scene sees Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) beat up a shopkeeper who berated his daughter, and though De Niro's face has been sufficiently de-aged, the rest of his body still resembles every bit the 74-year-old man that the actor was at the time of shooting.

Even though De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci all worked with posture coaches to try and alter their body movements to more closely resemble younger men for certain scenes, seeing a supposedly middle-aged Frank gingerly kicking a man like an old codger is just hilariously unconvincing.

While for 98% of the movie there's a harmony between the de-aged faces and the older bodies trying to pretend they're younger, in this scene that deception completely falls apart.

Clearly a big part of the problem is Scorsese's baffling decision to shoot this entire scene with a wide angle, making the artifice clear as day to the audience.

A few close-ups and some snappy edits could've cleverly disguised De Niro's aged posture and movements, but instead, we get it in a single unconvincing take.

But again, it's a weird iffy moment in an otherwise masterful drama, so it's hard to feel too bad about it.