Rating: 
Summary: De Niro and Woods best movie
Review: Once upon a time in America is one of the greatest masterpieces of Hollywood.Robert De Niro and James Woods are Noodles and Max,two Jewish gangsters who betrayed each other in the
end.The Music score by Enrico Morricone is beautiful and touching.The late Sergio Leone did a great job.The supporting cast including Joe Pesci,James Hayden and William Forsythe is well chosen.I don't know why this movie did not nominated for
academy awards with such a wonderful soundtrack and a great screenplay.
Rating:
Summary: De Niro and Woods at their best!!
Review: This is a must see movie for all fans of James Woods and Robert DeNiro. It is long but you should enjoy every minute.
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars does not do this film justice
Review: This has to be the best movie I have ever seen. I was going to watch it in two sittings but in the end I watched the whole movie in one sitting. The story is just so powerful that once you've started it you just have to see it through to the end. A really magnificent piece of cinema history.
Rating:
Summary: Once Upon a Time - Finally
Review: For years I have heard that Sergio Leone's original version of this film was great but was butchered in its US release. This DVD is Leone's version that thrilled the audience at Cannes. Its understandable why. At nearly 4 hours long, it was inevitable that the film would be cut by the distributor, but with a snack break or two, this DVD is a remarkable find. DeNiro gives and exceptionally understated performance. He's a sociopath at times, and the film's hero at other times. he makes it work. This is arguably James Woods' best performance. He loved the experience of working on the film and his passion for Leone is shown by his spirited participation on one of the DVD's extra features. Its one of the better "behind the Scenes" looks I have seen on any DVD. The film is complex, jumping between 3 periods of time. Also, it is never absolutely clear whether you are seeing the real events or Deniro's opium-induced hallucination. A must own DVD. You won't likely ever see this version in a theater.
Rating: 
Summary: An Epic Film
Review: Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA is an Epic Flim. One
which is really two films in one. The first film tells the story of a gang of New York street kids (Jewish), in turn of the century New York. The era is recreated in near perfection by Leone and his crew. Also captured wonderfully is the character of this time. Cop or crook, everyone is displayed in very bright light, and most people apprear as small as they are in real life. A wonderful scene in this part of the movie, is of one of the young gang (maybe 13) waiting outside of an apartment to get a crack at a prostitute in training (a young woman). His offering to her a creamed topped cupcake which he has purchased with is ill gotten gains. This sensual scene captures the beauty of youth, even in very sordid sorroundings. The second film takes place a decade after the first and is turned when one the youths is sent away to prison for murder and then released as a full grown man. The second film is much more complicated and ambitous than the first and it fails in some ways to achive it's loftier goals. ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA is a true story in that it's tail of crime, politics, corrpution and friendship rings very true. None of this is sentimetalized or made Hollywood pretty by the film maker and therefore will leave a conditioned Hollywood film viewer probably feeling empty and uneasy. The films use of flashback story telling is less successful, mostly because the film begins at the height of the 60's and it is distracting in it's misplaced impact. The musical score is almost without equal. Sergio Leone is known for the beautiful haunting music in his movies and he doesn't fail here. This wonderul movie itself, only fails slightly.
Rating:
Summary: We are lucky...
Review: ... that Hollywood is not the only movie making in the world. I think they don't have realized yet that McCarthy is not any longer very trendy, and that they're not invested by God the right of deciding by themselves what people should see.
The only flaw (for me) is the casting of E. McGovern, who, although otherwise a fine actress, is an absolute mismatch for Jennifer Connelly as the young Deborah.
For those who complain about some DVD transfer quality problems, I could not even get the 2nd DVD working after 'Intermission', but I could get them both working without any trouble on another DVD drive set on region 4: another fine example of the nonsense in regional coding (Hollywood Code, Regional Codes, and I don't think they'll stop there if they're left in charge of the ruling), since both of the discs are not supposed to be played by anything else than a zone 1 DVD.
I think as well that the splitting (unavoidable with almost 4 hours) should have been done by someone who liked this movie and could have therefore thought of doing the cutting either at the beginning or at the end of the scene which they cut (and not because they could not pack one more second of footage): that's unforgivable, and it's only a proof of the lack of consideration for this movie or its viewers.
Rating: 
Summary: Way too drawn out.
Review: Good actors and a okay plot - gangland America type stuff. However, it is so long and drawn out that toward the end the only thing that kept me going was I felt like I had to finish just to say I watched the whole thing after invesing three hours already. DeNiro is my faviorit actor, but this role just doesn't give him the material he deserves. This is a rainy-day, stuck in a cabin film at best.
Rating: 
Summary: Did I miss something?
Review: I'm laid up with a broken leg watching the great American gangster films. I had only recently heard of 'Once Upon a Time in America' and could not understand how I had missed out on a DeNiro/Pesci film. I was thrilled; this could possibly be a lost masterpiece, an undiscovered 'Raging Bull.' What I discovered however, was that 'Once Upon a Time in America' is positively the worst ganster movie ever made with quality actors. Overdone, over-acted, with a lame plot, horrible, unrealistic crap. It does not hold a candle to the beauty or purity of the Godfather 1-2. It doesn't come close to Goodfella's or Casino either. Godfather III had its problems but it wasn't a sentimental piece of crap like this disaster. Why does DeNiro rape the girl? Then she agrees to see him, even help him? What was that all about? Woods' character was inconsitent, not believable, and completely overdone. I had to force myself to keep watching this film, little by little. It took me days to get through it; it was so dumb, so overly dramatic, I could scarcely tolerate more than a few minutes of it at a time. I relish a well done film that exposes the socio-political history of an era and tells a classic, archetypal story. Good luck with 'Once Upon a Time in America', I would not recommend this film to my worst enemy, no wonder I never heard of it.
Rating:
Summary: Dont beleive the hype
Review: Ok this movie takes you on a journey. Movies ofcourse do, but this is just not worth it. Its a fair story but it just doesnt have enough to justify its length. I would not recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Patently Overrated
Review: It is high time that American critics and fans alike start to debunk their unquestioned, sloppy veneration of films like Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in America'. The checkered history of this opulent film (and the grand, fanciful myth associated with it's production and many versions) belies its mediocrity on a narrative level. The film lurches backward and forward in fits and starts, its central figures adrift and seemingly out of place surrounded by the ersatz decadence of towering sets, the minutia of production detail and the, by 1984, cliche'd but gorgeous cinematographic confection on offer to the audience. The plot's time frame is confusing, gimmicky and laboured, leading some critics to imagine the Noodles figure's opium binging to be the antecedent of some future 'dream reality' as well as the sepia-toned remembrances. This ham handed, overly fanboy-apologetic interpretation glosses over the glaring narrative irregularities on display. Even at this full (?) running time, figures appear and disappear with alarming suddenness: the Deborah character is fleetingly established in child form, a cold and unattainable 'trophy' female, not even hinting at the gravity with which she will re-establish her relationship with a post-prison Noodles, the said re-union henceforth rings completely false. The deadening pace is somewhat to blame, certain sequences drag along stagnantly for far too long, signifying very little, hinting at a director with so little restraint and narrative economy that he often feels obligated to usurp every iota of screen time possible in order to show off his production, fatal for a film that contains figures so sullen and aloof. The trajectory of the figures' lives is presented to us as a microcosm mirroring the historical trajectory of America's teens through prohibition and its spoils, ending with the (arguable) ruin of its moribund central figures (save Deborah- a make up department fumble or intentional one wonders). This notion is commonplace, even banal. The cast of characters as imagined in the one note script (written by seven Italians no less) are flatly and awkwardly played by all but the younger actors, who at least venture a few variant facial expressions. This is understandable given the almost unworkable material. Some critics state that the characters may seem so impenetrably self-absorbed, but actively seek their own goals, assuming the complaince of others (e.g. when Noodles gets out of prison, Max picks him up and offers him a hooker without asking him whether or not this is what he desires and later makes deals assuming Noodles will comply). This explanation of their abrupt, abrasive dispositions is unsatisfactorily extraneous and merely serves to highlight the complicated ends the films unwavering supporters will go to to defend their positions regarding a film unfortunately short on sense. Although Ennio Morricone's score is much revered, it is undeniably schmaltzy and repetitive, it gushes with an emotional redolence that the scenes themselves, many violent, just do not warrant. At points it is questionable whether or not Morricone was watching the same film I was so incogruous is his work. As a paean to American Filmmaking, it succeeds in terms of mood (helped by a few strokes of masterful editing segueing between time periods) and visuals (not helped by said score) but lacks narrative cohesion and fluidity.
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