Fight at the grocery store ... to me, no big deal.

One explanation that might work is just pretending Frank Sheeran had a few injuries from war and never emerged the same. Would help my head canon explain why he was in his 40s/50s but moved like he was in his 70s many times. Plus, to be fair, many in their 40s/50s do start developing some aches and pains that inhibit movement. They no longer move like the spry 20-something they used to be.

If anyone who has read the book which this movie is based on can chime in, was there any mention of Frank getting injured in the war?

It doesn't look staged - it just looks like an actor too old to play the part is pretending to be playing a younger man and miserably failing.

That's the thing about the Irishman - most of the peeps playing in it are way past their time to be playing tough guys.

I'm sorry but the scene looked ridiculous, simply because it showed the realism of DeNiro's age. That was a geriatric man getting into a nursing home fight. I thought DeNiro was going to fall over and hurt himself.

For context, go back and watch Goodfellas where they beat the hell out of Billy Batts. Now that is what a late 30's gangster should look like kicking the crap out of someone. The Irishman was just sad.

To me this is the one bad scene in the whole movie, it is the one scene where you clearly say "well, deaging tech can't make deniro move like a 50+ year old"

But, Martin S had options, he could have shot it differently and had a stuntman do it from behind or many other different ideas could have been applied to make it look less, well, bad.

But you can completely see how he decided for artistic integrity to keep the show the way he would normally shoot it. The thing about Scorsese is that his violence, whether it's a lot or dialed in, is always in your face and one take, he doesn't do multiple takes to make it seem more intense (typical bad action movie technique)

Then again, Scorsese isn't an action movie director, you can't expect his beatdowns to look like John Wick. There's a charm to his violence, it always seems real and gritty but also sort of artistic.

I am pretty sure he was aware that the grocery store fight was not what he wanted but that was the only way it was going to come out if he wanted to have DeNiro shot up front doing the actual kicking himself.

This is why I don't take many points from the movie for that one scene, it is bad for sure but you can understand why.

This movie was great, I saw it yesterday in one sitting and I couldn't take my eyes away. My favorite aspect of this movie was how they go with the theory that the mob killed kennedy, with the whole cuba angle (casinos and all that) I never expected them to mention JFK or Castro so much in this movie so it was a welcome surprise that makes the whole thing seem even bigger. That scene where Rus tells Frank that they killed a president, they won't mind killing a union president" was powerful as hell.

Great movie, one of my favs from Martin Scorsese because the violence was a bit dialed down, DeNiro wasn't his usual badass, stoic gangster, if anything sometimes he felt like a punching bag between Hoffa and Rus and watching him trying to deal with the stress was fantastic.

And Paccino as Hoffa was expectedly fantastic

It wasn't a very good fight scene and didn't look like he was really connecting. Some of that is De Niro, some is on the other guy not selling it. It didn't look good. It's supposed to traumatise the kid and I was expecting something more savage.

Your point is well taken, though, and he didn't need to put the guy into a coma. I think, as others have said, he just showed his age a bit and that was a bit distracting in the film. It takes you out of it for a second. But...

...only a second. It didn't really bother me. It's one of the only problems with the film. It's so minor. It's a nitpick at worst.

Man, what are you going on and on about? Staged or fake would have looked better than grandpa movements. That's what people are talking about. He's playing a younger Sheeran, but moves like 76 yr old De'Niro. They should have CGI his face onto a stuntman.