Goodfellas (DVD)

=== Goodfellas === Director: Martin Scorsese Release Date: 1990 Runtime: 145 mins Approx Certificate: 18. === Disk 1: Main Feature === As a boy, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), idolised the local gangsters, and in 1955 left school to work for them. These jobs included delivering messages, or as we see in the film, tourching rivals' cars. After being caught illegally selling goods, he is sent to court, and after keeping his 'mouth shut' and not saying anything about the mob, Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino) and his associate Jimmy Conway (De Niro) help Henry's criminal career. The film moves back to when they are older, and ...  Read the complete review

This review was written by myself, here: http://www.empireonline.com/forum/tm.asp?m=2422814&mpage=4&key= Perhaps Scorsese's most popular film, Goodfellas has become a staple choice for many people's top films lists. Despite the glamorous feel and approach to the film, it has a typically Scorsesean grittiness to it whilst showing the lives of a bunch of characters who you intially dislike yet can not take your eyes off. The main group of characters have a reasonably easy life, 'earning' great fortunes in return for their threats. Though they certainly live the high life for much of the film, they inevitably pay the price, resulting in arrest ...  Read the complete review

Martin Scorsese is frequently regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time, and it's astounding therefore that he didn't win the Best Director Oscar until The Departed in 2007, and whilst that film was the best of the year, it did seem like a consolation prize when you look back at his highly successful, iconic corpus of work - Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and Goodfellas chiefly. It is Goodfellas, though, that is arguably the greatest marriage of rich source material, superb performances, and some utterly stunning direction as expected from Scorsese. Goodfellas is one of the greatest films of all time, and rivals The Godfather as the best gangster film of all time ...  Read the complete review

Considered by many to be the greatest portrait of organised crime, GoodFellas is intelligent and brutal; generally compelling. Though, it is not perfect. Based on the non-fiction book Wiseguy, written by Nicholas Pileggi, Scorsese's mob-flick revolves around the career of gangster Henry Hill (played by Ray Liotta). Hill, eventually became part of the witness protection program after testifying against his partners in crime; he became a rat. Narrated mostly by Liotta throughout, the first half of the film is concerned with the benefits of living in the underworld of organised crime ("From as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a ...  Read the complete review

1990 heralded the release of an iconic mafia film called Goodfellas. With the Godfather set of films proving to put gangsters back on the cinematic map, Goodfellas combined brutality with stereotype and did it based on the true story of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). The film follows Hill as we see him grow into someone heavily involved with the mob, putting himself near them throughout his life, and reaping the rewards by living a life of luxury as a result. However, we soon see pressure taking its toll, and how paranoia and danger can render luxury a mere flash in the pan as the stakes get higher and Hill starts seeing that things aren't quite as great as they ...  Read the complete review