Forget about not watching this movie ;)
This movie is really something, for once I agree with Rotten Tomatoes and its "certified fresh" verdict. Stellar performances and such a good story make time fly, you don't even realize it's two hours and a half long!
Watched this for the first time last night for the Action Boyz podcast. Can't believe I have never seen this. What a great movie and what a great performance by Pacino. Such a weird, sad gangster. Also this movie presents the phrase "Fuhgetaboutit" as if its a foreign concept. I think Sopranos came out the same year so maybe it was at the time? Also, I'm trying to figure out why I always wrote this off and my first instinct was maybe I thought it was a wannabe Scorsese. But honestly I think it might be the font choice for the title on most covers. I know it's supposed to be like a typewriter, but it doesn't look cool. I think if the marketing for this movie had been a different look maybe it would have popped more after its release when it hit DVDs and then VOD. I know that sounds like I'm being sarcastic, and I know this sounds insane to say maybe this movie would have been a bigger hit if it had a different font and didn't come out the same year as a TV show, but what are you gonna do, ya know? Fuhgetaboutit.
It's difficult to take this movie seriously. All the characters involved in this story are beyond stupid. They're so dumb that it's difficult to believe that they're capable of functioning on a daily basis. The ignorance they show on every single topic they open their mouths about is so prevalent that, at a certain point, I began wondering if the filmmakers were trolling the audience. The story is interesting enough, but it's just painful to listen to these morons speak.
While I wouldn’t call this a ‘really shitty Scorsese movie’, it does have that feel of a watered down pastiche of his work. A lot of what makes Scorsese films interesting to me isn’t here. Mike Newell gets what makes a Scorsese character on the surface, but it’s often missing the tension and great dialogue. A lot of the emotional risk is also toned down. The filmmaking is serviceable and purposeless, it’s not unpleasant to look at but it doesn’t have those elaborate tracking shots or emphasized push-in shots. The score is straight up awful, often setting the completely wrong tone for a scene. Like, if you compare this to Boogie Nights, which came out in the same year and also copied Scorsese’s style quite shamelessly, PTA’s attempt is so much more well studied and memorable. This film is really relying on the story and acting, both of which are fine but it’s nothing mindblowing. Pacino isn’t required to dig all that deep here, instead he just relies on what’s worked in the past. Depp’s quite refreshing in a way because he isn’t hiding behind eccentricities or make-up for once. The story keeps a good pace, it’s a pretty straightforward retelling of events that’s entertaining on the surface, but not leaving you with much to chew on. I just don’t get why it’s so well remembered, everything about it screams average to me.
5.5/10
It's hard not to walk away from this movie with a little accent in your voice, a little shift in your posture. You live in this world for two hours, and it rubs off on you because the characters themselves are so well lived-in. It reinforces the difficulty Joe must have had in navigating the two worlds he finds himself in. Unfortunately, that doesn't make him any more interesting as a character--everything this movie has going for it is on the mob side of things. Any time we spend a moment with Joe's home life, the movie grinds to a halt, because it doesn't help raise the stakes of the pressure on the character.
Where the movie excels is in the father/son dynamic of Lefty and Donnie, but even that is a little underdeveloped--especially in the first 30 minutes. What motivates Lefty to take Donnie under his wing? What inspires the motivation? This all could have used less Heche, and more Pacino.
This will always be one of my all time favorite gangster mafia movies. You can’t go wrong with Johnny Depp and Al Pacino acting side by side.
This one had been on my watch list for a long time as I tend to enjoy movies about the mob. The movie was somewhat deliberate but it did a great job in laying out the characters in the movie. It was nice to see Pacino before he became a caricature of himself. Johnny Depp was as strong as he always was. I particularly enjoyed the theme that showed that the two main characters in the movie (one good, one bad) were still spokes in the bigger game.
One of the best mafia movies i watched! It really shows how it feels to be a mobster and how it feels to be an FBI agent, the story is also very good. I definitely recommend it everyone.
What does it mean when wise guys say "Forget about it!"?
The ending sucked
Shout by Samuel LoperaBlockedParent2020-01-11T02:51:54Z
It was like a really shitty Martin Scorsese movie.