Goodfellas
Starring: Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro & Lorraine Bracco.
Directed By: Martin Scorsese.
Stylish, violent, dramatic and controversial Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas is a mob story masterpiece far greater than Mean Streets his other street story.
Goodfellas tells the story of Henry Hill a half Irish, half Italian boy who wants nothing more in life than to become a member of the mob. The story starts off with Henry as a young boy getting involved with the mob by parking their cars and doing errands for mob bosses nothing much but he is paid well and is getting wanted he wanted to be part of the mob. As the years roll on Henry stops going to school and eventually becomes a fully fledged mob member with fast car, a big house and many tough associates like Tommy (Joe Pesci in an Oscar winning performance) who is a feisty little hot head who sometimes gets out of control and his other buddy Jimmy (Robert De Niro) a man who loves to steal and always has things organised plagued only by a slight sense of paranoia. Together these three make oodles of money and kill stacks of people but will it last?
The best director working at the moment would have to be Martin Scorsese he just refuses to make bad films his resume consists of films like Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and a little known gem called The King of Comedy and who was working with Scorsese on all these films? Robert De Niro a brillant, subtle actor who would have to be one of the best actors at choosing his assignments he has been party to very few poor films and when he combines with Martin Scorsese and Joe Pesci you know your in for one hell of a movie,and what’s this it’s a mob movie well that’s just the cherry on the sundae.
With Scorsese at the directing duties he manages to pull out Joe Pesci’s best performance of his career as Joe plays Tommy the smallest but most powerful gangster of the lot he is a quick tempered joking character who only needs the slightest bit of rattling to explode. Pesci plays this part brilliantly combining his sense of humour and his flair with dramatic moments incredibly. Pesci though not the star soon becomes it by stealing all the best scenes such as the incident with a character named Spider and the “I’m Funny How?” scene which both allow Pesci’s character to really take shape and despite all his characters unlikeable actions we as an audience still like him.This was one Academy Award which went to the right person for a change.
De Niro and liotta do a find job as well with Liotta remaining utterly convincing throughout though sometimes a tad condescending to the viewer. De Niro has a large role but barely seems in the film because of Pesci’s wild antics but de Niro’s performance though a subtle one is a huge part of the movie.
Goodfellas for me is the best mob movie ever made it’s brimming with style and amazing direction and has an all star cast at their best.It’s a story that essentially has been told before but nobody tells a street story like Martin Scorsese once again cementing the fact that he is the best Director working at the moment.
5 STARS 