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Blackmail, Murder & Mayhem

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Scarface

Scarface

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Scareface---The preminent film
Review: Scareface is easily one of the top 20 movies of all time. Tony Montana (Pacino) plays an awesome role and you really understand what pushes him over the edge in this film. The chainsaw film is epic even though some people can't hack it! The final seen in the mansion is one of the best seens ever...Meet my little friend....what a classic..if you don't own this buy it...and it is a high quality DVD don't listen to some person who says it isn't. They were expecting something that wasn't going to be accomplished! What a flick

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Where'd you get that beauty scar tough guy..."
Review: Well you know the rest. Of corse now, the only place you can find this movie is on the dusty old shelf of a rental store. It's kind of like the story of Scarface; he powers his way into the drug empire using violence, gets to the top of his game only to inveitably destroy himself. But the ending is changed for the story of the movie itself. It still is a classic, and it paved the way for Al Pacino and Brian DePalma, who had already made a destintive mark in Hollywood at the time. And it's funny that almost every critic has changed his review from a 1 star rating to a 5 star rating after about 10-15 years. They must have finnaly reailzed the signifigance of this film, except for the almost always grouchy, Lenord Maltin. One of the only critics who never had anything but a 4-star rating is Rodger Ebert. Unbelievebaly, this film was original rated NC-17 or X THREE TIMES! But then, after a long confrence with the MPAA, was changed into a "R" rating. Compared what we see on national television today, this is nothing. The violence in the movie is compared to "Psycho"; only showing the effect of the violence without actually showing it. But, according to Brian DePalma, this is the first version of the film he first shot. Yeah, ok, seeing that in the production photos theres a bloddy leg dangiling from the shower curtin rod. But i'm sure theres even more scenes buryed in the Universal vaults, much like the move itself. Anything relating to the movie is discontinued, included the DVD, VHS, and even the soundtrack. But, i'm sure, some time in the future, by popular demand, the DVD will be back, with Dolby 5.1 and ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN, which they somehow forgot to add to the DVD. I don't know how the man who rates the DVD's got a 2 picture rating out of this, conidering this is the worst DVD I have ever seen and own. Really, it looks like a badly made VHS. Oh well, I'm sure they'll come up with a new DVD sometime. How bout' a 20th anniversary next year!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great film, Shameful DVD
Review: By now I'm sure you know the story, so I won't rehash what we already know : This is a GREAT film ... And a film as epic as SCARFACE deserves an equally awesome treatment on DVD, right ??? .... Well, the folks who put this trasnsfer out should be ashamed: it's the worst looking DVD I've seen..., and it really distracts from the overall impact of the film ... Grainy, pixelated and washed out, SCARFACE isn't allowed to shine the way it should ... Rent before you buy, and for hardcore fans, hope that eventually the true definitive version will be released ...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simple
Review: Plain and simple the best ganster movie of all times

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I tell the truth, even when I lie
Review: Scarface is clearly the epitomy of everything that is great about film-making. Al Pacino shines as Tony Montana and shows why he is the best actor in the world. The supporting cast is also amazing especially "Manny". The only thing I could find to say is wrong with the film is the music, it's so 80's but then it was made in the 80's.
The first time I watched the film I was glued to it and was deeply shocked by the chainsaw scene. I would definitely recommend the film on DVD for fans of the film as the quality and extras are great. There are deleted scenes also that I can see why they left them out.
There are so many quotes to recite from the film which shows how good it is. From the outset you wouldn't think you would like Tony Montana but with Pacino's natural charisma and Stone's at times humourous portrayal you cannot help it.
Scarface IS one of the best film's ever made.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: That was awesome
Review: Coolest movie, ever. No, don't even say it. It WAS the coolest movie ever. I do think children should see this movie just like Traffic (except the chainsaw scene in Scarface). Next time you take a hit or toke up think about people who died and what they went through so you can have "fun."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Nothing Succeeds Like Excess
Review: Given the high-power talent behind the camera (Brian DePalma), in front of it (Al Pacino), and at the typewriter (Oliver Stone), SCARFACE should have quite a lot going for it. It does indeed, although I can't quite call this a GODFATHER-type masterpiece for certain reasons.

Ostensibly, this is a reworking of Howard Hawks' classic 1932 gangster pic about Al Capone. This time, the setting is Miami circa 1980, the contraband in question is cocaine, and the lead character, Pacino's Tony Montana, is a Cuban-born criminal who just came off the Mariel boat lift with 125,000 others that Castro let go, twenty percent of whom were known criminals. Pacino gets in on the ground floor with a local drug boss (Robert Loggia) and soon works his way to the top, doing just about everything to tick someone off--associates, enemies, cops, his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer), his sister (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), and the Colombian drug kingpins he has to do business with.

But in his cocaine-fueled journey to achieve the so-called American Dream, he neglects to follow two rules taught to him by Loggia: (1) Don't underestimate the other guy's greed; and (2) Don't get high on your own supply. He finally crosses the line in the end by alienating a Colombian drug boss (Paul Shenar) so much that Shenar sends assassins to Pacino's Miami villa. The result is a horrific and bloody shootout in which most of the assassins are rubbed out, and so is Pacino.

Without a doubt, SCARFACE continues to generate wildly divergent opinions, both pro and con. I for one had some trouble trying to stomach Pacino's Cuban accent at first, but then his ultra-charistmatic performance kicked into high gear, four-letter words and all. The film is very true to its essentials of showing how a certain segment of the Cuban boat people, a very SMALL segment, tried to latch onto the American Dream by trafficking in illegal narcotics and thus earning millions. Probably the most interesting thing about SCARFACE is the political view that Stone espouses in his screenplay: he seems to espouse a very Reaganesque view of the world of the 1980s (virulent anti-Communism; anti-Castro), but in truth he is severely critical of those very same policies that motivated Castro to send the worst of his worst onto American soil and thus accelerate this nation's drug problem.

SCARFACE does have its faults. It requires a lot of patience to sit through with a running time approaching 170 minutes, and I am not all that sure there is enough in there to sustain it for that kind of length. The film continues to be controversial in some quarters for its extreme (as opposed to merely excessive) violence; the chainsaw scene in an apartment, the hanging from a helicopter, and the ultra-gory shootout at the end rank as some of the most violent scenes ever shown on film. Only four other films in history challenge it in this respect: THE WILD BUNCH, SOLDIER BLUE, TAXI DRIVER, and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. Finally, this film set a record for the greatest number of times the "F" word, or variations of it, are used; I lost count at two hundred. This IS a bit much, although it probably fits the reality of the situation it depicts.

On the other hand, DePalma, whose 1976 film CARRIE remains one of the touchstone suspense/horror films of all times, does make quite a lot out of Stone's wild and crazy screenplay--though surprisingly, for the violent scenes, he doesn't use slow-motion or montage that much, which would have earned him favorable comparisons with the legendary Sam Peckinpah. Just as solid is the camera work of John Alonzo, who worked on CHINATOWN and BLACK SUNDAY, among others. Giorgio Moroder's score is pretty good, though I do admit it gets a little cheesy after a while. And Pacino's performance is also high-caliber; just get used to his Cuban accent, and it works very well.

This film comes highly recommended, but with this warning: It is definitely NOT for younger audiences, it is rated 'R' for a lot of good reasons.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gangster Masterpiece Despite Pacino
Review: Al Pacino, as wooden as ever in Godfather and even in recent fare like Any Given Sunday, casts those doe eyes to terror in the drug trade in this classic. Perhaps John Travolta feels Pacino was great in the Godfather and Dog Day Afternoon (see the intro to Swordfish, the movie), I disagree more strongly that a pungent fart under grandma's hand-knitted afghan. Pacino is typically stilted, depending more on icy stares and yelling than on true acting. Can anyone recall Al playing a gentle role, similar let's say to Hoffman in Rainman or Midnight COwboy? I thnik not. But alas, the plot is so provocative and tight in this epic drug film, with tension at several plateaus in the movie, that the writing overcomes Pacino's flatness. A sordid tale, needs to be watched in a single long viewing, of the devisiveness of society in 1980s America, where a star is born if he can make it in petty crimes and trafficking. 5 stars, despite Al.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: scarface
Review: RECEIVED SCARFACE EXTREMELY QUICK JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS
VERRY HAPPY. I WOULD DEFINATELY USE HIM AGAIN .

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good movie, but a bit overdone.
Review: Fine acting, fine plot, great cast of characters and pretty friggen' violent. That combo is the formula for an entertaining movie, but when an ending is as overdone as it is in Scarface, I have to be critical. I don't want to reveal much, but let me tell you now, if you watch it all the way through, be prepared for a wild ride of excessive violence and mayhem. Pacino's shootout could have been a little shorter and more realistic. He had over 50 guys shooting at him at the same time, and the only time he got hit was when the arch rival shot him in the back! The chainsaw scene was a little extreme for sensitive viewers, but I feel that it was neccisary. All-in-all, it is a good film that shows the harmful truth about the life that crime and murder will provide in shockingly grotesque and extreme detail. Good to rent, or if you are a big Al Pacino fan, buy. PS, if I could, I would give it 4 and a half stars.


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