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The Untouchables

The Untouchables

List Price: $19.99
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good vs. evil
Review: Federal agent Elliot Ness assembles a team of unconventional crime-fighters to bring down Al Capone's criminal empire in corrupt, Prohibition-era Chicago. All shades of grey have been removed; this is a straightforward battle between the forces of good and evil. For that reason, it cannot be judged equal with such gangster masterpieces as "The Godfather" and "Once Upon A Time in America". It does, however, succeed in being supremely entertaining. Costner's performance in this film is generally under-appreciated. His Ness is a stylized, almost stereotytpical do-gooder. He doesn't get the opportunity to chew the scenery that other members of the cast, most notably Sean Connery and Robert DeNiro, do so masterfully. The set design, cinematography, and a number of great action set pieces contribute to this film's excellence.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: DePalma's Last Good Film
Review: I saw this film because I am somewhat of a Brian DePalma fan. "The Untouchables" is DePalma's last respectable film.

Eliot Ness(Kevin Costner) sets out to bring down Al Capone(Robert DeNiro) with the help of an aging Irish beat cop(Sean Connery), a meek accountant(Charles Martin Smith), and a rookie police officer(Andy Garcia).

"The Untouchables" is DePalma's last memorable film. Unlike the director's raunchy "Scarface" that was released four years earlier, "The Untouchables" is a decent and respectable crime drama. The action scenes are great, particularly a shootout in a train-station. Sean Connery received a well-earned and long-deserved Oscar for his protrayal of Jimmy Malone; Connery's performance helps to elevate this film. Andy Garcia is great as George Stone; I'm sorry that Garcia didn't become a superstar. DePalma effectively captures the look and feel of Prohibition-era Chicago.

"The Untouchables" is definitely not without its share of flaws. The film is appropriately heartfelt, but occasionally drifts into mere sentimentality. Robert DeNiro, one of the very last great screen actors, gives a generally convincing portrayal of Al Capone but, in one instance, his performance falls into smarmy self-indulgence(Viewers will easily notice this moment).

Like John Frankenheimer, Brian DePalma is a once first-class director who forgot how to make great movies. During the 1970s and early 1980s, DePalma made three unforgettable thrillers: "Sisters," "Carrie," and "Dressed To Kill." After "Dressed To Kill," DePalma hasn't made one fully satisfying film. "The Untouchables" is the last of the few films that come close to matching his previous masterpieces.

Every action movie fan should see "The Untouchables" at least once. If anything, the film is a definite must-see for all Sean Connery fans.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: this is a must see film
Review: This film is set in Chicago 1930 you obviosly didn't complete school if you don't know what was happening then Al Capone was at large and that is what this is all about.it is a spectacular movie with a good cast including Andy Garcia (Desprate measures) kevin costner (waterworld) robert deniro (analyze this)this film has some very good shoot-outs and heavy and perhaps over done violence it has 3 great scenes i recomend you look out for No.1 good scene baby at train station No.2 baseball at the round table No.3 the mounties. BUY IT NOW...!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A lot of talk and a badge? Never.
Review: One of the most entertaining distractions of the last quarter century, Brian DePalma's THE UNTOUCHABLES is great nostalgic fun. Filled with some great performances (Andy Garcia and Kevin Costner when their film work wasn't so self-indulgent, Robert DeNiro masterfully chewing the scenery to excess, and Sean Connery with a beautifully subtle turn as an irish beat cop), The film takes us into a comic world of prohibition Chicago, namely the battle between Al Capone's underworld and Elliot Ness' few uncorrupt police. Even with the comic depth of the story, the film is deeply graphic and bloody and definitely not for the squeamish or the pre-pubescent. DePalma's borrows from some of films early masters (Hitchcock, Eisentstein, Ford) to create the film's style. It, along with a great score by the prolific Ennio Morricone and fabulous production design (and great opening credits) makes the film. Let's do some good. The DVD is a nice widescreen transfer but lacks any other bells and whistles. Let's do some good...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ¿You want to know how to defeat Capone....?¿ Then Watch This
Review: It is the 1930's and the Mob has been successfully breaking the prohibition law, shipping their bootlegged alcohol from one place to another. Law Enforcement is getting fed up of always losing out to the Mafia's operations so they call on Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner). Ness is now assigned to prevent further successful "Mob transactions" how ever he deems necessary. Ness decides he can assemble a small team to assist him in his task. The members that agree to help Ness include an accountant (Charles Martin Smith), a fairly new police officer (Andy Garcia), and a streetwise cop (Sean Connery). This four man team will become to be known as The Untouchables as they fight Al Capone's (Robert DeNiro) illegal operations. This film has an amazing cast, boasting such star power as Sean Connery who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as Malone. This movie is done stylishly which keeps its audience glued on the action. The action scenes are very exciting and the detail put into this film gives it a firm 1930's feel. The film is based on the old television show in which Robert Stack (Host from Unsolved Mysteries) played Elliot Ness.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A real modern-day classic!
Review: This is one of those movies I always go back to when I feel like watching something but don't quite know what I'm in the mood for. You enter a very romantic world when you watch The Untouchables! Bad guys wear three piece suits with hats, and carry tommy guns. Good guys wear trench coats, are highly resilient, often jaded, very patriotic, and will give all for justice. Everybody drives beautiful old 1930's vehicles. And in the end, the natural conclusion of things is for good to triumph over evil. Not a bad place to spend 2 hours some evening!!

As far as the performances go, Costner was outstanding. Someone else described him as wooden, and that might be true, but he's totally and wholly just. He's the Good Guy of the movie. Even though he's in a supporting role, Sean Connery steals the show. He's robust, jaded, and wise. He's the same sort of person here that he is in Finding Forrester, only, of course, he's a cop in The Untouchables. Of course, Robert DeNiro is superb as Capone. Probably overlooked among the many supporting actors is Billy Drago as Nitti, Capone's enforcer. He's ultra effective in the role: very calm, ice cold, pasty white, and scary with a machine gun. If you liked Christopher Walken in Last Man Standing, you will probably appreciate Drago's performance here, despite his lack of spoken lines.

Memorable moments: Billy Drago gunning down Connery from the cellar stairs. The gunbattle on the bridge between Canada and the USA. The baby carriage scene at the outset of the train station shootout. The "Here endeth the lesson" conversation between Connery and Costner near the beginning of the film and after Costner's unsuccessful first raid. Kevin Costner flinging Drago from the roof of the court house.

The DVD picture quality is fabulous, and everything considered, even Paramount's leaving out of extras (you get a good trailer, 24 chapter stops/scene selection, and the 2.35:1 widescreen version of the movie), this is a great DVD for your collection. If you haven't seen it, buy it, and enter the romantic world of Ness versus Capone!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow! What a great movie!
Review: First of all, I would like to say that I really like Kevin Costner in this movie. I think he did a great job of playing his character. However, I have never seen any of the old show "The Untouchables" so, as it was my first time seeing 'Elliot Ness' I really dind't already have an idea in my mind of what he should be like. But I liked Kostner in the part.

The rest of the cast was incredible (DeNiro as Capone was great) Sean Connery was just as great and over all it was a well done movie. The kind when you know something bad is going to happen and you sit there yelling at the screen, trying to warn the characters. (I love that)

Some great lines, and priceless scenes make this one of the best action movies I've ever seen.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: De Palma Does Some Good
Review: In 1919, over the veto of President Wilson, the Volstead Act was passed, which made provisions for the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, and successfully ushered in the era of Prohibition; what it did not do, was keep people from drinking, or more significantly, keep certain "businessmen" from selling it, which opened the flood gates to a billion dollar industry of illegal alcohol. And in the larger cities, the mob bosses jumped onto the bandwagon with both feet, the most notorious of which was Al Capone, who by 1930 had a thriving business and the city and the people of Chicago in his pocket. From the cop on the beat to the judges sitting on the highest courts, everyone seemingly had a price and could be bought. And that's the way it was until Treasury Agent Eliot Ness showed up for work and hand picked a squad of honest cops to help him get Capone and clean up the City of Chicago. "The Untouchables," directed by Brian De Palma, is the story of Ness and his men, dubbed "Untouchable" because they couldn't be bought, though from the beginning the odds were stacked against them. They were a handful against an army of hoodlums who wielded grenades and tommy guns, and they could trust no one outside of their own circle, not even the cops with whom they shared the streets. Many looked upon what Ness was trying to do as an exercise in futility, but he never gave up, and went after Capone with everything he had, which wasn't much beyond his own guts and determination to "do some good."

Ness's initial efforts were a disaster-- Capone had informants everywhere and always knew ahead of time whenever a raid was going down-- so he quickly realized that the only way to do this thing right was to get men he could trust and keep everything quiet. The bureau responded by sending Ness (Kevin Costner) an accountant, Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith), who first had the idea of going after Capone for income tax evasion. Ness then recruited Jim Malone (Sean Connery), a veteran cop who walked a beat and was well versed in doing things "The Chicago way," and George Stone (Andy Garcia) a crack shot recruited right out of the Police Academy.

Connery gives an exemplary performance as Malone (for which he received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), the tough, Irish cop who becomes something of a tutor to Ness, letting him know from the start what he's getting himself into. How do you deal with someone of Capone's ilk? According to Malone, "If he pulls a knife, you pull a gun. If he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way-- that's how you get Capone." It's a perfect part for Connery, whose rugged appearance and demeanor are entirely convincing; he's got that somewhat cynical, world-wise and weary manner of a man who has seen it all, but lets you know that underneath he still holds out hope that some day in some way, right will win out after all. And Connery plays it with a hard, uncompromising edge that makes it so believable, and makes Malone a memorable character. De Palma brings it all vividly to life, building an underlying tension from the beginning that he maintains throughout the film, aided by the intense, sometimes haunting score by Ennio Morricone. Costner gives a solid performance as Ness, but he is somewhat overshadowed by the actors and the characters who surround him, especially Connery as Malone, and Robert De Niro, who as Capone is absolutely menacing and larger-than-life. De Niro captures the ruthlessness that indelibly marked Capone's infamy forever in the annals of criminal history, with a portrayal of him that is arguably the best in cinematic history. De Niro plays it as it lays, presenting Capone as the brutal criminal he was, without attempting to airbrush away any of the attributes that made him so despicable. It's a terrific performance, for which he should have received at least an Oscar nomination.

The supporting cast includes Richard Bradford (Mike), Jack Kehoe (Payne), Brad Sullivan (George), Billy Drago (Nitti) and Patricia Clarkson (Ness' wife). Extremely well crafted and delivered by De Palma, who had a great screenplay (by David Mamet) and a terrific cast with which to work, "The Untouchables" is a powerful, intense film that successfully evokes this particular period in the history of America. And it subtly underscores the true heroics of men like Ness and his crew, who through their fearless dedication possibly made it a little safer for someone to walk down the street, or for an honest man to simply go about the business of making a living-- things too often taken for granted in our busy world today; things that are important, and which makes a film like this so much more than merely entertainment (though it definitely is that). And that's the real magic of the movies.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Doesn't stand the test of time well
Review: I remember being blown away when I first saw this film when released so was waiting in eager expectation for this DVD release. But alas, apart from the cinematography the film was not as gripping as I expected. And what about that mediocre soundtrack! Reinforces De Palma's excellence in set pieces but in terms of holding the entire story together he is quite ordinary (nowhere in the same league as Kubrick, Coppola and Scorsese). This gangster flick does not belong in the same class as The Godfather, Goodfellas nor Miller's Crossing.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Easily the best action film ever made
Review: A baby carriage begins to roll down a flight of steps. Kevin Costner frantically chases after it. He is under heavy fire by Al Capone's men. He suddenly runs out of bullets. For three long seconds you are on the edge of your seat thinking to yourself, "How in the world is he going to get out of this??"

This is the infamous train station scene that I'm talking about. Just one of many exciting moments in Brian De Palma's "The Untouchables". Although the film itself is a five star masterpiece featuring Kevin Costner and Sean Connery in their finest screen performances (despite what critics say, Costner is outstanding in this film), I give this DVD three stars because, unfortunately, there are not many extra features. You will enjoy the theatrical trailor, but the main menu is a still picture with no music and there are no behind-the-scenes featurettes or cast interviews. However, it does offer a nice widescreen(2.35:1) presentation of the film with a crystal clear picture and sound that is not bad either. Bottom line- it is an excellent film (one of my personal favorites!) and it's definately worth buying. But don't count on too many extra features.


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