Rating: 
Summary: A Gangster Film To Not Fuggedabout
Review: With all of the gangster films that have come out over the years my first reaction to "Donnie Brasco" was "Oh, no! Not another one!" Mike Newell's film is an original addition to a genre that has been mined many times but as proven here still has some life to it. Johnny Depp portrays Joe Pistone, an F.B.I. operative who goes undercover to infiltrate the mob using the alias Donnie Brasco. He is taken under the wing by Lefty Ruggiero(Al Pacino), a mob lifer who has spent his career on the fringes of the organization without being made. Through this association Pistone gains access to other aspects of the mob. The film deftly portrays the pressures that Pistone faces from his activities undercover and the strain that it is putting on his home life. Also, you can a sense that Pistone is starting to enjoy his life as Donnie Brasco. Depp adds another great character to his evergrowing gallery of great performances without overplaying it. Pacino, who has assayed this genre many times, gives a low-keyed effective performance. One can feel a sense of empathy for his character for all the disappointments in his life. Michael Madsen also delivers a chilling performance as mobster Sonny Black.
Rating:
Summary: Successfully blends fact & fiction
Review: After reading Joseph Pistone's wonderful book Donnie Brasco I couldn't wait to see this movie. Although this movie is based on Pistone's book, many scenes are fiction. The main difference between the book & the movie is that it WAS NOT Lefty Ruggiero that Pistone became so close to, it was Sonny Black. That's okay, though, this movie is very entertaining & features an outstanding cast: Johnny Depp, Al Pacino, Anne Heche (who gets FAR too little screen time but is terrific nevertheless), & especially Michael Madsen, who's one of my favorite actors. The acting is great, the script is believable, & the music is fabulous. Johnny Depp gives one of his best performances & Al Pacino is awesome as usual. The special edition dvd has two brief but informative documentaries as well as deleted scenes, director's commentary, photo gallery, & trailers. For those that enjoy mafia movies this is an absolute must-have.
Rating: 
Summary: A look at the inner-workings of la cosa nostra
Review:
This film portrays a realistic look at the inner-workings of the Mafia, where respect is earned and rats are burned. I would argue that it is good that it lacks the romanticism of the Godfather, b/c that film was a fairy tale.
I was refreshed by the multidimensional role of lefty (played by Pacino). You see the hard-nosed street-toughened gangster and then you see a more vulnerable side to his character.
Rating:
Summary: Fuhgettaboutit, indeed
Review: Donnie Brasco is one of those movies I always regarded well...until I watched it again. After a few years, it doesn't hold up. Actually, I think it's a pretty bad movie, with only the acting of the leads to recommend it.
Perhaps it's The Sopranos effect--we've seen much better written and acted drama involving the Mafia since this movie appeared. Perhaps we've just been spoiled, so Brasco looks even weaker. Or perhaps Brasco isn't really much to begin with.
While it's based on a true story, it's pretty loose. In fact, the story is almost completely fabricated in order to present a drama that comes off as very forced in some spots, again with the acting being the only saving grace.
In the mid-1970s, FBI agent Joe Pistone went undercover as 'Donnie Brasco', a connected guy. After a couple of years of hanging around made guys, he hooked up with Benny 'Lefty' Ruggeiro, a made guy in the Bonanno crime family. He hung around for a few more years, even meeting with a couple of bosses, until he ended the assignment and went on to help put about a hundred wiseguys in jail.
Unfortunately, the film tries to fit a lot into its running time. We never get a good sense of how long this assignment is, and how Brasco (Johnny Depp) really gets along with the family. Instead, we get cliche after cliche. He's away from his wife (Anne Heche) and his kids, slowly bending his marriage until it breaks, with the requisite cliches about how 'you're becoming like Them', etc, etc. He has to engage in several unpleasantries, like beating the maitre'd of a Japanese restaurant who insists Brasco remove his boots before being seated...except Brasco keeps his trusty FBI tape recorder in there. Brasco even helps the crew chop up some bodies after a grisly quadruple hit, reluctantly sawing a leg in a dingy basement.
The only recommendation points are the two leads. Pacino is perfect as the rumpled, passed-over Lefty, who spends much time complaining about the unfairness of the current Mafia administration. Depp seems much older, and he holds his own. The rest of the cast is good, though we get the feeling they're not acting so much as playing up stereotypes of guys they've seen in other movies, or even played (Bruno Kirby). Michael Madsen also does a raspy, Brooklyn accent that slips a couple of times. It all seems forced, too contrived, and I chalk that up to the writer and the director. There are some seriously laughable lines in here that I doubt any wiseguy has ever said, the kind of lines and scenes that are flashing 'Exposition'. The director is a Brit, having previously helmed Four Weddings and a Funeral, perhaps not the best choice for a flick about the Mafia in Brooklyn.
Overall, if you're a mob movie addict, you'll have to see the movie. But I remember it being much better back in 1997. It's kind of tired, the drama is very connect-the-dots, and perhaps worst of all, most of the material is downright fabricated with only a very loose connection to the real events Pistone covered in the source book. Also, the movie does very little to even explain what's going on in the Mafia it's depicting--the internal wars, the personal beefs--and it's only illumination is about 'the rules' that Brasco slowly learns from the veterans. In 2004, many of the details of these events came to light in a federal trial for the current Boss of the Bonannos, making you think the real wiseguys laughed out loud at this. The film hinges on self-parody many times, especially the repetition of 'fuhgettaboutit', repeated by no less than three of the main actors. If you don't take it too seriously, and if you realize it's just Hollywood-ized Mafia, it can be a lot of fun.
Rating:
Summary: Finally we know what 'fuggedaboudit' means
Review: Donnie Brasco is based on a true story but it is still gripping. Donnie Brasco is the alias of Joe Pistone, an undercover agent. He joins the mob as a help of Lefty played by Al Pacino. Pacino again plays a great mobster. This time as just a spoke, and sometimes not very smart.But DB gets so involved that he does not know on which side he is, that is what loyalty does to him. Even his marriage is almost falling apart. Depp and Pacino are of course brilliant as ever and this is another great maffia movie like Goodfellas are the Godfather.
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