15 – Goodfellas (1990)

What do you say to a crazy woman pointing a loaded gun in your face?Whatever the fuck she wants to hear.

It says in the beginning,after a really really ugly bunch of title credits,that the film is based on a true story and for anyone who has ever watched Banged Up Abroad there is an episode that is nearly a scene by scene remake of this film.The real guy is narrating it too. Goodfellas is a descent gangster/Mafia film.As per-usual we have the regular actors like  DeNiro,Liotta,Pesci and a few other regular faces you might recognise from The Sopranos.The film is the life story of a kid who gets in with the wise guys in his neighbourhood,starts doing small jobs for them and gradually makes his way to the big time.He gets in deep with drugs after a stint inside and that’s his downfall.Well really it’s some of the women who fuck shit up for him too.Martin Scorsese directed this and had a fine cast to work with.There’s something about Ray Liottas laugh that i find funny,i was trying to find a clip of him on YouTube where he hits a toad with a golf club and there’s a half minute montage of all his laughs from Goodfellas. I noticed Samuel L.Jackson had a part in this film too.One shot,from the moment we see him until he gets killed.A whopping 46 seconds.Is there any role he won’t turn down?

IMDB RATING      –     8.7
MY RATING     –    8.5
SEEN BEFORE     –     YES
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  GOOD BUT SOME VERY GRAPHIC/BLOODY SCENES.

 

sam l 46 seconds

50 – Taxi Driver (1976)

I LOL’ed at this.

As famous as Taxi Driver is I’ve never seen it before.It’s about an ex marine and Vietnam vet who works the night shift driving a taxi in New York. The isolation and loneliness get to be too much for him and he cracks up.He definitely has some sort of post traumatic stress disorder too from the war.In the beginning he’s stuck in a rut and is boozing it up and taking pills.But half way through the film he formulates a plan to get rid of the scum in the city by buying some guns and shooting them.It’s this idea that fills his life with a sense of purpose and he gets into shape and gets off the booze and that.Taxi Driver is a bit of a weird film.Travis is a bit of tough one to work out.In parts he seems like he socially inept but in others he seems really confident and put his point across easily.But it swings back and forth so much you don’t know how he’s going to react.Travis strikes up a relationship with a teenage twelve year old hooker and he tries to do 1 good thing with his life;get her out of the game and back with her family.Which he does in his own blood-lust filled way.Good film overall,there was a few scenes i would have lobbed a few minutes off them and sometimes the trumpet,or whatever the fuck instrument was, was a little over bearing.I checked the credits and Scorsese was a part in it.The massive douche who’s watching his cheating wife.Keep an eye out for him.

IMDB RATING      –     8.4
MY RATING     –    7.8
SEEN BEFORE     –     NO
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  A GOOD INSIGHT INTO THE HUMAN CONDITION.TRAVIS IS DESCENT ANTI-HERO.

 

78 – Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Noodles see his first vagina.I remember when i first seen one a couple of years ago,after i stopped getting sick it wasn’t too bad.

How i dispise panpipes and Sergio Leone sticks a good load of them into your ear balls throughout.This film is long,over three and three quarter hours.I pity anyone trying to watch this on t.v.It played in Ireland and i remember Tony telling me it was 5 hours long.OUATIA is the classic tale of some new york kids growing up and having a gang/racket.Ir seemed strange when i watched the title credits and all the 5-6 writers are either italina or have italina names.But good writing anyway.I think the film could have been split into two parts,there’s no filler realy in the whole film.So maybe two films with another side story would have been good.The gang of kids get into trouble with a neighbourhood rival called Bugsy.He shoots and kills a young kid,he looks no more than 12,and Noodles(De Niro) retaliates and nkifes him and a cop who tries to stop him.He gets sent down for what i make to be 15 years.When he gets out he looks about 40 and his love interest,Debra,looks about 20,even though there was about 3-4 years between them when he got locked up.Jail must age a man.Back to Debra,she has the look of a doped up person with major mental disabilities and its this retardedness i attribute to her accent swinging from American to Posh English.Her voice has this really deep tone to it too,i’m not sure why.Whe n noodles gets out of jail all the guys are waiting for him and have invested the grouos money and have some good stuff going for them.The probition is on and they have a bar and bootleg booze.Fastforward 35 years.Noodles is back,why?,figure it out.Debra is played by the same actress and still looks 20.No grey hair no drastic mackup no nothing.While as while as i make Noodles to be 61 now.He looks it.Also you can’t have a De Niro film without Joe Pesci who pops up for two scenes.The second one doesn’t even need to be there.

IMDB RATING      –     8.3
MY RATING     –    7.7
SEEN BEFORE     –     NO
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  LONG.THE FINAL BIT WITH MAX AS AN OLD MAN WAS A BIT CONFUSING.DID NOODLE RECOGNIZE HIM?

97 – Raging Bull (1980)

Jake hooks up with a 15 year old girl.Raging Bull?More like UNDERaging Bull.

Another fight movie here,not so much focusing on the fights but more on the fighter,Jake La Motta.It’s all a true story too.Where to begin?At the start of the film Jake has the hots for this 15 year old,which i thought was weird because Jake has to be nearly 40.Wrong.I checked on wikipedia and Jake was only 19 but De Niro was 37 so that’s what threw it for me.Jake already has a wife when he meets this new chick,he treats his wife like shit and is the biggest douche in America in my opinion.Joe Pesci is in this too playing Joe Pesci,well actually he’s Jakes brother but in every film Pesci is the same character.It’s like he was plucked right out of Casino and dropped into this film.Jakes a good fight and hammers everyone but has some insecurities about women,oh and he divorces his old wife and takes up with the new one when she hits 18.He fights a bit,,shouts at his wife a bit and is generally a prick.When he gives up boxing he opens a club and lets little girls in and ‘introduces’ them to guys.Girls who are 14 in an over 21 club.This is all still a true story.After all said and done Jake takes up stand up comedy.

IMDB RATING      –     8.3
MY RATING     –    7
SEEN BEFORE     –     NO
RECOMMEND?     –     NO
OVERALL     –  NOT MY CUP OF TEA.

119 – Heat (1995)

Keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ on.

Heat’s a long old slog,2 hours 40 minutes.But it’s a cracker of a film.The first time i saw it 3 years ago i was blown away with it and wondered how i hadn’t seen it sooner.But as i watched it this time i was tuning out because it was still fresh in my head from the last time.You have a pretty good cast with DeNiro and Pacino and even Val Kilmer before he turned to shite.I would have left Ashley Judd out,there’s something about her big rounded face and weird eyes that make not take her seriously as an actress.The plots simple here,we have band of crooks who are being chased by the cops.DeNiro is doing the ‘one last hit’ so he can leave and settle down with a girl he’s known for a full 5 minutes.There’s a lot of shooting and shoot out scenes where it seems the bullet to people getting shot must be about 100:1.Watch Heat once.

IMDB RATING      –     8.2
MY RATING     –    8.1
SEEN BEFORE     –     YES
RECOMMEND?     –     YES
OVERALL     –  GOOD ACTION FLICK.HENRY ROLLINS HAS A SMALL ROLE TOO.