Alright, I'll do the first response. I think it's a very underrated "gangster" picture, especially because it came in the (approximate) 25, 15, and 5-year wakes of films like Godfather, Scarface, and Goodfellas, just to name some examples.
I watch it about once a year not out of boredom or to refresh myself of it, but because I get the yearly urge to watch it.
i think its pretty well known but it is underrated.. best buy has it on a display right now though.. but with Al and Johnny its hard to make a bad movie
That's because Lefty (Pacino) is not a boss at all. He's a career soldier, a wiseguy who spent his life earning for the bosses, watching his compari move up the ladder all around him, and the final insult is that the guy he thinks is going to help him out winds up burying him.
I think this film is as close to "The Sopranos" as any mob film around, in that it shows the human side of gangsters, the foibles they have to go through just to make their monthly cut (the scene in which Lefty smashes up parking meters just for a few measly nickels, while the others discuss their meager access to Chaka Khan tickets or truckloads of razorblades, shows how desperate they can get).
__________________ Evelle: "Balloons! Hey, these blow up into funny shapes 'n' all?"
Grocer: "Well, no...unless round is funny."
The movie got what it deserved which was "okay" critic reviews. The best thing going for it was, obviously, Johnny Depp and Al Pacino. Though, what got annoying after a bit was Michael Madsen's peformance which was clearly trying way to hard to be Joe Pesci's performance from Goodfellas.
IGN, when it reviewed it, compared Donnie Brasco to Goodfellas saying that it was the best Mob Movie since Goodfellas. This statement is a true travesty to mob movies. If Goodfellas was king, Donnie Brasco would be a poor peasant dying of Black Death.
Plus, the movie wasn't even directed with a certain style. No flair or anything. Mike Newell? He isn't really the greatest and most talented director in this genre of film.
I totally agree with this quote, Pacino is the best actor around and even though I thought he gave an average performance, if Mick Newell hadn't directed the film and another director had of, the film could of been a classic which could of ranked up there with Goodfellas and The Godfather. I would of liked to see what Oliver Stone or Mrtin Scorsese could of done to it.
Michael Madsen was trying to duplicate Joe Pesci's performance in "Goodfellas"? I didn't see that at all! Tommy DeVito (Pesci) was a loose cannon, an unhinged killer cowboy gangster, while Sonny Black (Madsen) was cool and collected (for the most part), more similar to his character in "Reservoir Dogs" (though nowhere near as psychotic).
__________________ Evelle: "Balloons! Hey, these blow up into funny shapes 'n' all?"
Grocer: "Well, no...unless round is funny."
I'm not saying Madsen's performance was a carbon copy of Pesci's performance, i'm saying that they both have that kind of menace to them, and, YES, too are certain extent, Madsen's performance is trying to, uh, channel a psychotic mafia killer of some sort. He is trying to make it in the buisness as he sees fit. I don't care if both movies are based on true accounts, but the way this character is presented is awfully close to how Pesci's character is, BUT NOT THE SAME. For instance, they both look and violence in the same way.
i.e, remember the scene from DB when the guys beat the restaurant owner for asking Depp to take off his shoes. A simple gesture does not, and should not result in a brutal beating. Now, remember that scene from Goodfellas, when, I forget the name of the guy who they beat, but Pesci's character violently beats to death the guy that insulted him in the bar. I think he says an insult akin to "shining a shoe" or something. All in the presentation! Whatever the director wants to leave in and leave out is what ruined it for me. it was very annoying.
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Jun 21st, 2004 02:19 PM
