goodfellas

-- So, from time to time, I like to randomly put certain "classics" in their place. I just watched Goodfellas for the second time, which confirmed my opinion from when I saw it in high school. Overrated. It's great. Totally entertaining. Classic lines, great performances, good soundtrack.

But this is where I have to step in to set the record straight. Let's look at some of the accolades this film has received:
"The best mob movie ever"- Roger Ebert
#1 in Total Film's (??) 100 greatest movies ever list
#28 on IMDB's top 250 movies list
Sight & Sound magazine named it the fourth best film of the past 25 years

etc.

To which I would reply: THIS IS A FILM STARRING RAY LIOTTA. It's messy, rambling, and doesn't really end well. It lacks a moral compass, a plot, character development, pacing, relatable themes, etc. So, not only is The Godfather a better movie (it has all of the above in spades), but I think in Goodfellas you can see Scorcese making a great movie at the same time as he is showing why he has made utter crap since then.

Take out the Joe Pesci character, actually, and what have you got? Evidently, Pesci wrote and directed the "You think I'm funny?" scene himself, and the great scene with Martin Scorcese's mother (before they kill the guy in the trunk out in the car) is almost entirely improvised. So, you see how, if you threw, say, Leonardo DiCaprio into this film, maybe it wouldn't be any better or worse than The Aviator or Gangs of New York, which just come across as tiresome, sprawling period pieces with no direction. Actually, as shitty as Gangs of New York is, it at least had some big set piece scenes, whereas Goodfellas is oddly close, zoomed-in, and anonymous. Sure, that's an effect of the paranoia of the character, but give me a break. You remember the dialogue in this movie, not the visuals. And that is a liability. (although i have to give due credit to the long tracking shot into the Copa Cabana with Henny Youngman on stage).

Point being: change a few elements, lose the charm of the first-time-around, and Goodfellas is not very different from Casino. I know everyone loves this movie, and I do too, but let's keep everything in perspective. Flawed classic. Probably would be rank at about 140 on my all-time list.