genre: gangster movies

masterpiece. absolutely astounding. this is easily the best film ive seen in the last year of my life and one of the best i have ever seen. gabriel byrne puts in an astounding performance as does finney, the story was perfect with each twist, and the themes of loyalty and morality were present to a degree rarely captured in a movie. the cohens put in their best script and directing job in this film all should see. this is the best mobster flick i have ever seen bar none.

everytime i watch this film it touches me more. it hits me even harder now that i have kids. in my opinion, this is easily one of the most underrated films of all time, and absolutely beautiful portrayal of redemption and family. the acting was great, the score was perfect and a bit haunting, and the cinematography was among the greatest work of all time. one of newmans final films, i watched this the day he died as a tribute to his legacy. a masterpiece.

easily one of the most underrated gangster films ever made. rarely listed amung the classics, this picture see's a young bogart and a young cagney go head to head in a match of criminal thinking. o'brien is very good as the priest, and the dichotomy that is built between his character and cagneys is powerful. two friends with everything in common go in opposite directions because of a single moment in their lives, and they couldnt have ended up more different. the acting was great and the moral commentary was carried out perfectly. this was a profound story, admitting that although this life is made easier by dishonest living, that still doesnt make it right. bearing many similarities to two other films, white heat and on the waterfront, this will be a film i rewatch every few years.

it took me many viewings and a considerable amount of time to give in to this film, but i have finally given up any apprehension towards it and have come to realize it is simply one of the greatest films in history without question. i used to pit myself against this movie not because of the movie itself, but because of its typical fans. many love this classic for all the wrong reasons. clueless fans who know little about great filmmaking rally around this for its violence, glorification of mafia life, and grittiness. the real reasons to love this film are because of its superb score, great acting, haunting cinematography, and genius storytelling. i feel that this film is popular for all the wrong reasons, but that doesnt exclude it from its greatness, truly a genuine classic.

even though this is considered a classic already, i still think its one of the most underrated films out there. a masterpiece. the acting and cinematography were supperb, and this boasts one of the best screenplays ever. not the first con movie and wont be the last, but its possibly the best.

although this film dims slightly with time, it is still a phenomenal film and one of the better gangster films ever made. it almost went the direction of depalmas scarface, but averted such a tragedy just in time to remain an amazing film.

best scorcese film ever. unbelievable. youre enthraled through the entire story. dicaprio is already one of my favorites, but this is one of his best performances, he was brillliant. damons performance is overlooked and the end is shocking and suprising, even disturbing really. i havent stopped thinking about this film since i watched it, nearly perfect.

the grandfather of all gangster films. the gold standard and one of the greatest films ever made, this film is everything that a gangster picture should be. haunting for its time, the original scarface puts the depalma version to shame and shows us what the gritty world of 1930's depression era crime was like. masterpiece.

this film is amazing for the stunning performances if for no other reason, and there are many other reasons to love this movie. brando gives possibly his best performance and every other actor from the biggest roles to the smallest roles was at the peak of acting. possibly one of the best acted movies in history. the sermon given by the priest at the dock was possibly the best movie speech ive ever seen and the plot was very good. i do think that the story was a bit shifty at the end keeping this film from being perfect, but it was as close to perfect as a film can get. wonderful picture.

one of the most fun films Ive ever seen. the music was great and the actors just looked like they had fun making this one. One of my favorites of all time.

melville and delon come together again for a gripping tale of intrigue. one of melvilles best films, this story grabbed me from the first moment as we see the stories of two criminals side by side until a fateful moment when their paths collide in the red circle. the heist scene is paced for real time and is executed brilliantly, the side stories involving the mob are interesting and placed well into the story, and the cat and mouse between the theives and the police is mapped out perfectly. the absense of music through most of the film created a reality that set in, and the camera shot and angle choices specifically stood out. brilliant film.

widely considered one of the best gangster films of all time, this one really delivers. cagney is menacing and brilliant as the lead gangster, putting in a performance that is believable. he comes across smart and calculated while at the same time being completely psychotic. the tale is also a good one and the story is told with fluidity and passion. one of the best films ive ever seen.

astounding film. brilliant camera work, excellent acting, and a stunning story.

this is a great gangster picture. liotta was very good and the film was raw and edgy. i dont feel that this was the best gangster picture in its own year let alone of all time as some have suggested, but there is no denying that this film is excellent.

great mobster flick. a few corny lines but a classic

another gangster classic that delivers. cagney was great as eddie bartlett and bogart plays a very convincing villian. although the film skips through the process of barletts rise to prominence, the story still flows well and satisfies as a rise and fall gangster story. great film.

certainly one of the great sequels in film history. a shadow of the first, but still truly great in its own right. this film furthers the story of michael corleone in profound ways as we see him honor his father by becoming greater than him. in some ways more gritty than the first, it also brought in the more corporate feel to the story that was climaxed in the third godfather which is an element i could have done without. rather than focusing on the family, this film might have focused too much on michael, although admittingly he is the point of the story not the family. in all, a great sequel to a great trilogy.

this film was always good, but its better if you see yojimbo. that is the 1960 samurai flick that this story came from. this one follows that one well, and putting a mafia twist on it was a fun way to see the story.

viggo mortensen was fantastic in this film. cronenbergs film making followed too similar of a pattern from his last film history of violence to the point where some things were practically mirrors of that film but the film was still well made. there was one trashy and pointless sex scene that took this film down a notch, but without that scenen this would have been a top notch film. it was still one of the best ive seen so far this year and the graphic nature of the film was haunting. if you liked history of violence you will like this because in too many ways they were the same film, but it was different enough to be extremely good.

very well done, the acting was great. there were scenes i wish were done very differently, like the pointless nudity, but this was a great film.

ive had a wierd relationship with this film. the first few times i saw it i loved it. by the fourth or fifth time i grew tired of it and it fell a bit in my consciousness, now im back to seeing the brilliance of this film with a whole new appreciation. pesci was just as good here as he was in goodfellas or raging bull, stone was a pleasant suprise, and i feel like this film might be even more gritty than goodfellas is. classic gangster film and more reason to love scorsese.

a very diologue driven gangster picture that delivers. the acting was very good and the story well told despite the fact that it was incredibly simple. the entire film essentially takes place on a single set and no "event" really takes place throughout the film, but the diologue was poetic. i just had a really good time watching people talk for 80 minutes, and the fate of these well planned characters really mattered to me. great movie.

i watched this film having seen 3 documentaries about the life of john dillinger. after much anticipation i can say that i loved this film, while at the same time feeling disappointed by it because i think i expected even more from a movie helmed by mann with such a superb cast. on the upside, the film was exciting and filled with memorable scenes. mann thankfully made great decisions on what to include in the film as most of the main points in dillingers career that his documentarians have focused on are the same things that ended up in the film. however, i was very disappointed in the cinematography as the camera work was shaky and the tone of the photography was an unfortunate choice. the fleshing out of characters and situations was also far too underdeveloped leaving the film with an incomplete feeling. as the film carried on, it moved too quickly from one situation and character to the next and left me wanting a lot. pervis was the most underdeveloped despite being a focal point as major points of the true story involving his character went unmentioned. overall despite the criticisms i actually did enjoy the film a lot but its not the masterpiece i was hoping for.

this is the chinese film that scorcese adapted into the departed. i wanted to see this to see what scorcese used from it and to see how similar they were and i was suprised by what i saw. they are the same movie. almost exact, scene by scene, line by line. this movie is about 40 minutes shorter than the departed and that 40 minutes is the only real difference between these films. i did enjoy the departed more because of the superior acting and execution, but i almost think less of the departed when realizing how much it took directly from this film. ultimately, both are great and i recommend this to anyone who liked the departed.

interesting but some of the scenes were out of place and shouldnt have been there. overall this was haunting and well thought out.

very clever and funny, just stay away from the second one

this is a very good conclusion to a truly epic story. certainly the least of the three, the plot was a little too ambitious and the acting was terrible. however, returning the story to the roots of sicily and focusing on the passing of the torch was a great touch to end the great story of michael corleone.

what i feel is a great depiction of the life, although ive never been in the mob so im guessing

good mob flick

this is a good movie. bogart and robinson deliver performances that are a little too typical, bogart playing his normal existentialist and robinson his normal gangster, but it wasnt a movie about performances. it was a solid story and a good escape into something meant to be simple and entertaining. overall worth seeing.

pretty good flick with a great cast

this is a solid flick. robinson was great in these gangster roles, and this is one of his classics. there wasnt a stress on things that usually make a film great, but it wasnt trying to be great, it was just trying to entertain and it did.

this a a pretty decent flick. not as engaging or profound as many of the early gangster films were, but cagney was great as always and the movie had its bright spot. worth the watch.

this four hour gangster epic from sergio leone was highly ambitious, but in the end i felt very unsatisfied. the acting was decent by most involved and the tracking of a bonafied gangster from youth to old age was compelling, but the plot was weak, the twist at the end was predictable and shallow, and the cast was weakly chosen. i felt that leone got some great shots but as is usual for his films i didnt like the way he used his music. average film.

considered the first great film by scorsese, i love scoesese and i really dont care for this film. as unexplained, unorganized, unimportant, and lifeless as a film can be. this film is juvenille and plain, unlike scorsese's later work. it deserves some score because of its potential and the strength of its performances, but not worth while.

scattered and incoherant. a shadow of the first which was great

disturbing and insane. overrated as much as any film ever made. gives mafia films a bad name, this film was just trashy and pointless.