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In this wicked thriller from 1992, director Brian De Palma shamelessly borrows from Alfred Hitchcock (as usual) and several other filmmakers to create a shock-a-thon that plays like a film buff's highlight reel from a dozen different thrillers. Taken on those terms it's a lot of fun to watch (though not for the faint-hearted), and multiple maniac roles for John Lithgow make it an irresistible shocker that isn't afraid to wallow in its own excess. Lithgow not only plays the evil Dr. Carter Nix, who is performing strange experiments on children, but he also plays the doctor's twin sons, Josh and Cain, who kidnap kids and bring them to their father's laboratory. Lolita Davidovich is a mother whose child has been abducted, but she won't give up without a fight. If this sounds repulsive, rest assured that De Palma focuses on the battle between the mother and the nefarious twins (this isn't a film about gratuitous child abuse), and film students will delight in the allusions to Hitchcock, Michael Powell's Peeping Tom, and Orson Welles's Touch of Evil, among others. It never makes much sense or adds up to anything truly satisfying, but thanks to Lithgow's wild performances Raising Cain is the kind of over-the-top thriller that grabs you for 95 minutes and holds you in its entertaining grip. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (6)

A powerful and provocative film from the young De Palma
I saw both "Greetings" and "Hi, Mom!" back in the early 1970s at a college art theater, which was well before director Brian De Palma and actor Robert De Niro became big names. "Greetings" was De Palma's 1968 anti-war movie and "Hi, Mom!" was sort of intended as a sequel of sorts. In this 1970 film De Niro plays John Rubin, a Vietnam vet who returns from the war to settle in Greenwich Village. His big idea is to film the people in the apartment across the street and to sell Pepping Tom type films (where you even have to look through a the little windows in a little brick front to get the correct experience). Eventually John's obsession with making films gets him involved with a radical "Black Power" group. This results in two unforgettable sequences, the first involving what we would not call a Yuppie audience being subjected to urban guerrilla theater in the play "Be Black, Baby," and the second an act of urban terrorism that gives Jon a chance to say the film's title while smiling into a camera.

De Palma is clearly exploring the idea of breaking the barrier between actors and audience in the act of performance. I can appreciate this idea because every time I see theater in the round I keep watching the audience watching the play instead of just watching the play. Pay attention to De Palma's use of the split screen to explore the dual perspectives and get the audience watching the movie involved more involved in the equation as well. Repeatedly, it all comes down to point of view, meaning the point of view of the camera. This idea is reinforced by Jon, for whom life is not real unless it is on camera, a point most notably made in his sexual encounter with Judy (Jennifer Salt).

However, the most powerful part of this film is the "Be Black, Baby" sequences, and this is where you either find this film totally brilliant or grossly offensive. Throughout "Hi, Mom!" De Palma and De Niro have made the viewers party to Jon's voyeurism, albeit in more subtle ways than splatter flicks that let the audience see through the killer's eyes. Having persuaded (coerced?) us into this perspective, De Palma makes us pay for it in a most brutal manner. If you cannot appreciate the payoff of this sequence, and that could well be most of the people who bother to watch this film, then you are not going to be able to appreciate this film. But at the very least you should be able to understand not only what De Palma is doing, but why.

After that point the film section of the film seems quite anticlimactic. De Palma is trying to take his argument to the next level, but having been blown away by "Be Black, Baby," there is no way for the director and actor to top that moment. "Hi, Mom!" is a provocative film that provided me with one of the most memorable experiences in a movie theater that I have ever had. Watching this film again, this time knowing where De Palma and De Niro were taking me, really made me appreciate the purpose behind that powerful moment. Of course from the vantage point of today it is rather startling to compare this rather raw film with the slick Hollywood productions for which De Palma is best known, but this film is so powerful it is hard not to consider it his best work.

a trip out film
I was just gonna watch the film because I think RObert De Niro is one of the Greatest Actors Ever, but then the film takes on a behind the scenes of Being Black&that truly adds another factor to this film.it's a trip out film.

Hi, Bomb!
The most overlooked movie of the 1970's. Probably one of DePalma's best efforts. Also, a great example of DeNiro's early acting range. Funny, terrifying, brilliant. A great dissection of race issues, voyeurism, war, random violence, the family, and gender relations as well as a terrific homage to Hitchcock's Rear Window...

Strange Movie
Robert De Niro has played many odd ball characters in his day and perhaps none more so than Jon Rubin, in Brian De Palma's Hi,Mom! The movie begins with De Niro renting a run down apartment in the city where he can begin his new career. This career, he has decided, will be in the adult film industy. He tries to convinces a smut producer to give him a budget to film his neighbors in the buiding across from him. Eventually, he agrees so using a telephotolens De Niro begins recording their every move. Unfortunatly his targets(who have no idea they are being watched) are not very interesting. So De Niro begins to date a girl in the building he has noticed is lonely in an attempt to spice up his video. However, this does not pan out and De Niro's porn career is over. He turns his camera in for a television. This leads him to take a role in a play called Be Black Baby playing a police officer. It is being put on by some black radicals to illustrate to white people what it would be like to be black in contemperary America. The play is shocking and probably the most interesting part of the film. After the play is over De Niro returns to the girl from the building across from him and the movie ends in a melodramatic and bizarre fasion. This movie is definatly worth watching. This film put Brian De Palma on the map, and De Niro shows flashes of the brilliance that in years to come would create so many classic characters.

AWESOME
I loved it! This film is not only funny but also describes a serious issue like racism in a realistic way. And of course De Niro's performance! Incredibly powerful, especially when he played the police officer. This is definitely worth watching. ... Read more

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It grows more quaintly silly with each passing year, but The Wedding Party can be enjoyed for more than Robert De Niro's modest screen debut. Brian De Palma's first feature is not entirely his own (friends Wilford Leach and Cynthia Munroe are credited as codirectors), and that may explain why this whimsical black-and-white comedy reveals no early hint of the Hitchcockian thrillers that De Palma became known for. If anything, it's a close cousin to De Palma's subsequent satires Greetings (which was actually released first) and Hi Mom!, which further capitalized on De Niro's fast-rising talent. Jill Clayburgh also makes her debut here, and while De Palma makes good use of idyllic locations on Shelter Island, New York, and Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, he employs all variety of low-budget techniques (fast-motion, unsynchronized sound, etc.) to cobble together a giddy chronicle of impending nuptials between an anxious pair (Clayburgh and Charles Pfluger) of Long Island lovebirds. De Niro (credited as "Robert Denero") is actually quite funny as the bridegroom's buddy, and Valda Setterfield gives a standout performance as Clayburgh's mother. It's a ridiculous mish-mash of familial mirth and mayhem, but with a budget of $43,000, De Palma showed enough directorial promise to win a theatrical release, three years after this film was made in 1966. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (2)

I love this movie!
This movie is such a classic!I especially commend the acting talents of not only Robert DeNiro, but that young Judith Thomas!She was robbed of her oscar in 1969 for her wonderful performance!

The Wedding Party
A great movie with an early Robert DeNiro who's great and everything he does and this is one of the first movies before he worked with Martin Scorsese and became a legend in Hollywood so enjoy this Bobby classic ... Read more

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Though he had made comedies with Robert De Niro (Hi Mom, Greetings!), a horror movie (Sisters), and a rock musical (Phantom of the Paradise), it wasn't until this 1976 film that Brian De Palma truly announced himself as the heir to Alfred Hitchcock. Written by Paul Schrader, this film is an homage to Vertigo, with its own stylish twists and turns. Cliff Robertson plays a businessman who, while traveling in Italy, meets a young woman (Genevieve Bujold) who is a dead ringer for his late wife, who had been killed in a kidnapping years earlier. As he woos and wins her, the vibes get creepier and creepier because, well, something's not right about this woman. Interestingly, this film came out the same year as De Palma's Carrie, a much more successful movie at the box office. But it was this movie that, for all its flaws, proclaimed De Palma as a stylist with a sure-handed command of visual storytelling. --Marshall Fine ... Read more

Reviews (539)

His Name Is Tony...
Actor Al Pacino gives a powerhouse performance in 1983's SCARFACE. Paciino plays Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee hoodlum, who quickly rises to the top of Miami's cocaine industry. On his way to the top, Tony uses any means at his disposal to get there, no matter who he hurts or betrays in the process. Pacino takes hold of the character and never lets you forget that he is "Scarface". The supporting cast is wonderful too. It features Steven Bauer, as Tony's right hand man, "Manny" Ray. Michelle Pfeiffer is Tony's girl, Elvira, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, in a role early in her acting career, plays Gina, Tony's sister.

The hard-edged script for the film is written by Oliver Stone, who holds nothing back, as usual Directed by Brian De Palma, the movie doesn't flinch at all to tell its story. The film remains a favorite of mine and will leave you with quite a lasting impression. A "remake" of 1932's SCARFACE, in name only, the film is nearly flawless.

The "Collector's Edition" contains a feature length retrospective documentary, that is so well done, you almost forget that there is no commentary track. It is very comprehensive and covers all aspects of the film and its place in cinema history. There's also a number of deleted scenes and outtakes that were nice to see. These fine extras add up to one heck of a DVD for one of the best gangster movies ever made. SCARFACE should not be missed and comes highly recommended.

Nothing Succeeds Like Excess
Given the high-power talent behind the camera (Brian DePalma), in front of it (Al Pacino), and at the typewriter (Oliver Stone), SCARFACE should have quite a lot going for it. It does indeed, although I can't quite call this a GODFATHER-type masterpiece for certain reasons.

Ostensibly, this is a reworking of Howard Hawks' classic 1932 gangster pic about Al Capone. This time, the setting is Miami circa 1980, the contraband in question is cocaine, and the lead character, Pacino's Tony Montana, is a Cuban-born criminal who just came off the Mariel boat lift with 125,000 others that Castro let go, twenty percent of whom were known criminals. Pacino gets in on the ground floor with a local drug boss (Robert Loggia) and soon works his way to the top, doing just about everything to tick someone off--associates, enemies, cops, his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer), his sister (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), and the Colombian drug kingpins he has to do business with.

But in his cocaine-fueled journey to achieve the so-called American Dream, he neglects to follow two rules taught to him by Loggia: (1) Don't underestimate the other guy's greed; and (2) Don't get high on your own supply. He finally crosses the line in the end by alienating a Colombian drug boss (Paul Shenar) so much that Shenar sends assassins to Pacino's Miami villa. The result is a horrific and bloody shootout in which most of the assassins are rubbed out, and so is Pacino.

Without a doubt, SCARFACE continues to generate wildly divergent opinions, both pro and con. I for one had some trouble trying to stomach Pacino's Cuban accent at first, but then his ultra-charistmatic performance kicked into high gear, four-letter words and all. The film is very true to its essentials of showing how a certain segment of the Cuban boat people, a very SMALL segment, tried to latch onto the American Dream by trafficking in illegal narcotics and thus earning millions. Probably the most interesting thing about SCARFACE is the political view that Stone espouses in his screenplay: he seems to espouse a very Reaganesque view of the world of the 1980s (virulent anti-Communism; anti-Castro), but in truth he is severely critical of those very same policies that motivated Castro to send the worst of his worst onto American soil and thus accelerate this nation's drug problem.

SCARFACE does have its faults. It requires a lot of patience to sit through with a running time approaching 170 minutes, and I am not all that sure there is enough in there to sustain it for that kind of length. The film continues to be controversial in some quarters for its extreme (as opposed to merely excessive) violence; the chainsaw scene in an apartment, the hanging from a helicopter, and the ultra-gory shootout at the end rank as some of the most violent scenes ever shown on film. Only four other films in history challenge it in this respect: THE WILD BUNCH, SOLDIER BLUE, TAXI DRIVER, and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. Finally, this film set a record for the greatest number of times the "F" word, or variations of it, are used; I lost count at two hundred. This IS a bit much, although it probably fits the reality of the situation it depicts.

On the other hand, DePalma, whose 1976 film CARRIE remains one of the touchstone suspense/horror films of all times, does make quite a lot out of Stone's wild and crazy screenplay--though surprisingly, for the violent scenes, he doesn't use slow-motion or montage that much, which would have earned him favorable comparisons with the legendary Sam Peckinpah. Just as solid is the camera work of John Alonzo, who worked on CHINATOWN and BLACK SUNDAY, among others. Giorgio Moroder's score is pretty good, though I do admit it gets a little cheesy after a while. And Pacino's performance is also high-caliber; just get used to his Cuban accent, and it works very well.

This film comes highly recommended, but with this warning: It is definitely NOT for younger audiences, it is rated 'R' for a lot of good reasons.

Best Movie Ever!!!!!!!!!
This is the greatest movie that was ever created! I could not beleive how great this movie was when I saw it. Not only the movie was great but great actors like Al Pacino. If you have any money don't spend it on anything else than this movie!

WOULD YOU KISS ME IF I WEAR THE HAT!?
This is one of the greatest movies of all time and the AFI top 100 movies of all time refuses to acknowledge it. Al Pacino deserved an oscar for his portrayal of Tony Montana, the movie deserved an oscar for something yet this movie is constantly overlooked by all critics, but the cult following that it has amassed is by far more telling of it's popularity than sheer box office numbers. ask anyone on the street and they'll tell you Scarface is one of the best movies ever made, and if they don't think so they haven't seen it. So sit back, crack some hennessy and alize, light up a cigar, and enjoy one of the best movies ever made!

Classic Gangster Flick
No matter what anybody says, this has to be one of the ten best gangster movies ever made, if not in the top three. If you are a fan of this genre, Scarface is a gourmet banquet of acting, action, dialogue and intensity. And if you don't enjoy this, all I can say is I'm sorry that you're missing out. The only reason I don't give this movie 5 stars is that I don't know what to make of Giorgio Moroder's cheesy sythn soundtrack and disco tunes. If you think in the context of the movie, that 80's Cuban drug dealers might like listening to really bad disco music ("...Rush, rush to the yeyo") then this music works in the confines of the Babylon nightclub along with the bad hair, clothes, Belzer's lousy comedy and the mime. But these songs, if they had to stand on their own outside the movie, would be totally ignored. I wonder if Deborah Harry ( then at the height of fame with her band Blondie) knew when she laid down the vocals for Moroder's muzak that this song was designed as junk to suit the movie or if she thought this might boost her singing career. If you account for the disco muzak as necessary "set dressing" for the Babylon it still doesn't excuse Moroder's cheesy synth soundtrack. How much better this movie could have been if it was scored by an accomplished orchestral composer such as Morricone or Williams. If you want more proof of Moroder's shortcomings check out the soundtrack of Metropolis. ... Read more

Reviews (42)

An extra star for being unfairly maligned
OK, so it's not exactly the same experience as reading Tom Wolfe's wonderful novel, but who would expect a movie to be a perfect reflection of a book? It certainly was not the bomb that everyone claimed it was, and has held up quite well considering how universally hated it was. Tom Hanks was miscast, but he did the best he could in the role. Bruce Willis took a lot of heat for a supposedly poor performance, mainly because in the book, his character was supposed to be British. Who cares whether his character is British or American? His main job was to serve as a somewhat sporadic narrator, and he did that as well as anyone.

Melanie Griffith gives an excellent performance as Maria, pushing right up to the edge without becoming a caricature. Kim Cattrall is cool and credible as Hanks' vacuous society wife. Morgan Freeman gave perhaps the strongest performance of the entire film, ruling his courtroom with an iron but equitable fist and delivering some of the best lines in the script, as well.

Perhaps the expectations were just too high for this movie at the time of its release, but I enjoyed it as much as many recent films that have received critical accolades. At first I thought that the pacing was going to be a bit slow, but I was sufficiently involved in the film that the time passed very quickly.

The DVD video transfer is good but not spectacular, and the sound is adequate but nothing special. There are no extras, but that is to be expected on a DVD that is sold in some retail outlets for [less money].

I give the film 3 stars, plus an extra "consolation" star for having been excessively and unfairly criticized.

Woefully underestimated!
I picked up this movie for only $1 at a local rummage sale without knowing anything about it. I have since watched my VHS copy so many times that it finally stopped playing. This movie taken on it's own merit is fantastic!

Bruce Willis is absolutely wonderful with his portrayal of the drunken journalist, and my favorite character from the movie. Melanie Griffith makes an excellent bad girl, as she tries worming her way out of trouble. F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hanks, and many more!

This is one hell of a sleeper movie, and I am glad I finally found the DVD version. My suggestion is rent it, and if you love it as much as I do, then buy it!

Let's set the record straight!
This is a good movie! Forget about the miscasting quibbles about Tom Hanks. He does an amiable job with Sherman McCoy. If one wants to nit-pick, Bruce Willis was the odder casting choice for the drunken british journalist Peter Farrow. Melanie Griffith is perfect as Maria and the rest of the cast does just fine. The directing is handled with De Palma's usual blend of exellence and professionalism. The movie looks like a million dollars with fantastic cinematoghraphy by Vilmos Zsigmond (The opening title sequence is breathtaking!) It seems to me that the problem is that this is based on a beloved book that was on everybody's coffee table and book shelf in the 1980's and everyone had thier own preconceived notions about who should star. Maybe Hanks is too likable in the film as Sherman but having not read the book until after I saw the movie, I was thoroughly swept away by the plot and it's cast. It seems that critics were all set to destroy this film based on the casting announcements alone and De Palma could have made any variation of the book and it still would have taken a beating. Watch it with an open mind and enjoy. For crying out loud gang, it's only a movie. And a fine one at that. Give it a chance.

one of the most under-rated films of all time
Next to Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate, David Lynch's Dune, and Francis Ford Coppola's One From the Heart, Brian De Palma's Bonfire of the Vanities is a savagely under-rated film. De Palma once again demonstrates he is a master of wit. The film was initially criticized, or rather misinterpreted, for being somehow 'lightweight.' If anything, the film is over-the-top! De Palma's choice for lavish sets and stunning cinematography (by vilmos zsigmond) in wall street upper class New York perfectly match the subject matter and commentary on the 1980s greed infested 'me' decade and Reagan/Bush era, adapted from Thomas Wolfe's popular novel. Critics howled that the film downplayed Wolfe's themes...people act like Tom Wolfe, albeit a talented writer, is somehow as deep as James Joyce or something. The message of the book is pretty darn simple people! and it translates very obviously, perhaps even too obviously, in the film. Not to mention the fact that film is a totally different medium than literature, and one should not expect a film to be exactly like the book. as for the miscasting criticism, it is true Hanks doesnt exactly perfectly fit the role of McCoy, but he doesnt take away from the movie. The supporting cast, however, is better than him. Griffith is fantastic, and Willis gives a performance that practically carries the movie. I think this film was very ambitious and ahead of its time, and will in the future eventually be recognized as a very good film.

UGGGGHH!..
This was, without a doubt, the worst movie I ever suffered all the way through in a movie theater (I walked out on Jodie Foster's "Hotel New Hampshire"). From what I understand, this film doesn't do the book justice, but I never read the book. All I know is that a movie should be made to hold one's interest, even those who didn't read the book. The script was roundly uninteresting, and hard to follow, to boot. And the acting... What acting?? This is the worst work of Tom Hanks' illustrious career. It must pain him, to be reminded of it. And Bruce Willis is as stiff as a cardboard cutout. To say that he has all the acting skill of a mannikin, would be an insult to mannikins everywhere! If Melanie Griffith's acting is the best thing you have to hang your hat on, you don't have much to speak of. I have always thought that Melanie's looks, facial expressions, and sympathetic voice were the best things about her acting. She has proven to be rather one-dimensional. Still, she deserved better than this, and it seems that her career is the one that suffered the most from being associated with this stinker.... For "The Bonfire of the Vanities" to AVERAGE out to a 3 stars, should tell you all you need to know. Avoid this one, or you'll be sorry... If, that is, you can stay awake through it. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

De Niro's 2nd movie
This is a great film, made by Brian De Palma with a very young De Niro. He plays a really interesting role that shows how talented this actor was already in 1968. I recommend it for all De Niro's fans. ... Read more

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As noted critic Pauline Kael wrote, the 1987 box-office hit The Untouchables is "like an attempt to visualize the public's collective dream of Chicago gangsters." In other words, this lavish reworking of the vintage TV series is a rousing potboiler from a bygone era, so beautifully designed and photographed--and so craftily directed by Brian De Palma--that the historical reality of Prohibition-era Chicago could only pale in comparison. From a script by David Mamet, the movie pits four underdog heroes (the maverick lawmen known as the Untouchables) against a singular villain in Al Capone, played by Robert De Niro as a dapper caesar holding court (and a baseball bat) against any and all challengers. Kevin Costner is the naive federal agent Eliot Ness, whose lack of experience is tempered by the streetwise alliance of a seasoned Chicago cop (Sean Connery, in an Oscar-winning performance), a rookie marksman (Andy Garcia),and an accountant (Charles Martin Smith) who holds the key to Capone's potential downfall. The movie approaches greatness on the strength of its set pieces, such as the siege near the Canadian border, the venal ambush at Connery's apartment, and the train-station shootout partially modeled after the "Odessa steps" sequences of the Russian classic Battleship Potemkin. It'sthrilling stuff, fueled by Ennio Morricone's dynamic score, but it's also manipulative and obvious. If you're inclined to be critical, the movie gives you reason to complain. If you'd rather sit back and enjoy a first-rate production with an all-star cast, The Untouchables may very well strike you as a classic. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (131)

Good versus Evil in a deadly dance of operatic proportions.
Sometimes dubbed "the Master of the Macabre," director Brian De Palma is best known for his enactments of the supernatural ("Carrie"), mania ("Dressed to Kill") - and his mob stories. The latter part of his reputation is primarily grounded on four of his movies from the ten-year period between 1983 and 1993: "Scarface" (1983, starring Al Pacino), "Wise Guys" (1986, starring Danny De Vito, Joe Piscopo and Harvey Keitel), "Carlito's Way" (1993, again starring Pacino) ... and "The Untouchables" (1987), featuring an all-star cast including Robert De Niro, Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Andy Garcia and Charles Martin Smith. Among these, "The Untouchables" stands out as the only movie not primarily told from the gangster's but from the lawmen's perspective - but what it does share with all of De Palma's works is an almost voyeuristic appeal to its audience's visual senses; going far beyond the lavish display of film blood it is most often cited for.

Less fact-based than cinematic grand opera par excellence, the movie takes as its premise the end of the career of Chicago's ganglord of ganglords, Al "Scarface" Capone, who (after a few half-hearted attempts to prosecute him for murder had failed due to the unavailability of witnesses) pled guilty, in 1931, to evading federal income tax, and was sentenced to an 11-year prison term and a $50,000 fine. Capone's downfall was brought about by a group of initially 50 but later only nine Treasury Agents, formed in 1929 (not in 1930, as suggested here) with the express purpose of breaking up his operations, and headed by Eliot Ness, whose 1957 book "The Untouchables" posthumously gave new rise to his fame - Ness died of a heart attack without ever having witnessed the full extent of his book's success - and inspired, inter alia, the like-named 1959 television series starring Robert Stack and Brian De Palma's 1987 movie.

Scripted by Pulitzer Prize winner and Chicago native David Mamet ("Glengarry Glen Ross"), "The Untouchables" is not so much a study in character development as based on a western's classic "good versus evil" setup; although that doesn't mean that its protagonists are two-dimensional in any way. On the contrary: Robert De Niro imbues his Capone with a ruthlessness and glib charm very likely matching those of the real "Scarface," who was known for his little hesitation to commit murder and other acts of violence as much as he cultivated a reputation as a savvy businessman and benefactor of the poor, for example by running several soup kitchens. (And yes, all of De Niro's mannerisms are on full display, too; but rarely have they fitted a role as well as here.) Kevin Costner's Eliot Ness may be a little too assertive - Robert Stack once commented, after several conversations with Ness's nearest and dearest, that the real-life Treasury Agent had been described to him as "rather soft-spoken, but very effective and brave" - but mildness is certainly not the principle trait written into the larger-than-life role of the man who "got" Al Capone, and Costner *is* an effective lead; although he is matched (not entirely sidelined, but darn near outplayed) by Sean Connery, who deservedly won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a National Board of Review Award as the crotchety old-timer Malone who has seen it all, somehow managed to stay both clean and alive, and now lets Ness talk him into becoming his tutor in all things Chicago Gangland. Andy Garcia, in his break-through role, is instantly likable as George Stone, the smart, fast kid from the South Side who doesn't take kindly to put-downs of his origin but can nail a human target with one hand while lying down and holding a baby stroller with the other hand. Charles Martin Smith finally brings humanity and subtle humor to the character probably closest to the real-life "Untouchables," accountant Oscar Wallace, who first has the idea to charge Capone for income tax evasion. Strong performances by Billy Drago as Capone's right-hand man Frank Nitti (who of course was not really thrown off a rooftop by Ness), Richard Bradford as Police Chief Mike Dorsett, Patricia Clarkson as Ness's wife, Jack Kehoe as Capone's bookkeeper Walter Payne and others round out an altogether impressive cast.

Unmistakeably scored by Ennio Morricone (whose style often, and certainly here, doesn't even take a full bar to recognize; and who with an ASCAP Award, a Grammy and a BAFTA Award was the movie's other major winner besides Connery), "The Untouchables" lives off its splendid cinematography, production design - costumes courtesy of Giorgio Armani - and the exquisite timing of its sharp-edged dialogue and editing: Not only is screenwriter Mamet known to have his actors practice their lines according to a metronome; the editing of some of the movie's most memorable scenes has the distinct feeling of a carefully choreographed, veritable ballet. This is particularly true for Malone's death, pointedly set against the aria "Vesti la Giubba" from Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera "I Pagliacci" ("The Clowns"), which is based on a real-life murder and which Capone attends while his lieutenants waylay Malone in his own apartment; and the famous shoot-out in Chicago's Union Station, which turns into a deadly dance of bullets, blood and a baby stroller, shot almost entirely in slow motion.

Paradoxically, the one plot element this movie is most often criticized for - the jury switch at Capone's trial - is one of the few facts that actually did take place (although Capone's attorney would have had to be given the right to conduct a new voir dire). But ultimately, it doesn't even really matter how much of the plot is fact-based and how much fiction: Even if "The Untouchables" doesn't quite reach the mythical status of the "Godfather" trilogy - particularly its Parts 1 and 2 - as the mob movie to end all mob movies, it is one of only a handful other films that at least come close to the proportions of Francis Ford Coppola's epic masterpiece.

"What are you prepared to do?"
Brian DePalma's 1930s gangster film is none-the-less ingenius. Sean Connery deservedly won an Oscar for his moving performace, and the screenplay is fantastic.
Kevin Costner is Eliot Ness, an idealistic crime-fighter who moves to Chicago with his family to fight the infamous gangster Al Capone, brilliantly played by Robert De Niro. Ness enlists the help of Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery), an aging cop who knows how to defeat Capone. also helping Ness are George Stone (Andy Garcia), a young, streetwise cop, and FBI accountant Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith), whose knowledge may help crack open the violent war that has broken out. Chicago gangsters are battling a hapless police force in the Prohabition.
the coolect scene has to be when the "four riders" take on a shipment of alchohol on the U.S.-Canandian border. after their triumphant victory, however, Capone retaliates violently, which leaves our friends - and the audience - in shock and for-lasts the film in tragety.
truly one of the greatest detective/action movies ever made, "The Untouchables" is a modern masterpiece. rent it and then buy the DVD!

Touchable...
This film marks several remarkable firsts: The first true representation of a David Mamet film script (although "The Verdict" in 1980 came first), the leading-man status of Kevin Costner (deservedly so, since despite disasters like "The Postman" and "3000 Miles to Graceland", he's a very good actor with a very impressive resume and an Oscar to boot), Sean Connery's first Oscar win, also very much deserved, and most importantly, the first good film from Brian De Palma. People call films like "Body Double", "Carrie", "Blow Out" and "Dressed to Kill" classics... why they do, I have nary a clue. Those are some of the worst rip-off films in history. His "Hitchcockian" feeling is, to me, straight-up plagarism. He rips off plots and shots that are embarassing mish-moshes of Hitch's best (and worst) stuff. And did you see "Mission to Mars"? I didn't think so. And the only people that I can imagine that liked "Femme Fatale" were fans of the bathroom sequence (If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about). The only other film of his that was worth watching was "Mission: Impossible". But "The Untouchables" is a real work of art. I won't go into plot points, but I'll comment on the film's great points: 1) The dialogue is sparkling. Mamet makes these people real as opposed to just making them standard action caricatures (the young idealist, the grizzled old wise-man, the cocky rookie, and the dorky fifth-wheel). 2) The performances are top-notch. Costner, Connery, Martin Smith, Garcia, De Niro, and an underrated performance from Richard Bradford as Chief Dorsett really help to pull this film off. They give it all they got. They make the tragedy and drama and excitement and horror and triumpth of this film work. 3) The visuals are stunning. Stephen Burum really makes that camera work, especially with those beautiful shots of LaSalle Street. This film is a great revisionist telling of the Eliot Ness vs. Al Capone brawl. The film obviously takess a lot of liberties with history, but they really work, especially with the dispatching of one particularly bad man which in my opinion makes for the MOST satisfying film death EVER. It really makes you happy to watch this guy bite it ("Did he sound anything like THAT?!?"). This is a great film and I could not recommend it more highly. But go ahead and skip the rest of De Palma's 'classics'.

i love the movie and it's series
hello,my name's aaron johnson
the reason i'm writting this review for the untouchables film
is because i've seen it so many times that i enjoy how malone says his famous line to elliot , the one about getting capone
anyway, the whole entire plot is excellent
especially when the federal agents try to stop capone's men in time

the other reason i'm writting in this review , is because i've seen the untouchables tv series
and i'm wondering this very question ;
"when will the untouchables tv series from 1993
be out on dvd"

because i think that people would enjoy the entire [whatever how many seasons it ran for [if it was one or two] of the series

i'm sure a lot of other customers would appreciate the untouchables tv series on dvd

Great gangster cartoon!
The Untouchables tells the story of four policemen who fight Al Capone during the prohibition of the 30's. Don't expect anything like The Godfather though: this movie merely aims at -sometimes cartoonish- entertainment. Don't be surprised with the stereotypical characters and story and the all too colourful 30's setting. It's just how this movie works. Robert de Niro's Al Capone is excellent as the funny bad guy, Kevin Costner and Sean Connery both fit excellently in their roles as two persistent police officers with a mission. Yes, several happenings in the story may be somewhat cliché, but it is nothing less an exciting movie to watch. Executions, shoot-outs, trials and much more: it's all here. It's still better to pinch something well than to invent something badly! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Funny DePalma Film
If your a fan of Nancy Allen or Brian DePalma, or Keith Gordon you should enjoy this one. It's not the best of Brian DePalma's work, but I fell in love with the humour.This is deminstated in numerous scenes with Nancy Allen. I loves the two scenes when 1. Her hand puppet rabbit comes alive-who didn't laugh at the bit''I'm rabbit and this is toots with the heavenly body, catch us at the pussycat,catch us at the pussycat.2. After she's been out eating hamburgers with Keith Gordons character, her boyfriend gets the scent of something he hasn't smelt in a long time ie( he's only eating health food- he puts her through a series of tests to see if she's worthy of being with him). It's worth a look. ... Read more

Reviews (211)

Unique blend of horror and sentiment.
There's one thing I specifically like about certain horror films, and that is those that contain the horror elements, yet have a story that allows you to feel a great deal of emotion for a main or secondary character, depending on the focus of the plot. When Stephen King wrote his first novel, Carrie, it was shocking as well as emotionally heart-stopping. Brian de Palma's film, following soon after, is groundbreaking and intense, and captures the horror of the character's actions as well as the horror of her secluded and alienated school and home life.

Carrie White has never been popular in school, and the verbal and physical abuse has apparently gotten worse with each year. One day, she gets her first period in the showers of the girls locker room, and frantically running to everyone for help, she is bombarded by shouts of banter and flying tampons. After it is learned that she was never told by anyone about this process of life, we soon learn the reason why: her mother is a Bible-thumping embodiment of a true maniac, who believes that every action committed by man is a sin in the eyes of God. Her treatment of her daughter is extremely harsh, but only until Carrie learns that she possesses a special gift, the ability to move objects with her mind. Meanwhile, Sue Snell, one of the girls involved in the malicious locker room incident, feels guilt over her actions and asks her boyfriend Tommy to take Carrie to the prom. Carrie accepts, and attends the event despite her mother's warnings of doom and sin. But something much worse will happen, something more terrifying than Mrs. White could ever imagine.

"Carrie" is one of the most well-known horror films of all time, and has set the standard for many later films of the genre. The entire premise for the movie is quite original, and the execution of the material is even more powerful and emotional than the novel itself. What makes it so emotional is the fact that there is a human story that happens everyday around the world. Carrie is constantly bantered and teased about every aspect of her life: her home, her mother, her apparel, and her demeanor, and it is done in such a manner that you cannot help but feel a great deal of sorrow for her when she commits the ultimate act in the finale of the film.

De Palma's camera angles and cinematography add an immense amount to the overall effect. Many of his shots usually center on someone in the foreground, while Carrie is somewhere within the near background, making her appear minute and small among everyone else. His use of the two-window effect for the prom sequence helps us to see more of the destruction and the reactions people have to events going on around them. One more notable sequence is opening scene, in the girls locker room, where we see the rest of the girls having fun and making merry while Carrie is alone and singled out in the shower stall. Throughout the movie, De Palma does a spectacular job in making Carrie seem insignificant when put with a group of people.

Sissy Spacek was brought to the project to play the title character, and does a top-notch job. She is the perfect "ugly-duckling" type for the role, and she is able to play out all of the emotion and terror that Carrie experiences throughout the novel. Amy Irving is does a credible job as Sue Snell, and her performance makes us believe that Sue really does feel sorry for what she has done to Carrie. The rest of the ensemble makes the movie believable, and never is there a moment where you will question the authenticity of a performance.

Certain to remain a hallmark of moviemaking, "Carrie" will shock, scare, and incite emotion for years to come. It is a movie that operates on many different levels, each beginning at separate times of the film, yet converging in the end to sweep us up in horror and sorrow.

Here's to the Devil with false modesty...;)
Released in 1976, "Carrie" is a disturbing horror film that's generously fueled by psychological tension and religious iconography. Unlike the decade's other two occult works, "The Exorcist" and "The Omen," this is not a tale about the Devil's chicanery. Although it overlaps ominous images of Christ with the raging feminine hormones of teenagers, the film actually decrys the tragic reality of school bullying; as an underrated form of child abuse, this so-called "rite of passage" involves a youth culture so cruel and thoughtless that it drives its victims to suicide or murder.
Actress Sissy Spacek portrays Carrie White, a shy and lonely misfit who is constantly harrassed by her classmates. After another strenuous game of vollyball, she begins to mensturate in the girls' shower. Terrified at seeing the blood running down her fingers, Carrie hysterically cries to the other students for help. But instead, all of the girls corner her in the locker room, jeering and tossing tampons at her. From that moment on, viewers are introduced to the appalling ignorance of the high school staff; not only do the teachers refuse to take Carrie's word seriously, but even Principal Morton (Stefan Gierasch) can't seem to remember her first and last name. The only official to pity her is gym teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley), who realizes that she was never taught how to deal with PMS. Fiercely determined to protect Carrie's well-being, Miss Collins punishes the class with a week's worth of brutal, boot camp athletics; anyone who refused to attend detention was excluded from the senior prom.
Meanwhile, behind closed doors, Carrie is tortured and chastised by her Mother (Piper Laurie), a straitlaced Christian fanatic who corrupts every passage in the Bible, blatantly accusing her daughter of being sinful. After hearing about her first period, Margaret White assumes that Carrie is inflicted with the curse of blood, and that she's tempted by the Antichrist's lust. Forcing her to pray for strength, Margaret drags her helpless daughter into a tiny closet, where a gaunt effigy of Jesus stares into a dark void of nothingness. It seems that all hope is lost for this little girl, but that mood eventually changes. Through library research, Carrie discovers she possesses telekinetic powers; whenever she gets angry or afraid, she can flip an ashtray off a desk, shatter a mirror, or make doors open and close unaided. Eventually, this is the weapon she uses to fight back against her Mother's assault.
Seeking revenge, one of Carrie's most hateful bullies, a spoiled and nasty girl named Chris (Nancy Allen), cajoles her drunk boyfriend Billy (John Travolta) to play a sadistic prank on her. On prom night, after Carrie and poet Tommy Ross (William Katt) are crowned King and Queen, Chris dumps a bucket of pig's blood on her head. Drenched and degraded, she is surrounded by a kaleidoscope of laughing spectators. In an act of murderous rage, Carrie unleashes her telekinetic anger upon the crowd. With her cold and blank stare, she showers water from a firehose, electrocutes the microphone, and engulfs the entire school in flames. In perhaps the most shocking split-screen sequence in history, this unforgettable night of terror is shot through multiple perspectives, while glowing a grisly, hellish red.
If you are seeking a horror classic for your DVD collection, I strongly recommend this film, as well as "The Exorcist," "Evil Dead," and "Nightmare on Elm Street."

Classical
Carrie White is a bit strange. She is friendless, her mother is obsessed with worshipping god, and sin, everybody at school harrases her, and to top it all off, she gets asked to the prom by the "hottest" guy in school, which also happens to be the guy Carrie has "special feelings" for.

Now, when you mix all those things together, do you come to the conclusion that Carrie might be under a lot of pressure? Well sure you do, cause she is. And to her horror, when she and Billy or whoever it is, i forget his name, starts to dance to the school song, a huge bucket of pigs blood is poured on her.

Blood, guts, gore...not really, but during the last half hour or so, the violence is pretty strong, not too graphic, but there are some graphic scenes of violence. When a girl gets crushed by a basketball hoop thingy, and when Carries mom gets killed by knifes being stabbed in her. I am sure there are some other ones, but those are the most graphic that i Can remeber right now.

Not too sexual, but there are definatly some sexual scenes, after all, this IS stephen king we are talking about, read this book and that will be enough dose of sexuality for you for one day, guarenteed.

Chilling ever time I see it
This movie is a very rare type of teen horror moive. It perfectly balences our fears and teen angst with phenominal acting at the same time. I think the reason why Carrie is still so fresh even today is because we all have a little bit of Carrie in all of us. All of us at one point in our lives have been teased, beaten up, or felt like you didn't belong at some point in our lives. We all know exactly how Carrie feels when all the girls laugh at her at the prom, or the excitment she felt when the most popular guy in schol askes her to the prom. We have all experienced these feeling throught out our teen years. Pino Donaggio did a superb job with the sountrack. Its so simple yet so effective. The music playing just before the blood is dumped still gets me everytime. It sounds almost like a clock ticking. Almost as if itsticking away the time that the kids have left to live. Even though I know whats gonna happen that scene never fails to scare me to death. This movie is a must see. Even todays teens will love this movie.

Steven King at his best
Probably the best translation of a Steven King novel into a movie. You can't miss this one. ... Read more

Amazon.com

This sprawling epic of bloodshed and excess, Brian De Palma's update of the classic 1932 crime drama by Howard Hawks, sparked controversy over its outrageous violence when released in 1983. Scarface is a wretched, fascinating car wreck of a movie, starring Al Pacino as a Cuban refugee who rises to the top of Miami's cocaine-driven underworld, only to fall hard into his own deadly trap of addiction and inevitable assassination. Scripted by Oliver Stone and running nearly three hours, it's the kind of film that can simultaneously disgust and amaze you (critic Pauline Kael wrote "this may be the only action picture that turns into an allegory of impotence"), with vivid supporting roles for Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Robert Loggia. Universal's special edition digital video disc includes a documentary about the making of the film that features numerous interviews and several deleted scenes. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (539)

His Name Is Tony...
Actor Al Pacino gives a powerhouse performance in 1983's SCARFACE. Paciino plays Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee hoodlum, who quickly rises to the top of Miami's cocaine industry. On his way to the top, Tony uses any means at his disposal to get there, no matter who he hurts or betrays in the process. Pacino takes hold of the character and never lets you forget that he is "Scarface". The supporting cast is wonderful too. It features Steven Bauer, as Tony's right hand man, "Manny" Ray. Michelle Pfeiffer is Tony's girl, Elvira, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, in a role early in her acting career, plays Gina, Tony's sister.

The hard-edged script for the film is written by Oliver Stone, who holds nothing back, as usual Directed by Brian De Palma, the movie doesn't flinch at all to tell its story. The film remains a favorite of mine and will leave you with quite a lasting impression. A "remake" of 1932's SCARFACE, in name only, the film is nearly flawless.

The "Collector's Edition" contains a feature length retrospective documentary, that is so well done, you almost forget that there is no commentary track. It is very comprehensive and covers all aspects of the film and its place in cinema history. There's also a number of deleted scenes and outtakes that were nice to see. These fine extras add up to one heck of a DVD for one of the best gangster movies ever made. SCARFACE should not be missed and comes highly recommended.

Nothing Succeeds Like Excess
Given the high-power talent behind the camera (Brian DePalma), in front of it (Al Pacino), and at the typewriter (Oliver Stone), SCARFACE should have quite a lot going for it. It does indeed, although I can't quite call this a GODFATHER-type masterpiece for certain reasons.

Ostensibly, this is a reworking of Howard Hawks' classic 1932 gangster pic about Al Capone. This time, the setting is Miami circa 1980, the contraband in question is cocaine, and the lead character, Pacino's Tony Montana, is a Cuban-born criminal who just came off the Mariel boat lift with 125,000 others that Castro let go, twenty percent of whom were known criminals. Pacino gets in on the ground floor with a local drug boss (Robert Loggia) and soon works his way to the top, doing just about everything to tick someone off--associates, enemies, cops, his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer), his sister (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), and the Colombian drug kingpins he has to do business with.

But in his cocaine-fueled journey to achieve the so-called American Dream, he neglects to follow two rules taught to him by Loggia: (1) Don't underestimate the other guy's greed; and (2) Don't get high on your own supply. He finally crosses the line in the end by alienating a Colombian drug boss (Paul Shenar) so much that Shenar sends assassins to Pacino's Miami villa. The result is a horrific and bloody shootout in which most of the assassins are rubbed out, and so is Pacino.

Without a doubt, SCARFACE continues to generate wildly divergent opinions, both pro and con. I for one had some trouble trying to stomach Pacino's Cuban accent at first, but then his ultra-charistmatic performance kicked into high gear, four-letter words and all. The film is very true to its essentials of showing how a certain segment of the Cuban boat people, a very SMALL segment, tried to latch onto the American Dream by trafficking in illegal narcotics and thus earning millions. Probably the most interesting thing about SCARFACE is the political view that Stone espouses in his screenplay: he seems to espouse a very Reaganesque view of the world of the 1980s (virulent anti-Communism; anti-Castro), but in truth he is severely critical of those very same policies that motivated Castro to send the worst of his worst onto American soil and thus accelerate this nation's drug problem.

SCARFACE does have its faults. It requires a lot of patience to sit through with a running time approaching 170 minutes, and I am not all that sure there is enough in there to sustain it for that kind of length. The film continues to be controversial in some quarters for its extreme (as opposed to merely excessive) violence; the chainsaw scene in an apartment, the hanging from a helicopter, and the ultra-gory shootout at the end rank as some of the most violent scenes ever shown on film. Only four other films in history challenge it in this respect: THE WILD BUNCH, SOLDIER BLUE, TAXI DRIVER, and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. Finally, this film set a record for the greatest number of times the "F" word, or variations of it, are used; I lost count at two hundred. This IS a bit much, although it probably fits the reality of the situation it depicts.

On the other hand, DePalma, whose 1976 film CARRIE remains one of the touchstone suspense/horror films of all times, does make quite a lot out of Stone's wild and crazy screenplay--though surprisingly, for the violent scenes, he doesn't use slow-motion or montage that much, which would have earned him favorable comparisons with the legendary Sam Peckinpah. Just as solid is the camera work of John Alonzo, who worked on CHINATOWN and BLACK SUNDAY, among others. Giorgio Moroder's score is pretty good, though I do admit it gets a little cheesy after a while. And Pacino's performance is also high-caliber; just get used to his Cuban accent, and it works very well.

This film comes highly recommended, but with this warning: It is definitely NOT for younger audiences, it is rated 'R' for a lot of good reasons.

Best Movie Ever!!!!!!!!!
This is the greatest movie that was ever created! I could not beleive how great this movie was when I saw it. Not only the movie was great but great actors like Al Pacino. If you have any money don't spend it on anything else than this movie!

WOULD YOU KISS ME IF I WEAR THE HAT!?
This is one of the greatest movies of all time and the AFI top 100 movies of all time refuses to acknowledge it. Al Pacino deserved an oscar for his portrayal of Tony Montana, the movie deserved an oscar for something yet this movie is constantly overlooked by all critics, but the cult following that it has amassed is by far more telling of it's popularity than sheer box office numbers. ask anyone on the street and they'll tell you Scarface is one of the best movies ever made, and if they don't think so they haven't seen it. So sit back, crack some hennessy and alize, light up a cigar, and enjoy one of the best movies ever made!

Classic Gangster Flick
No matter what anybody says, this has to be one of the ten best gangster movies ever made, if not in the top three. If you are a fan of this genre, Scarface is a gourmet banquet of acting, action, dialogue and intensity. And if you don't enjoy this, all I can say is I'm sorry that you're missing out. The only reason I don't give this movie 5 stars is that I don't know what to make of Giorgio Moroder's cheesy sythn soundtrack and disco tunes. If you think in the context of the movie, that 80's Cuban drug dealers might like listening to really bad disco music ("...Rush, rush to the yeyo") then this music works in the confines of the Babylon nightclub along with the bad hair, clothes, Belzer's lousy comedy and the mime. But these songs, if they had to stand on their own outside the movie, would be totally ignored. I wonder if Deborah Harry ( then at the height of fame with her band Blondie) knew when she laid down the vocals for Moroder's muzak that this song was designed as junk to suit the movie or if she thought this might boost her singing career. If you account for the disco muzak as necessary "set dressing" for the Babylon it still doesn't excuse Moroder's cheesy synth soundtrack. How much better this movie could have been if it was scored by an accomplished orchestral composer such as Morricone or Williams. If you want more proof of Moroder's shortcomings check out the soundtrack of Metropolis. ... Read more