Goodfellas

One Paulie, no Pete, no Vinnie, no Tony... what kind of gangsters are these?

I'm sorry, but how is this movie one of the best ever made? It seems like the plot is simply content to implode throughout the entire film. The basic summary is thus: Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) and his friends work their way up through the mob hierarchy. So perhaps I watched it too late at night, but it seemed to play out as thus (spoilers, but I don't recommend you see this one anyway): one's crazy and ends up face down in a pool of blood, one double-crosses and kills off his co-mobsters, and one tries to run his own crooked business, ends up getting busted, and turns pussy by ratting on everyone and running off to witness protection.

Now normally I don't have a problem with limited storyline, except where that's pretty much all the movie's got going for it. There is little else to keen a viewer interested, with no outstanding acting, sets, costumes, dialogue, no gory themes. No this movies hangs on its storyline, which unfortunately fails.

Where I think this movie falls down the most is the protagonist, Ray Liotta, isn't identifiable enough at the end. If mob movie history has taught audiences around the world one thing, it's that snitches are bad and get what's coming to them. So I'm not sure why the writer decided that was best plot to follow, but I feel it didn't serve to unite an audience behind his actions as the credits start to role.

So, average movie, ok acting, lame storyline.


The Good: Paul Sorvino as Paulie Cicero and much of the supporting cast.
The Meh: Storyline, the rest of the acting.
The Ugly: The ending.
Hey There Good Looking: Gina Mastrogiacomo
Overall: 6.5/10

 Somewhat less attractive in film...