Give me GoodFellas, for several reasons...

Rating: Null/10 (10 April 2001)

I went to this movie wanting a Scorsese-esqe opus. Be careful what you wish for, indeed. Though the first half is entertaining enough, the film stalls badly when Depp's Jung "retires" for reasons I won't reveal. This happens about halfway in, and the rest of the movie was torture for this viewer, despite some strong performances. Depp is his usual reliable self, and Ray Liotta triumphs as his kind-hearted father. On the other end of that spectrum is Rachel Griffith, misfiring badly as his mother, and Penelope Cruz grating the audience's collective nerve as his pint sized wife. The film's huge weakness, however, is it's silly moralizing and phony sentimentality. With GoodFellas, Scorsese presents a story free of these things. We're told what happened, and never asked to feel sorry for the characters. Even in the most notable GoodFellas ripoffs (Boogie Nights, Menace II Society, and Trainspotting), we are never asked to feel sorry for the characters. Here, we are inundated with sappy voice-over and an even sappier orchestral score that tugs at the heartstrings...or wants to. To add insult to injury, the film is remarkably and regrettably violence free.