Joe Pesci - a funny guy

Rating: 10/10 (13 July 2002)

Pesci gives one of the finest cinema performances of recent years. He encapsulates the mood of the film - funny, disturbed, violent and with a total disregard for other people's lives. Yet we still love him!
The 'funny how?' monologue in the restaurant is one of the great movie speeches, right up there with 'you talkin to me?' and 'tears in the rain'. It is there that we discover just who we are going to spend the next couple of hours with - a borderline psycho with a sense of humour! A man who recreates the western 'dancing' scene with real bullets, a man who cold-bloodedly assassinates Sam Jackson's doped up musician then asks his dim-witted sidekick to make the coffee 'to go'.
If I ever meet Mr Pesci I'd like to think I had the bottle to thank him for one of my favourite movie turns. Or maybe I'll just ask him to go get his shine box...