My favourite of all gangster flicks

Rating: 10/10 (5 July 2012)

Goodfellas by director Martin Scorsese is by far my most favourite gangster movie of all times. It's one of those movies that, despite its runtime of over 2 hours, I can watch again and again without ever getting bored at any time.
What it clearly sets it above other masterpieces of this genre like 'The Godfather' is that every scene gives me something. While many other movies of its kind tend to have scenes that get a bit tiresome or just aren't that interesting or entertaining, 'Goodfellas' succeeds to deliver top-notch entertainment until the end.
This is, of course, thanks to the extremely well written script and to the perfect cast. Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro who play the main characters give so good performances, that I could not think of any other actor to play any of those roles and the rest of the cast is equally good.
The movie has a perfect pacing which is also thanks to the narration of Henry Hill alias Ray Liotta. His voice accompanies us through the whole movie and is definitely a huge fun factor. He delivers his story so well that you virtually live through this movie with him. When he describes how he got into the organization and what it's like to be a wiseguy, you really comprehend and feel it.
Then there are the technical aspects of the movie. The camera work is brilliant with very long tracking shots and scenes without a cut which take you as an invisible spectator along through the scenes. And last but not least there's the music. Scorsese makes use of well-known pop music of that time, which really adds to the atmosphere as a whole.
In the end, 'Goodfellas' is my favourite Scorsese and gangster movie as well. There are very few movies (of that length and scope) that manage to deliver such a constant and high entertainment value from start to finish, but this is one that does.