Ugly Movie

Rating: 1/10 (2 June 2003)

Semi-spoiler
On a personal note...this movie was filmed, in part, in front of my family's home (the red house across from Bracco's "home" in the movie...you know the scene...Ray Liotta runs across the street and pistol whips the neighbor's son, who is polishing his red Corvette - since I was, in reality, the son who lived across the street, I suppose, that was me taking all that punishment). Anyway, I was home visiting when they filmed for over a month on my street. It was interesting to watch the care (bordering on fanaticism) that Scorcese took in endlessly rehearsing minor scenes and then finally filming them. Which leads me to my point.
So much time, money, and effort spent to produce such an unpleasant film. Lord knows, it's not that everybody needs to be Pollyanna...we all are aware how truly wretched life can be...but why spend time watching loathsome, worthless characters act out pointless violence? There just has to be some better way of spending our time. Yep, we are base animals...as Scorcese incessantly likes to remind us in this and his other films...Thank you! We get the idea! However, why not take all that talent and time and produce something the uplifts the human spirit rather than denigrates it? "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" Glorify gangsters, not me!
OK...Goodfellas lovers...come on and pistol whip me...I'm waiting.