Inside The mob

Rating: 8/10 (29 July 2007)

Meet Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). He grew up in a marginal neighborhood on the Brooklyn - Queens line near JFK Airport. The neighborhood is working class but colonized by the mob. Local boss Paul "Paulie" Cicero (Paul Sorvino) superintends the neighborhood like a feudal lord.
Paul Sevino carries the part of a low level mob boss with grace and dignity persuasively Italian without indulging in stereotypes.
Though not eligible for induction into the ritual laden Italian Mafia, Henry Hill and his occasional co-conspirators Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) are allowed to hang onto the fringe of the high life of organized crime.
Joe Pesci indulges more of the stereotypical Italian gangster: ruthless and earthy somewhat lacking in the class Servino brings to that role. Even though Pesci leans on certain stereotypes he manages to make a joke out of them. "Imagine," Tommy Devito frankly observes, "prejudice against Italians in this day and age." But be careful not to laugh too hard with Tommy. He guns down a made Mafioso for indulging in fun at Tommy's expense.
Tommy Devito, Jimmy Conway and Henry Hill may not be formally inducted Mafioso. They're called wise guys or goodfellas. While they're not official member of the Italian mob, they are involved in some of the major mob operations such as truck-jacking and airport heists including both the Air France and Luftansa raid.
There are others at the extreme periphery of the mob including Morris 'Morrie' Kessler (Chuck Low) who furnishes comic relief right up to the point calculating Jimmy Conway decides to rub Kessler out rather than pay Kessler his share of the Luftansa heist.
But money is not the sole object of the wise guys. Heck they blow it all on the track. It's the life.
Declares Henry Hill, "we're movie stars with muscle! Real life Italian - American Ray Liotta plays Henry Hill, the product of s strict Irish father and a saintly Italian mother well. Unlike his running buddy Tommy Devito, Henry has a certain charm he carries in the twinkling of blue eyes. He's one more likely to use persuasion than muscle when that's possible, but he's ready to administer a beating when that's required.
As long as wise guys kick money upstairs to Uncle Paulie, life can be beautiful. There are certain bounds: No Drugs and the penalty is the ultimate one for violating this rule. Will the temptation to make the big money selling drugs bring the high life of the wise guys down?