"Murderers comes with smiles"

Rating: 7/10 (10 May 2012)

When I first heard of Goodfellas, I was intrigued. It wasn't about a a single part of a gangster's life, it wasn't about the one part where the gangster decided to move along, it wasn't all that sappy, stupid stuff. It was about the LIFE of a gangster, and that meant realism..
Realism is a change sometimes, because it's either overused or underused. People make it so hyper-realistic, it may be a bit boring. On the latter, they use so many things to make it unrealistic that it doesn't even make sense to watch it. But realism works as a counterpart, and it was a film by Martin Scorsese. Who could go wrong with that?
I turned it on, watched it, and enjoyed it. It worked as a gangster movie, but anything outside of that? I had some mixed feelings...
The acting was brilliant. Everything did such an amazing job, I was surprised at how good it was. Especially how I've heard some scenes were acted how by REAL gangsters. And some scenes weren't told to the background actors, so their reactions were real and surprised.. The screenplay was really well-done. The jokes weren't supposed to be laugh- out-loud funny, but the actors played their parts and perfected them. Their sarcastic behavior made it THIS much more enjoyable and I had a grin upon my face the entire time.. The thing that made this the best was how the whole film reflected of the entire life of a gangster, and how things go in between. Instead of believing I was just watching a movie, I believed I was watching the unfolding of a gangster's life. We have the start, the life of them, the ups and downs, and how everything just goes downhill. We go on an array of emotions and much more. Classic.. But there seemed to be a problem with all of this. Although the movie broke-ground for future movies, there seemed to be this blandness to it. I don't know what it was. I loved the movie as a whole, but looking as I hadn't seen it when it became a classic, it seemed a bit contrived maybe? It seems sad to say that because I wanted to like it more than I had. But something seemed wrong. Something seemed not Scorsese about it...
Bad things stop there. The movie really was great, and I really do recommend watching it. But as it receives such high praise, maybe I had too much expectation(s) to surpass the un-originality the film gave to me. But the film was good, no doubt about it.
7/10.