Goodfellas, Great film.

Rating: Null/10 (14 October 2002)

This film is without a doubt the best DeNiro/Scorsese collabaration. In fact, the only other Scorsese film that comes close to it is Taxi Driver. The story is all about Henry Hill's (Ray Liotta) life as a gangster in New York. Robert Deniro, Paul Sorvino and Lorraine Bracco all have wonderful supporting roles, as does Joe Pesci, whose excellent performance as the psychotic Tommy DeVito won him a well deserved oscar. There's no prizes for guessing that DeNiro does his job well, as does The talented Sorvino. But it may come as a shock that Ray Liotta also plays his part very well, as does Lorraine Bracco. There is also a small role for a pre Pulp Fiction Samuel L. Jackson, and one of my favourite character actors, Beau Starr (Halloween 4 and 5, Speed) also pops up in a role as Henry's father.
Scorsese's direction, as always, is flawless, with interesting camera shots, and a celebrated steadycam shot through the bowels of a night club. The music used is perfect for the film, with hits from the 50's right up to the 80's.
The violence in the film is graphic and frequent, however, it all adds to the film, and is intended to make you scared and possibly discusted and horrified. You will walk away from this film with possibly the same sort of feeling you had when you'd just seen A Clockwork Orange, or Reservoir Dogs. But be aware of this; the most talked about scene in A Clockwork Orange is the 'Singing In The Rain rape scene' in Reservoir Dogs, it's the 'ear slicing scene'. In Goodfellas it's the '"How am I funny?" scene'. That shows to me that the acting in Goodfellas is so good, that it far outweighs the violence and death, even though, realistically, that is was the film's about.
This is a film that everyone with even the slightest interest in film should see, if you only ever see one Scorsese film, make it this. 10 out of 10.