Goodfellas is a very good, if not great, Martin Scorsese picture

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2008)

While I had previously seen this Martin Scorsese picture before, it was on network television which meant I didn't hear the profanity and the violent scenes were trimmed. Despite that, I remember enjoying the movie very much. Now that I've seen it uncensored and on HD DVD, it doesn't impress me as much as before perhaps because in jumping several years in various segments, you half wonder what happened during those in-between times. Still, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Larraine Bracco impress with their performances with Paul Sorvino lending gravity with his appearances throughout and nice cameos by up-and-coming newcomers like Illeana Douglas, Debi Mazar, Samuel L. Jackson, and Michael Imperioli. Also amusing were cameos by the director's parents, Catherine and Charles, especially Catherine's as Pesci's mother. Pesci may be the most impressive of the bunch in his Oscar-winning role as Tommy who turns from highly amused to very angry at a dime. Perhaps not one for the mainstream crowd who wants at least one likable character to identify with but a mostly compelling account of the true story of what mob life really was like for someone who lived through it.