Scorsese's finest.

Rating: 10/10 (29 December 2007)

GoodFellas: My favorite Scorsese movie. My favorite mob movie. My favorite movie.
This film is a legendary masterpiece from Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Mean Streets) about the life and times of Mobster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta in his finest role). Liotta narrates the film with sharp dialogue about the glorious times he had as a gangster and his association with close associate and professional thief Jimmy Conway (Robert DeNiro in an unpredictable role) and the psychopathic funny guy Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci in his Oscar* winning role).
The film opens with Henry, Jimmy and Tommy in a car. Then Henry watches as Jimmy and Tommy brutally murder a badly wounded man (who we find out more about as the film progresses), then Henry utters his most famous lines "As far back as I remembered I always wanted to be a gangster. We are then informed and shown Henry's childhood and how he became associated with the Mob. The rest of the film covers most of real-life Henry Hill's biggest memories and events in his life (Such as Meeting Karen, His children and the Luftanza Heist).
GoodFellas features many masterfully set pieces such as the entire 'Funny guy' improvisation scene: Where Henry and the gangsters are being amused by Tommy telling jokes about his history and then asks exactly why he is so funny. The Billy Batt's beat down where Jimmy and Tommy severely beat Billy Batts after he insulted Tommy, as Henry watches in horror. Henry beating the next door neighbor Bruce after Bruce assaults Karen. Henry showing Karen through the Copacabana club instead of waiting in line and Henry's last day as a wiseguy.
This film was very underrated at the Oscars. In my opinion this film should have won best picture, Director and Screenplay. I was shocked to see that Ray Liotta was not nominated for Best Actor but I was pleased to see that Pesci won best supporting. The acting in this film is superb. Ray Liotta always is that type of character who seems calm for a moment then in a second goes into rage. Especially the scene where he walks across the street to Bruce's house normally but then in a second flies into rage and beats him down. De Niro gave a chilling role, you didn't know when he was happy or not, you couldn't tell whether he would whack you or not. Pesci was excellent because even though he was a brutal cold hearted killer, he still stayed as a very likable character. And finally Lorraine Bracco as Henry's Jewish wife Karen, in some scenes out of control and her lines "Uusally I would break up with a man if he planted a gun in my hands, but it turned me on." The set pieces and dialog of characters in this film and superb direction by Scorsese should have won another three Oscars.
Rated R for occasional Graphic Violence, strong language and brief drug use. But the best Mob movie on the planet Earth.