One of the best films ever made

Rating: 10/10 (10 December 2006)

While Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" saga focuses on the highest levels of a crime family, Martin Scorcese's "Goodfellas" tells the story of a family from the lower levels.
The story starts in Brooklyn 1955 where young Henry Hill becomes an errand boy for the local mobsters. He meets and becomes friends with Jimmy Conway (Robert DeNiro) and young Tommy DeVito. He earns the respect of the crew after he is pinched for selling illegal cigarettes and doesn't rat out his friends.
We then flash forward to Henry (Ray Liotta) and Tommy (Joe Pesci) in their twenties, where they are still trying to steal everything they can get their hands on. The two pull of a daring robbery of Air France, scoring almost $ 400,000.
Henry meets and eventually marries Karen (Lorraine Bracco), a no-nonsense Jewish girl. In one of the best sequences of any Scorcese picture, Henry walks with Karen through the kitchen of the famous New York restaurant, the Copacabana (this shot was imitated in "Boogie Nights" and "Swingers.") All is going well until Henry and Jimmy get sent to prison. Henry starts selling cocaine and eventually becomes hooked.
In the most entertaining sequences of the film (title card reads Sunday May 11, 1980), Henry must coordinate several different things in one day -- cooking dinner for his family, delivering silencers to Jimmy, picking up and preparing cocaine for some customers near Atlanta. The entire montage is set to several great classic rock songs, including Harry Nillson's "Jump Into The Fire", George Harrison's "What Is Life", The Who's "Magic Bus" and The Rolling Stones "Monkey Man." One of Scorcese's strongest points has always been his musical selections, especially in "Goodfellas" This is Scorcese's masterpiece and it should not be missed. A must see for any fan of the cinema. 10 out of 10 stars.