Happy Birthday Max

Rating: 9/10 (18 April 2007)

When I think of James Woods, I have to go back to this classic by Sergio Leone, who directed those great Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns. He also did this film and Once Upon a Time in the West.
This is an outstanding gangster film with Woods and Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. There are several versions, and the director's cut is the best for the intended non-linear style. The studio released the movie in chronological order, but that is not what Leone intended.
The score is an integral part of this film that sets the mood and acts without dialog in many instances.
This is not a movie for those wimps that did not go to Grindhouse. It is 229 minutes in the preferred version, which is over a half an hour longer.