Brian De Palma's classic

Rating: 7/10 (9 July 2006)

Scarface is about a Cuban refuge named Tony Montana who comes to the United States in the spring of 1980. When he and his friend arrive in Miami, they get jobs as small time drug dealers, but as the film progresses, they work their way up to becoming rich and powerful. However, greed and power consumes Tony, and he digs himself into a hole he can't get out of. Scarface is a good movie, but you have to be in the mood to watch it.
The popularity of this film among teenagers like myself is a little skewed. When the movie was re-released in 2003, everything went insane with the action figures, beach towels, t-shirts, and other merchandise. Unfortunately, most teenagers see this as a violent gangster film with lots of swearing. Cool, eh? Or they just want to jump on the Scarface bandwagon. None really see the entire message of the film, which is that greed is not a good thing. This entire movie is an entertaining message. Greed can screw you over. Oliver Stone did a great job conveying that in the script. Ironically, he went on to direct Wall Street, which contains a speech about why greed is good. The plot is good and the dialogue is intelligent (even though it contains hundreds of f-words). The only problem I had was that the movie could have been shaved down to 2 hours. The movie is 3 hours long, and it really drags in some scenes. The movie doesn't get really good until the last 45 minutes.
The acting is superb. Al Pacino does his absolute best in this movie. Tony Montana and Michael Corleone are the top on the list for Al Pacino's best acting jobs.
Overall, Scarface is highly entertaining as well as a classic movie, but some people might get bored due to the length.
7.5/10