Sing when your losing! Spoilers.

Rating: 1/10 (6 July 2002)

Lately I've felt drawn to long violent epics dealing with crime (Once Upon a Time in America, The Godfather, Goodfellas). Even though I don't think Scarface holds up to those movies I still think it succeeds at a level where the Howard Hawks movie didn't. I can't think of another person who could of played this role better than Al Pacino, and yes, that does include Paul Muni. I don't think it's a coincidence that the filmmakers chose the same person who played Michael Corleone. Both characters are bad, use violence for personal gain, and are incredibly human. Maybe it strays away in the famous final scene when Tony Montana is riddled by a swarm of bullets, not to mention the scene where a stoned-out Pacino inhales a mountain of cocaine on his desk. Still, Tony Montana is one of those characters that stays with you despite the fact that he's a monster that would kill a person at the drop of a hat, and drop the hat himself. The violence in Scarface is not there to entertain, but as a way to reinforce the self-destruction of Montana; so when it does get to that point where you see a crowd of people overwhelm Montana's mansion, you know that there's no way he's going to get out of this one. I'm not really use to seeing DePalma's work outside of his well-known thriller movies like Dressed to Kill and Sisters. Still, He's a master at building up suspense.