Overrated

Rating: 4/10 (27 January 2007)

This movie can't hide behind the "dated" excuse, since it's an '80s adaptation of a '30s success.
The tone, the pacing, the acting (Pacino's Tony Montana is a cartoon), the editing, all point to one thing: A director who couldn't put a good film in the can if he accidentally took one of Scorsese's home from the printer.
The script is one of Oliver Stone's best efforts, and the theme was over-the-top topical. Given real production values and someone willing to spend time cutting it together properly it could have been a great movie. But Brian de Palma is like Tony Montana, ignoring his lack of talent or judgment and completing the job on balls alone, and everyone in his vicinity dies out of negligence, association, or misapprehension.