Flawed But Good

Rating: Null/10 (4 September 2002)

This movie definitely has its flaws, but in the end it's an extremely entertaining film. Pachino is just brilliant and story is compellingly told.
There are cartoonish elements here and there. The moral of the story is delivered like a 2-by-4 to the temple. And the final scene devolves into action movie silliness. Don't expect the Godfather or this sort of stuff will end up disappointing you.
My one substantive complaint is about the way women are handled in this movie. Elvira is a compelling and well played character but it would have been nice to her do more than snort coke and complain about Tony. Tony's sister may as well have been left out the movie, her role is extremely cliched and her development makes little sense.
In the end the movie succedes brilliantly in spite of its flaws and datedness. It's been a long time since I was as engrossed in a movie as I was with this one.