The World Is Yours

Rating: 7/10 (2 April 2002)

Everyone knows how good the climatic shootout is but on reflection its amazing how average a film Scarface is. The set-pieces are superb but the bits in between chronicling the rise to power of Tony Montana are either mediocre or downwright boring. It takes three hours to tell the story of the Cuban heel while The Godfather took the same time to present a whole dynasty with even the smallest parts containing more depth than Tony Montana.
Technically the film is superb, as you'd expect from De Palma, but the film has dated poorly. The music, which although in parts is great (the opening credits and closing credits) can be embarrassingly eighties and I was nearly blinded by the glare of a thousand white suits.
Despite that though the film is entertaining and for some reason that I cant explain I love the scene with the goodyear blimp (The World Is Yours). Its a very cinematic scene, complete with a great piece of music, but its a shame that its ruined by the terrible scene that follows complete with an awful eighties song. Personally I'd recommend Once Upon a Time in America for anyone who wants to see a great gangster film about street level crooks.