This is an okay movie but it is pretty overrated

Rating: 5/10 (29 August 2015)

The Godfather, The Godfather Part 2, Pulp Fiction, and Goodfellas are usually called some of the greatest gangster films ever made. However, Scarface also gets a lot of praise from the audience and it is often compared to them and sometimes it is even considered to be the best film from the genre. I disagree.
Tony Montana, a Cuban criminal, slowly takes over a drug cartel as he slowly succumbs to greed and eventually goes mad with power.
Firstly, this movie does have its positives. Firstly, the acting is great. Al Pacino does a great performance here and his acting gets more unnerving as he gets more greedy as the film goes on. The other actors gave a good performance too but Al Pacino did the best job. It's not as groundbreaking as his performance in The Godfather Part 2 but it is still great on its own. The score is very memorable and fitting also.
Also, the final 20 minutes are very well-done. It shows how Tony's fortunes and wealth begin to collapse in on itself and he finally gets what's coming to him. The gun battle at the end is masterfully done. It contains a very quotable line of dialogue and it is executed very well. And by the time the end result comes, it is certain to make your jaw drop. Also, the other couple shootout scenes are very stylized and well-done too.
However, this is why I think that it isn't as good as other movies from the genre.
The longer a movie is, the more likely it will run into pacing issues. Being 170 minutes long, Scarface does in fact have pacing issues and it doesn't have the same perfect pacing that The Godfather did. The issue with its pacing is that it takes a while for them to set up Tony's character and it also takes a while for his personality to change in the movie.
Also, I found this movie to be very bland. Sure, it picks up in the last 20 minutes but there isn't a whole lot of action going on beforehand. I mentioned that this movie has pacing issues and those issues can often make it feel very boring. Not much exciting or interesting events go on in it. Several scenes should've been shortened or removed altogether.
But despite what I said, this is not a bad movie. It does have its flaws but I'd say that it has a little more good things about it than there are bad things. This is entertaining if you don't mind bland movies and the slow-pacing. I just don't think that it's as good as other highly-praised movies (which I listed earlier) from the same genre.