Ehhh...

Rating: 5/10 (29 June 2004)

I can see what people see in this movie. It is definitely full of harsh style reminiscent of both the time in which it was made and the material it covers. But, and yes as always there is a but, I did not like this film. It was not the extreme violence that made me dislike this movie, nor was it some aversion to the material that was covered. I generally like violent, gang/mafia/whatever you would like to call them type movie. I loved the Godfather Trilogy and am enthralled with the works of Tarentino, but Scarface was simply not that good. Its violence was overly dramatic and rare...mostly the focus was simply on Tony Montana, a character who was perhaps meant to inspire hatred or pity from me the viewer. Instead I felt passive; I did not like him, hate him, or care in any way about him. I was in fact more focused on the terrible acting being done around him. Pacino...was Pacino...and well he was the only reason I enjoyed this movie in the slightest. But for his fans I would not call this his best work, not even close to that. Taxi Driver, Godfather 1, Gigli, Scent of A Women, and Donnie Brasco are all better examples of his amazing talent. (ok maybe not Gigli) Overall this is a very stylistic film...the music is wonderfully true to the form of the film...but the actions scenes and especially the final scene are poorly done, the acting is generally substandard, and the film is not all that good