Didn't do anything for me

Rating: 5/10 (13 February 2011)

I love Al Pacino and I liked out of Brian De Palma's work The Untouchables, Carrie and Carlito's Way. But sorry, Scarface didn't do anything for me.
While I can understand what people mean when they think it is over-produced, one of the things I did like about Scarface is that in my view it is well made. The cinematography is very good with some interesting uses of lighting, while the scenery and costumes are equally eye-popping. The music is somewhat cheesy, but it is also tolerable and some of the soundtrack choices were quite nice. In terms of acting, Steven Bauer and Robert Loggia are quite wonderful. Also De Palma's direction does have occasional flashes of brilliance, the scene with the chainsaw and the Columbian dealer is quite shocking.
However, I am afraid I am one of those who didn't like Al Pacino here. Don't get me wrong, Pacino is a wonderful actor, and while I may have people telling me the excess was intentional, this particular reviewer thought that the excess got too much after a while. In short I thought Pacino overacted so wildly I found it very hard to relate to him or his character at all. The film is also much too long, has one too many scenes where it is drawn out, the script is excessively cheesy(did Tony really have to swear as much as he did?), the characters are shallow and cartoony and the story is unfocused with some unbelievable scenes(Tony's sister shooting at him while telling him to (enter obscenity) her). Also the incest is far too explicit here. In terms of other acting, Michelle Pfeiffer looks beautiful but she struggles with a poorly handled character, while F Murray Abraham is just wasted.
Overall, didn't do anything for me, sorry. I much prefer the 1932 film, which was quite shocking for its time and it also handled the incest much better. 5/10 Bethany Cox