[SPOILERS] Massively over-rated, gruellingly bad movie

Rating: Null/10 (2 March 2003)

DePalma's leaden direction meets Mamet's (unusually) risible script. Great actors have seldom been so cruelly wasted (HEAT being an exception, I guess). Only Costner seems to have the vaguest idea what he's meant to be doing in the movie. DeNiro's scenes amount to a series of cartoonish cameos. Garcia is completely wasted on a character who has no function and no trajectory. Connery works valiantly with the thinnest of material.

The script is so bad one can only imagine the pain Mamet must have suffered having to concoct this tripe and incorporate the hopeless suggestions of the (one imagines) producer, director and executives. I hope he got paid a LOT. A successsion of kiss-the-dog (or is that pat-the-wife?) scenes are probably the most embarrassing thing but really one is spoilt for choice.
I guess the most ludicrous of many ludicrous things is that the 'untouchables' are portrayed as consisting of exactly four men, two of whom are killed, leaving exactly two people to bring Capone down. Despite the massive over-spending on scenery and sets, the movie never has the slightest feeling of epic scale that it oh-so-badly wants to have.
I came away with new respect for Costner's ability after this movie, because alone among the cast he seemed to have some focus on his role. The rest seemed understandably adrift, caught between the clear and complete inability of the director to think in anything but cinematic cliches, and the absence of any kind of causal or emotional logic from the script.
Mamet, Garcia, Costner, DeNiro, Connery... all very gifted and capable of greatness. Which leaves us with 'Snake Eyes' DePalma. How does this man get his movies made? My mouth hung open in awe (the bad kind) at his travesty of the Potemkin Steps sequence. What kind of arrogance leads directors to think "hey, that's a great idea"? It's like deciding to record Beethoven's Fifth on the banjo and call it an improvement.