A fine gangster movie

Rating: 9/10 (10 November 2018)

Set in prohibition era Chicago where gangster Al Capone lives the highlife with apparent impunity a new lawman, Treasury Agent Elliot Ness is brought in to clean up. He quickly learns that most of the local police can't be trusted so builds up his own small team. These include veteran beat cop Jimmy Malone, sharpshooting rookie George Stone and Oscar Wallace, a Treasury Department accountant who believes Capone can be brought down by examining his lack of tax payments. They quickly make progress, intercepting illicit alcohol and more importantly arresting somebody with information that could bring Capone down... this puts them in the sights of Capone's gunmen.
This fictionalised version of how Elliot Ness brought down Al Capone is a lot of fun with great characters and some fairly gritty action. This action includes a young girl killed by a bomb and Capone killing somebody with a baseball bat as well as numerous shootings. The cast does a fine job with Kevin Costner putting in a relatively low-key performance as Ness which contrasts nicely Robert DeNiro's bombastic Capone. There are also notable performances from Sean Connery who is fun as Irish cop Malone despite his obviously Scottish accent. The story moves at a good pace and even though most viewers will know how it must end there are some shocks along the way. If you are a fan of the gangster genre this is definitely one to watch.