A Muddled film relying on 80s style over lack-lustre content

Rating: 8/10 (16 July 2000)

A fairly humdrum retelling of the Chicago gangster wars of the 20s & 30s and in particular Elliot Ness' long term battle bringing top gangster Al Capone to book on a range of charges from murder, prohibition & bootlegging to his eventual downfall of simple tax evasion.
De Palma does a pretty bad hash with this movie. Firstly, he is hard pushed into thinking of any original cinematography he can genuinely call his own. The most blatant rip off is the "Odessa Steps" scene at the train station which was originally done so masterfully decades ago in the Russian film Battleship Potyomkin (1925).
And I doubt if the real Ness swaned around in designer clothes back in the 20s either. But then again this is the yuppy 80s we're talking about when this film was made, so I suppose it wasn't cool to be wearing anything less than a Label.
Then we have the actors. Connery really does amaze me sometimes. He plays Malone a bit like Office Dibble out of Top Cat, unsure of what accent to use and always coming out with words of wisdom but never really convincing us with any true conviction. Although his death scene was quite moving otherwise he was as wooden as a beer keg.
Costner again excels as a man with a total charisma bypass. He sparkles from time to time but generally he just plods through the story in his customary dot to dot style.
The only shining light would be De Nero as the Big C himself. Totally convincing, totally ruthless, played just right - never drifting into characature, never falling into cliche, De Nero is excellent. And of course who can forget his little baseball story around the dinner table!
The only criticism with De Nero is that we don't get to see enough of him; we don't get the chance to absorb his character or understand his evil mannerisms. De Palma offers simple sign posting telling the audience that this guy is all bad and that's all you need to know.
The supporting cast give a good account of themselves, especially Garcia & Martin-Smith.
The production values are obviously high & lavish but all this eye candy & stylish camera work doesn't make for a good film with an underworked script. De Palma is too heavy handed with his character development with regards the good guys - hense the heavy emphasis on Ness being a good family man, doting wife, child & baby on the way. All done in about 10 minutes.
The same with Connery, simple explanations so that we can feel for this old time cop and then the scene is set to do battle with the invincible foe, who we don't get to know much about.
The musical score is very upbeat & concise which is perhaps the only good thing about the movie; that and some decent lighting & 2nd unit camera work.
Overall, a film full of other people's ideas packaged with 80's designerism & style over content but with nothing new to offer. **/*****