Wednesday, February 2, 2011

#92 Goodfellas (1990)

I've heard a lot of men say that this is one of their favorite movies, but I've never heard a woman say they even like it.

This is based on the true story of a kid in New York, Henry Hill, who wants to grow up to be a gangster. He drops out of school to get involved in the mob, and this story is his messy day-to-day life being in the mob. He eventually pisses off the wrong people, though, so he's left trying to figure out how to keep him and his family alive.

I've noticed that I seem to really like movies that span decades. This one started out in the 1950's and showed his life up until the time he went into the witness protection program in 1989. I've also noticed that I like movies based on true stories. They just mean so much more to me. My dad told me when I first saw The Exorcist that it was a true story, and I swear I didn't sleep well for weeks. (I couldn't have been more than 12 years old.) That movie is STILL the freakiest I've ever seen because if you think that it's 100% true, it's seriously disturbing.

I usually enjoy the little updates at the end of a movie describing what happened to all the characters after the story ended (like in The Sandlot, Drop Dead Gorgeous, etc.), but this one had a line that said something along the lines of, "By the way, Henry and Karen Hill separated in 1989 after 25 years of marriage." It really irritated me because it seemed like they were working together so well in their marriage and understanding each other. Oh, well. I think I'm trying to find a happy ending in a movie that just isn't meant to have that.

Rating: 8/10

Big Names: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta (played Henry Hill and looked quite a bit like Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line once he was drugged up), Joe Pesci, Samuel L. Jackson (small part, but it's weird that he's already been in 2 movies of the top 100 I've seen and he'll be in one of the next few I watch, too -- Pulp Fiction)

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