Ultimate 90’s Blogathon: Goodfellas (1990) by MovieRob

Next up is MovieRob. MovieRob is the blogosphere’s movie watching beast! If you head over to his blog, you’ll see so many reviews already done.  He runs a monthly segment called Genre Grandeur and on this milestones, he’ll do various franchises or invite fellow bloggers to join in on a Movies From the Hat segment. If you haven’t followed him, you should to make sure you don’t miss out on the fun! He’s giving us a look at a 90’s favorite, Goodfellas.

Its all yours, Rob!

Huge thanks to Kim and Drew for hosting this awesome blogathon.

Here’s my review of Goodfellas (1990)

“For as long as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster. To me that was better than being president of the United States. To be a gangster was to own the world. ” – Henry Hill

Number of Times Seen – At least 5 times (Theater in ’90. cable, video, 8 May 2008 and 2 Feb 2017)

Brief Synopsis – Biopic of a New York gangster during the 60’s and 70’s.

My Take on it – This is one of the best films of the 90’s and it gives us an excellent look at how the life of New York mobsters were run in the 60’s and 70’s

The cast is superb and a little known Ray Liotta plays the lead role so well.  He is joined by excellent performances by Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino.

This is Director Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece IMHO mainly because he is able to manipulate the audience into caring and in some cases even loving these characters no matter how terrible the things they do are.

In some ways, it is quite easy to see this as a continuation of Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather series and it’s somewhat ironic that the final chapter of that series and this film both vied for Best Picture in 1990.

Love how this film tries to show us the ‘modern effects’ of the mob on society.

This allows us to feel the realism of the story.

This film is classified as a biopic despite the fact that we will never truly know how much is fact and how much is fiction.

This is one of Scorsese’s best film mainly because of the fact that it feels so realistic and that the characters are so strongly created and likeable to us.

Bottom Line – Excellent look at the life of mobsters in New York in the 70’s. Scorsese does an amazing job getting us to love these characters despite everything they do. In some ways, its easy to see that this is a continuation of Coppola’s Godfather series to show the ‘modern’ effects of the mob on society. Works really well as a biopic despite the fact that we’ll never really know how much is true. Amazing cast led by little known Liotta.  One of Scorsese’s best films to date because of the realism and strong characters. Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The now-legendary Steadicam trip through the nightclub kitchen was a happy accident. Scorsese had been denied permission to go through the front, and had to improvise an alternative. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (10/10)

Thanks to MovieRob for a great review! 🙂
Tomorrow’s entry will be over at Drew’s Movie Reviews, remember to head over there to check it out!

Christmas Marathon: Home Alone 2 Lost in New York (1992)

HOME ALONE 2: LOST IN NEW YORK

Director: Chris Columbus

Cast: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Tim Curry, Rob Schneider, Catherine O’Hara, John Heard

A year after Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) was left home alone accidentally by his parents to defend his home from the Wet Bandits, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), this year the family is headed to Florida for the Christmas holidays.  This time, Kevin accidentally gets onto a plane to go to New York City.  As he is enjoying the benefits of the luxury life using his father’s credit card, he meets Harry and Marv, who has just broke out of prison.  At the same time, we have the Mr. Hector (Tim Curry) part of the hotel staff who suspects something isn’t quite right about a little kid staying at the hotel and trying to figure out whether Kevin is hiding something.  Meanwhile, Kate (Catherine O’Hara) and Peter McCallister (John Heard) try to search for their child as the whole family changes and flies back to New York City.  This time, Kevin has to protect a toy story, Duncan’s Toy Chest from Harry and Marv and try to stop them again and send them back into the hands of the police.

This is also a very entertaining movie.  I always like the first one more (Home Alone review is HERE) but this one is just as fun.  Kevin isn’t just protecting himself in an area that he knows but he’s stepping up and learning how to do good deeds for others and protecting someone’s else’s good.  Its a nice story. Kevin grows a lot more in this movie as he learns a few moral or virtues about life from the people he meets.  The scenes of escape is always fun and I always love how Harry and Marv just turn out to do the most stupid things when they think they are being smart.  The outcomes and how they turn out in the end are hilarious.

Home Alone or Home Alone 2? Which one do you prefer?

Christmas Marathon: Home Alone (1990)

HOME ALONE

Director: Chris Columbus

Cast: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O’Hara, John Heard

Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) is the trouble maker of the family.  The night before his immediate family (and aunt and uncle’s family) leave for France,  he causes trouble and is sent off.  He wishes that his family would just disappear.  However, overnight, they lost their power and made them all oversleep and rush out to catch the plane.  In the midst of all the frenzy, Kevin gets left behind.  He wakes up to find that everyone is gone and he has the whole house to himself.  At first, it all seems to be good until he realizes that there are two men, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern) are planning to rob his house.  He takes it into his own hands to protect his house and catch these two robbers.  Meanwhile, his parents, Kate (Catherine O’Hara) and Peter McCallister (John Heard) try to find a way to get back home to their 8 years old son during the Christmas airport rush.

I was only 4 years old when this movie came out and part of me always was fascinated how Kevin would think.  Maybe its because when I was a little girl I was always really shy and scared of a lot of things so this movie appealed to my inner rebel.  The daring things that he does and how quick his mind adapts to the situation around young Kevin is what makes me happy and cheer him on.  All kids have grudges against their parents here and there but to be alone and to learn that you can protect your home is also something all kids want to do.  To be brave enough to stand for what is yours.  He does it against to silly robbers who tries to get him but falls for his traps and tricks over and over again.  Its just a fun and comical flick that makes you want to cheer on Kevin over and over again.

I love this movie to bits and I’m super glad that I managed to pick up both this one and the sequel during Black Friday.

Later today, I’ll be posting up my review of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York!