Movie Review - Scarface

Movie Review No 45

PLOT

This movie starts with the opening of Cuban harbours in 1980 to "allow" US Cubans to collect relatives...... but it seems that some of the Cuban prisons were emptied in the process!  One of them is Tony "Scarface" Montana played by Al Pacino and the moving starts with his initial interrogation by the Police on his arrival in Florida.   The story charts his immigration process, integration into the Miami crime and drugs scene, meeting F Murray Abraham early in the story.  He meets a rather nasty death later on though! The movie culminates with his rise to the top of the criminal food chain with a matching cocaine addiction (He ends up snorting coke straight off his table leaving a smudge on the end of his nose!) and an eye popping gun battle with a rival gang in his villa.....!

RECOMMENDED

It's violent, so an adult movie, but yes!

SQUEAKS OUT OF TEN

Eight!

SCOOBY SNACKS

Doughnut holes with lots of icing  sugar......!!

Movie Review - "Godfather Part 3"

Movie review number 31

PLOT

This movie is the third and final movie of the Godfather series, and picks up the family story in 1979.  Al Pacino (Don Corleone) is officially divorced from his on-screen wife, Diane Keaton and their two children are all grown up.  The movie begins with Pacino collecting a big official award from the Vatican church, presented to him in a fancy ceremony in New York City.  During the party afterwards, his daughter Mary meets her cousin Anthony (played by Andy Garcia) and there's a mutual attraction that develops through the movie.  Pacino's on-screen son tells Pacino that he's dropping out of law school to pursue music as a career which pisses off Pacino.

Later, Pacino has a conversation with the Vatican representative (a Bishop) who says the Vatican is 700 million dollars in debt and asks for help.  An agreement is made that Pacino purchases a large property business, Immobilare, from the Vatican for $600million...... which later in the movie, the Vatican tries to wheedle their out of by saying it was never ratified by the Pope (who is seriously ill at the time) therefore is null and void, which pisses off Pacino some more!!  More underhanded wheedling is done behind the scenes between the Mob and the Vatican....... later resulting in the "God's Banker" found hanging by his neck underneath a bridge in London (which really did happen back in the 1980s, with rumours of Mafia links!!!)  The Pope later dies, a new Pope is brought in, who himself dies a few days later..... amidst rumours of poisoning!!  (again, that really happened too!!)

Pacino back in New York City organises a big Dinner at a posh restaurant bringing in lots of Mob chiefs and passes out large cheques (checks) to them as their shares of casino profits.  One mafia boss stomps out in a huff ...... and a few seconds later, a helicopter hovers outside the restaurant window, and machine guns go off, killing most of the other remaining mafia chiefs!!!  UH-OH!!!!!

The latter part of the movie is based in Sicily, where Pacino's son is premiering at the Opera house there in his first professional production - the whole family turn up to watch.  At the end, as the Corleone family exit the Opera house, an assassin takes shots at Pacino and his daughter........ with one of the most effective and memorable "death" scenes in cinema.

Pacino's own death at the very end of the movie has you feeling really sorry for him.

RECOMMENDED

Oh yes!!!

SCORE

9.5 squeaks out of 10

SCOOBY SNACKS

Chianti and pizza with your favourite toppings!!

Movie Review - "Ocean's Thirteen"

Movie Review number 30

PLOT
This movie starts with Elliot Gould and Al Pacino closing a deal on a posh new hotel casino in Las Vegas, but Pacino forces Gould out of the deal so that Pacino has sole ownership of the hotel.  Gould then has a serious heart attack.
Then in come Gould's friends, including George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt to organise a major scam and heist on the opening night of the Posh Hotel!!  This also includes organising grief for the travel review writer so he writes an awful review!
The movie takes you through all the planning stages of the heist, from the making of dodgy dice in Mexico, to the drill the dug out the Eurostar tunnel, to fancy electronics to create black-outs in the hotel!!  It's a very exciting story, ending with two earthquakes under the Posh Hotel (one unexpected!!) and a helicopter ride off the roof and a double-handed diamond heist!!!!
(This story is based I believe on a 1950s story starring Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davies Jr and the rest of the rat pack!!)

RECOMMENDED
Definitely!  You need to pay attention but it's definitely worth watching!

RATING
9 squeaks out of 10

SCOOBY SNACKS
Champagne and caviar!!

Movie Review - "Godfather part 2"

Movie review number 28

PLOT
The second movie of the Godfather series starts in 1901 with 9 year old Vito Corleone attending his father's funeral in Sicily with his mother and the funeral cortege.  His elder brother Paolo had been hiding in the hills after swearing vegeance on Don Cicci, the man who ordered the murder of Vito's Dad.  During the funeral, shooting happens and Paulo is killed.  Mother takes Vito to the Cicci villa and begs that they leave Vito alone, but Don Cicci refuses and kills the mother - Vito runs away and escapes...... onto a boat to Ellis Island.
The story then switches to the 1960s, with Al Pacino playing middle aged Michael Corleone (youngest son of Marlon Brando/Vito Corleone of movie 1) married to Diane Keaton and young son running "The Firm" - starting with the confirmation of the young son and setting up the blackmailing of a US Senator (later in the movie, he finds himself naked in a motel room with a dead woman and no clue how he got there..... the motel run by Michael's elder brother Fredo.  Michael gets what he wants later during Senate hearings into Corleone mafia illegalities!)  Michael also does business with Hyman Roth in Miami (Meyer Lansky of real mafia fame) who is setting up Michael's assassination with Fredo....... and Michael then discovers Fredo's backhanded traitorship having originally thought it was the eldest brother Santini that was plotting!!! Family Business has now moved to the Las Vegas casino's and Corleone/Roth are looking to invest in Cuba which is where the assassination was supposed to take place but was foiled.
Flashbacks to the early 1900s form part of the movie, showing Vito's maturity in Depression age New York City (now played by Robert De Niro), marriage, the birth of Santini, Fredo and Michael, and Vito's starting to muscle into the Mafia protection racket, assassinating another hated Don as his official "entry" into the business.
Meanwhile, back in the 60s, Michael's marriage to Diane Keaton disintigrates into divorce, but Michael refuses Diane to take their two children away from him.
The end of the movie sees the beginning of the end of the Corleone family.....

RECOMMENDED

Oh yes!  Not as "blood and guts" as the first one, but has connections to real-life happenings (i.e. the Senate hearings of the 60s, Kennedy involvement with mafia/Vegas, Meyer Lansky, Cuba) which makes interesting viewing for (US) history buffs

RATING

8.5 out of 10

SCOOBY SNACKS

Antipasta and a Banana Daquiri

Movie Review - "Godfather Part 1"

Movie number 11!!

PLOT

This movie stars Marlon Brando and an extremely young Al Pacino in it!!  Marlon plays the head of an Italian American family (the Godfather of the title) and the movie starts at his daughter's wedding.  Al Pacino brings his girlfriend to the wedding, and explains his family "business" to her but says he has no involvement with the business.  As the story progresses, various illegal activities are brought into the story, including "persuading" a movie director to give a good movie part to a not so good actor.  The director's favourite horse has its' head chopped off and put into his bed (while he's sleeping in the bed!) as a little push to make the "right decision".  Later in the movie, Marlon get shot down in the street in an assassination attempt and gets taken to hospital, supposedly with Police protection to stop another assassination attempt. Except the Police are corrupt and take bribes!!!!!  So, the rest of the family decide to put a hit on the chief of Police, and Al Pacino, who up till now has had nothing to do with "family business" agrees to shoot the Chief of Police!!  He has to then escape to Italy for A Long Time, to avoid going to prison!!!  While in Italy, he gets married to a local girl but she gets blown up in a car bomb intended for him!!!!!  OH NO!  Al Pacino then returns to America to rejoin his family, and hooks up with the girlfriend he left behind (the one he went to the opening wedding with).  Meanwhile, there's a few more family assassinations, and the girl that got married at the start of the movie, her new husband beats her up.  Marlon Brando, although surviving the assassination attempt, dies in old age of a heart attack amongst the tomato plants while playing with his grandson.

RECOMMENDED
Although gory in places, this is a really good movie!!!

SCORE

Beanie gives this 9 squeaks out of 10!!

RECOMMENDED SCOOBY SNACKS

Sausage rolls, hot!!