Ten years after Brian De Palma and Al Pacino made Scarface, they came back with Carlito‘s Way, another gangster epic and classic action-thriller. Carlito Brigante is much quieter and wiser than the raging Tony Montanna in Scarface, but he still chases a dream with a speeding bullet right behind him. Carlito’s dream, however, isn’t a pot of cocaine or power and wealth, like […]
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There’s no shortage of great heist movies – all of which might inspire you to round up your mates to pull off a grand-slam robbery. (I’m joking. Don’t do this.) Watching the workings of criminals is a fun escape from everyday life, and heist films are in full throttle, with Baby Driver and Logan Lucky being […]
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FBI agent Joe Pistone (Johnny Depp) goes undercover to infiltrate the New York Mafia, under the name Donnie Brasco. Veteran gangster Lefty (Al Pacino) brings Donnie into the mob and schools him on the ways of the wise guy. Donnie must take the gang down, but – gasp! – he becomes genuine friends with Lefty. One false […]
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A History of Violence doesn’t try to be an action flick; it takes a hard look at violence in its many forms. Can violence ever be justified? Are you still heroic when you’re violent? I missed this film when it was released in 2005. I would have been ten years old at the time, so […]
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David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises takes on the Russian mafia in a rainy, murky London. We go along with Russian mobsters, Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) and Krill (Vincent Cassel), and the good-natured nurse Anna (Naomi Watts) within the brutal criminal underworld. What makes this film cut above your average crime story is how the lives of a gangster family […]
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Scarface. One of my favourite gangster movies. Next year sees the release of the reboot, but today I’m talking about the ’80s version by Brian De Palma. Not for a second does this film let you pause to take a breather. That’s one of the main reasons why it’s so good. Many critics said the […]
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Among the many classics of the ’90s and the various gangster films we all know and love, A Bronx Tale stands out for its powerful and thought-provoking story. It just happens to be one of the best gangster films I’ve seen. It’s a simple film, but that’s the beauty of it. Set in the 1960s, Robert DiNero […]
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Everything about Drive is just cool. It’s the film that introduced me to Ryan Gosling and I’ve been a fan ever since. He portrays ‘Driver’, a Hollywood stuntman by day, but a ruthless getaway driver by night. When he steps in to protect next-door neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son, from the gangsters that her husband […]
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