Movie Review - "Scarface" 12/09/83

This is a movie review for "Scarface", released December 9, 1983. Suggested to me by my mother in law, as it is one of her favorite movies.




Trailer:

Cast:
Al Pacino  ("Insomnia" (2002) Will Dormer, "The Godfather" (1972) Michael Corleone) -   Tony Montana
Steven Bauer ("Primal Fear" (1996) Joey Pinero,  "Raising Cain" (1992) Jack)  -              Manny Ribera
Michelle Pfeiffer ("Stardust" (2007) Lamia, "What Lies Beneath" (2000) Claire Spencer)  -     Elvira Hancock
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio ("The Perfect Storm" (2000) Linda Greenlaw, "The Abyss" (1989) Lindsey Brigman)  -  Gina Montana
Robert Loggia ("Independence Day" (1996) General William Grey, "Big" (1988)
MacMillan) -    Frank Lopez





Plot:
Cuba releases civilians to the United States that had American family in the States. Amongst these civilians are a few of Cuba's prison population. One of the Cuban prisoners, Tony Montana, comes to the United States looking to become rich and have it all. He already has a scar on his face, hence the name "Scarface". They keep the Cubans in a detention camp until there is an uprising and Tony has to kill someone to get his freedom. Afterwards, he works at a small restaurant in Little Havana, Florida. His friend Manny gets them a job to get some money and it ends up as a drug deal / purchase / rip-off. Though Tony loses one of his friends in the ordeal, he manages to get the attention of someone higher up in the crime rings. Can he rise to power and the luxury of a rich life? What kind of risks will he have to take and how will he deal with enemies?








Criteria:
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.


3/5 - I didn't see why so many say that this movie is one of the "everyone must see" movies. It wasn't that great. Between violence (killing, torturing, stealing, etc.), drugs, and whatnot, this is a pretty gritty movie. The plotline was subpar and I thought it would get better but it didn't. The only real character development was that of Gina, Tony's little sister, and that was from a hard-working upstanding girl to a pampered brat going against what her mother told her to do. *SPOILER* : Her pampered life got her killed. Sarcastically: Yeah, money is really helpful to keep you alive when you're dealing with drugs.

*SPOILERS*
The famous machine gun scene was at the very end and it was practically a last-ditch effort to survive and protect his life/house. Of course, that was after the whole "let's drive the wife away, kill my brother-in-law whom I didn't know married my sister, and have my sister go insane to try to kill me after I killed her husband" thing.


For a drug / crime movie, this sucked [in my opinion]. Sure, I can say that I have watched it but this definitely was not what I expected for a "highly acclaimed" movie.