Goodfellas (1990)

A violent Mafia movie, based on a true story, directed by Martin Scorsese with little to offer in terms of technique, Goodfellas felt dated and silly, at times, although I wasn't completely disappointed. I had seen the movie once before, when it had first been released, but had completely forgotten the plot. The movie tells the life story of a mobster (played by Ray Liotta), his rise to power and his inevitable downfall and expulsion. As a young boy, he becomes part of a Mafia family, although they are not his biological relations, and eventually earns more authority as the years go by.

One of the final scenes, the scene leading up to his capture by the police, is excellent. Narrated by the actor in a kind of breakneck pace while images depicting his coked-out, drug-dealing, paranoid romp through the day stream past, we hurl along on our way to another drug deal. An additional bright spot in the film is actor Joe Pesci who plays a great, violent, uncontrollable, fast-talking mobster who gets what's coming to him in the end.