[slateef]

FLAME SUIT ON


well, yeah, i'm a little behind the times, as i just saw the latest dvd release this past weekend (and the movie for the first time)...


i must say, i was disappointed. sure, pacino's acting was spot-on, but the thing that really turned me away was the horrible dialogue and the overall cheese factor...and that "ending", what the hell WAS that??? who the hell was that columbian terminator that capped pacino from the back?? and just how many hundred's of bullets can a man take and still be standing?? geez, it was worse than commando!


not exactly the same genre, but carlito's way was MUCH better than this piece of cuban crap.


opinions?


FLAME SUIT OFF

 

[Shaded Dogfood]

It's just a lame movie. Too long, hammers home endlessly how empty everybody's lives are, glacially slow with none of the rabid momentum the Paul Muni original had. Bad movies are all well and good, and I love lots of them, but a bad movie as joyless as this one just seems like a silly thing to watch more than once.


But many people think that this mess is the cat's pajamas.

 

[blgentry]

Scarface is unique in that it portrays the drug culture of Miami in the 80s and really focuses on the Cuban imigrants. Is it a great movie? Eh, not really. Is it enjoyable? I think so.


For me, what really makes the movie, is all of the quotable lines:


"You tell your boss, I'll kill a communist for free; but for a green card, I'm gonna carve him up real nice."


"I'm not gonna kill you Frank. Manollo, shoot this piece of s**t."


"The only thing I got is my word and my balls and I don't break either of them for nobody!"


There are many more of course, most of which I can't quote here because they're too vulgar; they're great quotes never the less. I've been hearing people quote lines from Scarface for 10+ years. It's not an "important" film, but it *is* memorable.


My 2 cents.


Brian.

 

[RyN1399]

yep. it's overrated. i didn't like any of the characters, and i didn't get much out of the film. and i don't know whether it was accurate or not, but pacino's accent didn't sit well with me either

 

[Dean Roddey]

And, as mentioned before, how many men have stepped into the bedroom and said, "Say 'ello to my leetil fren".

 

[slateef]

good to see that i'm not alone!

 

[uzun]

I have to agree the film was overly long, plagued with bad dialog and a high cheese factor, very high. Much of the action, especially towards the end was just awful, poorly staged crap.


Not a truly horrible film by any means, but certainly flawed and not one that I cared for.

 

[HTCrazy]

It seemed shocking and original in the 80's, but since that style's been much immitated and surpassed since, there's not all that much else going for it. Pacino's performance seemed impressive in the day, but now it seems hammy and over the top.

 

[alpha21]

Sorry

have to disagree

I was like 8 when I first saw it and I thought it was phenominal.

Probably the most powerful movie an 8 year old could see (I'm not talking about language and violence)


to me saying Scarface (after seeing it 20 years after it came out) is lame, is like me saying that The Deer Hunter (finally seeing it 20 years after it came out) is lame. I didn't think it was all that great, but I could see how it would be GREAT when it came out.


I think that whether somebody likes a film or not depends on timing...


did you see it before somebody else's opinion influenced you?

were there distractions (phone, kids, wife, audience, problems w/ the film etc)?


Does the film corilate w/ current society (when the film was made)?

 

[Rachael Bellomy]

I don't need no stinkin' coke spoon!


OVER-RATED! I bought the deluxe box for the Paul Muni original mostly...

 

[Shaded Dogfood]

I never saw the whole movie until recently. I knew the film had a spotty track record from the critics, but the beginning was okay (some of which I had seen before). I tried to be fair. The Untouchables, from the same director, was good messy fun.


I wasn't all that crazy about The Deer Hunter, either.

 

[barhoram]

ageed. watched it again with its DVD re-release. Had a hard time sitting through it all to get to the "say hello" at the end. probably wont watch it again for long time. I remember liking it much more when I first saw it--probably becuase i was finally able to figure out why my friends kept saying ****-A-Roach.

 

[sangs]

Wow, I'm betting this Scarface-hatin' bunch must have really enjoyed "The Hours," "Fried Green Tomatoes" and probably "Mona Lisa Smile."


Just kidding!!! Relax those trigger fingers.


Sorry though. I loved "Scarface" years ago and I still love it. Of course it's over-the-top, that's what makes it fun. Plus many fond college memories are tied into it also. Drunken nights acting stupid and reciting "Scarface" dialogue back and forth. Sigh, those were the days.

 

[Josh Z]

Overrated? Sure.


Entertaining? Yes.

 

[AFH]

I agree with Sangs. The movie is entertaining. I can watch it over and over. The whole 80s look and feel makes this movie more of a classic because they just don't make them like this anymore. By that I mean back then the action scenes were thought to be some of the best and the clothing by itself make you harken back to that time. It's just like listening to 80s music. We may think that it's cheesy but you can't fight that good feeling that you get when you listen to the music. The music in Scarface was the only that bothered me.


There are alot of quoteable lines from the movie but my favor one is: "First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the woman". My mentor said that line to me 3 years ago, he substituted p**** for woman, but I did not know where that line came from until I watched the movie again. The more that I think about that line the more it hold true.

 

[napa_newbie]

Way-way-overated.


It's the Waterworld of Gangsta movies.

 

[FredProgGH]

For the record: Deer Hunter IS lame. And blah, blah, yes, Scarface is overrated but it IS fun. It probably helps if you were there in the icky, hideous dicso-era late 70's/early 80's...


BTW, as to TM taking all those bullet hits and standing... did you SEE how much coke he snorted???


And it's not the Waterworld of gangsta movies either because no one ever overrated Waterworld.

 

[Mcklein]

not exactly the same genre, but carlito's way was MUCH better than this piece of cuban crap.


Cuban crap???? how so???

Many..many movies have scenes were main actors take a billion bullets and dont die on the spot, or even worse they seem to dodge billions of bullets , tanks and so on...

 

[Herman]

Scarface is boring?


Too long?


I went to see Scarface in the theater with my Dad when I was 11. It just blew my mind. Scarface is still my all time reference gangster film. Great film.

Quote:

Wow, I'm betting this Scarface-hatin' bunch must have really enjoyed "The Hours," "Fried Green Tomatoes" and probably "Mona Lisa Smile."

You left out "The English Patient".


Herm

 

[EC]

I've seen parts of it on TV. But what made me buy and watch the whole movie is sitting in a car for 8 hrs (4 hrs each way) with two movie jokers that kept quoting lines from Scarface and Lock Stock and two smoking barrels. Overrated? No way! I especially liked the small documentary on rappers and how Scarface affected them.