Reviewed by Melissa Garza
When this movie first came out, I was dying to see it. I had to wait until it came out on video to see it. I was 11. For some reason, I was infatuated with the mafia at a very young age. When my schoolmates were doing book reports on Go Ask Alice, I was writing a defense of Al Capone. When everyone in class was watching Doogie Howser and The Karate Kid, I sat in front of my television watching The Godfather and Crime Story. I remember for my birthday one year, I asked and received these white and red thin books from Time Life. One came each month and within them were articles about criminal masterminds. It was like a crime encyclopedia. I tried to Google them and find out what year they came out but I can’t. It had to be late 80s early 90s.
Anyways, I was at work yesterday reading in Entertainment Weekly about Henry Hill Jr., the man that Goodfellas was based on. He recently died. Well, it had been years since I saw the movie…but my favorite scene popped into my head. It’s where Hill (Ray Liotta) is told by his girlfriend/soon-to-be-wife Karen (Lorraine Bracco) that her next door neighbor that she knew all of her life got rough with her in the car. She needed a ride home and he began touching her and wouldn’t stop. When she slapped him, he threw her out of the car.
As one could imagine, Hill wasn’t too happy about his girl’s treatment. He takes his gun and goes next door in thee sexiest dark red leather jacket ever and beats the guy to a bleeding pulp. He strikes him 11 times. I had my husband watch it with me yesterday. He saw how much I was smiling during the scene and he affectionately looked at me and said, “Honey, you’re a weirdo.”
Anyways, Hill looks at him and says, “on my mother, if you ever fucking touch her again, I’ll kill you.” SEXY! He then with his hands all bloody tells Karen to hide the gun – which she does. Double Sexy! I fear my hubby is right…I am a weirdo; but can anyone deny that Ray Liotta is the hottest guy ever? I think not. Hell, in Unlawful Entry, I was rooting for him to bed Kurt Russell’s wife. I thought Madeleine Stowe was a jerk when she played him….I’ll review this later but quick rundown for those who haven’t seen U.E. A burglar breaks into Michael’s (Russell) home and holds a knife to Karen’s (Stowe) neck. Officer Davis (Liotta) shows up on the scene and takes a liking to Karen. Understandably, he goes out of his way to set Russell up for crimes he didn’t commit and kills anyone who gets in the way of him and Karen being together. Well, while Russell is sitting in jail, Davis breaks into Karen’s home and makes her dinner while she sleeps. When she wakes up he tells her in one of my favorite lines, advises that they can stop pretending…”you being the perfect wife and me being the good friend.” I think this line is hilarious because throughout the movie he just harasses and screws with Michael but calls himself a good friend. Well, fast-forward a bit and Davis and Karen are in the bedroom. Davis thinks they’re ready to make love. She’s kissing him back, but unbeknownst to him, her intentions are to grab the gun….. See, she’s a bitch! Russell is a good looking guy, but Liotta is just something of a Greek God with blue eyes to die for.
Back to Goodfellas – Goodfellas is such a great movie. I can’t imagine anyone not knowing what this movie is about but here’s a quick synopsis.
Hill is attracted to the gangster livelihood and a very young age. Despite his parents’ wishes he works for them and grows up within the Mafia. He does hits with his friends Jimmy (Robert DeNiro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci). They drink wine together, go on vacations together and kill together.
Things slowly devolve for Hill until he’s under arrest. Rather than meet with a certain death he goes into the witness protection program.
It doesn’t get better than this. It’s such a great cast with such classic scenes and dialogue. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard people recite the “how am I funny?” routine of Pesci’s. Hi-freaking-larious!
And…Ray Liotta is gorgeous and he made Hill such a sympathetic character. He was arrogant and a cheating louse but the times when he showed genuine concern for his wife brought out a sweet side as well. Either that, or I’m just one screwed up lady. I’ll let you all be the judges of that!
Overall Rating – 10/10
