Is GOODFELLAS your favorite movie of all time?

Many other movies. I like it tho.

it's one of my favorite movies fo sho

think i'm gonna watch it tonight

It's a good movie, but Godfather >>>>>> Goodfellas.

i only like the godfather and the star wars

not even The King of Comedy is my favorite.

The first time I saw GoodFellas was in 1993, starting my second semester of my freshmen year at Missouri. Our dorm had this internal movie channel that played movies 24 hours day, and one night as I was battling insomnia, I stayed up until 4:30 watching this movie.

Sure I was 19, but man, did it hit home for me. I went out in the chilly quad, smoked a Marlboro Medium, and just thought about that final scene where Henry Hill realizes that he's just like any other schmuck.

Over the years, like a snowball rolling down a mountain, I met other friends who loved the movie as well. We'd quote the lines back to each other, not so much in a hep dead nigger storage where'd you get that scar, eating pussy? sort of way. The dialog could fit nicely into all the life situations: Your boss making you work the register at Kinko's even though you hate having to count out change? FUCK YOU. PAY ME. It doesn't matter. You're a schmuck on wheels. What are ya, an aristocrat?

This was also one of the first movies I saw that saw a time period that I lived through and remembered in a historic context. Watching those Christmas scenes and the 1980 sequence hit home in a certain spot for the first time for me. Almost made me feel old.

It may very well have something to do with being in your late teens in the early 90s when this movie came out. I don't know. I listened to all of Palomine at work today too. But even still, 16 years after I saw GoodFellas for the first time, I can still watch it as just about any time. Not just for nostalgic reasons either. I could say that it's a pretty reasonable approximation of how men and their friends treat each other and how artificial some of those circumstances are.

Who knows? All I know is that as soon as I finished watching it that winter night, my favorite movie wasn't Raiders of the Lost Ark anymore.

marlboro mediums!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Deadman97/jim_anchower.jpg

"I went out in the chilly quad, smoked a Marlboro Medium, and just thought about that final scene where Henry Hill realizes that he's just like any other schmuck."

I think this is probably my favorite move. Though the Godfather is up there too.

It's a good movie, but Godfather >>>>>> Goodfellas.

― also *free* online sex personals - got any links? (libcrypt), Friday, February 13, 2009 10:53 PM (21 minutes ago)

so tru it's not even fair

You know, I could probably argue that, but of the two, GoodFellas is still my favorite.

A person's favorite movie isn't the movie they can argue up the best. It's the movie that has a few flaws but speaks to them in a way no other movie does. So yeah, PP.

Just a dude here pondering his own fave movies and how they're not gonna win the Mr. Dorbius film arguers awards.

i dont know if it's my favourite, but it's probably. i mean, definitely up there. and better than either godfather imo.

i've never seen a movie where every scene, every moment, stuck to the inside of my brain like glue.

i've said it before but i don't think i've ever chopped garlic without thinking of the razor blade scene. i mean, there's nothing else like that.

that move into deniro smoking at the bar... shinebox... henry all relieved because he thinks morrie isn't going to die... "i have to admit it turned me on"... that first date scene with lorraine bracco... "you look like a gangster!"... "i'm stirrin', i'm stirrin'!"... the look on the fbi guy's face when he says "buhbye ASSHOLE"... its fuckin indelible. i guess that means it's my favourite.

I'M SAWRYY!

it might be my favorite and yeah i think it's better than the godfather. also it's funnier than 98% of comedies i've seen.

not my fave, but way way way up there. I'm a dude btw

"of course they got pastries, they got everything"

i mean lines like that aren't quotable because they're particularly badass or like, funny in any sense that "quotable" lines usually are... they just stick

I like GoodFellas a lot, but it's not my favourite. Certainly near the top of the heap. I suppose it's one of those movies that I admire and enjoy a great deal, but never really connected with the way that some other people obviously have.

Not my favorite movie.

CHALLOPS

Casino >>>>> Goodfellas

Casino isn't a better movie, but I definitely get a bigger kick out of its outrageousness.

casino is underrated but no.

Casino has more stuff packed into it that makes it fun to watch and unravel but there's no way that's also why Goodfellas is the better film. Also some of Casino's great set-pieces are more or less remoulds of Goodfellas. I say this from memory cos I don't think I've watched Casino all the way thru since I saw it at the cinema when it came out.

i've said it before but i don't think i've ever chopped garlic without thinking of the razor blade scene. i mean, there's nothing else like that.

haha so true

casino is amazing, and it was the first 18-cert i ever saw in the cinema (aged 15), but even then goodfellas had taken residence inside my head. i've only seen casino twice; goodfellas 20 times or more. bits of it, like the day henry gets caught, like a million times.

Yeah exackly. Goodfellas is more or less perfectly formed whereas Casino is scattershot.

i've been rewatching bits of casino lately.i still think the first hour or so is amazing but it becomes rather tedious as it drags on. it just starts to feel like the actors are going through the motions toward the end and the voiceover is just there to kinda wake you up and point you back to the action

There was a time I would've made a more solid case for why I favor Casino over Goodfellas, but it's been a few years since I've seen either. I just remember being blown away by Casino in the theater, and then another 10 or so times once I bought it on video.

I've only seen Goodfellas twice. Once to just watch it and another to critique it for a film appreciation class. Neither time made half the impression on me that Casino did.

I don't like this movie at all.

I've never seen it!

It's good, but there are a million other films out there better than it.
Can watch it maybe once every couple of years.

I've not see many of those gangster/mafia/wiseguy films...I'll see if my cousin has it on DVD...

i once preferred casino over goodfellas for some reason but having seen both a couple of times over the last few months, i have to go with goodfellas. casino is dope as fuck and works for me in a different, more epic, tragic kinda way than goodfellas, but every single aspect of goodfellas is just so well done i can't even fathom not choosing it over casino now. probably the greatest use of a soundtrack in any film i've ever seen, too.

Top 50 for sure, but Dr. Strangelove will probably stay #1 forever.

i saw goodfellas in the theater and have seen it like 1mx since - its special for being deep and a great ride - pretty much it makes u want to marry it

super amzing but prob not my fav

Goodfellas v Godfathers

yeah the thing is, i guess godfather is "better" than goofellas in a real eye broccoli sort of way, but honestly i can't not watch goodfellas when it comes up, it's just such superb entertainment, every damn second of that movie just cool and trump tight to the fuckin maxx....like i love godfather but goodfellas is one of those rare "Great Films" that i can appreciate as great filmaking like i do the Godfather but AT THE SAME TIME i can love it on the level of "oh man i'm so glad this popped up on A&E when I'm hungover on saturday" way that I do, say like Die Hard or something like that.

goofellas?

http://www.gibson.com/Files/aaFeaturesImages/goo%20goo%20album%20cover.jpg

My favorite Scorsese, definitely, but I'm not much of a Scorsese fan.

goofellas haha..poor guys still waiting for vol 2 of that greatest hits

Casino really isn't playing in this league, guys.

^^^

I like Goodfellas a decent amount, but it's not a favorite. It never connected with me on a personal level. I do think it is amazingly entertaining and well-made and deserves its classic status though.

Casino is OK, but I've always seen it as a lesser Goodfellas. It feels like a third of the movie is Sharon Stone shrieking/melting down and those scene are like physically painful for me to sit through.

I haven't seen Goodfellas, but I highly doubt it's as good as Totoro.

My favourite Scorsese films are The King of Comedy and After Hours, whereas I think Taxi Driver is way overrated. Would I like Goodfellas based on that?

don't tell me, totoro is one of those twee japanese cartoons?

It's the best twee Japanese cartoon ever made.

My favourite Scorsese films are The King of Comedy and After Hours, whereas I think Taxi Driver is way overrated. Would I like Goodfellas based on that?

― Tuomas, Sunday, February 15, 2009 11:06 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

who the fuck knows - watch it and see

I don't know I don't think Goodfellas has any brave robots so it probably isn't my favorite movie.

I wouldn't even put Goodfellas in my Top 20. Top 50, maybe.

My favourite Scorsese films are The King of Comedy and After Hours, whereas I think Taxi Driver is way overrated. Would I like Goodfellas based on that?

― Tuomas, Sunday, February 15, 2009 6:06 AM (Yesterday)

i think you're crazy for not loving taxi driver so idk what to tell you

definitely my favourite gangster movie, but not my favourite movie. second favourite gangster movie: carlitos way

<3 carlitos

i hadn't seen after hours in years and did a while back...that movie is BONKERS, man so so awesome.

ya it's amazing.

scorsese is one of those guys where the famous official classics are the good ones and the minor 'overlooked gems' that everyone makes a big deal about preferring to the famous ones turn out to be overlooked for a reason.

like what?

well, i mean after hours isn't bad but saying it's better than goodfellas or taxi driver just seems crazy to me.

it's neither bad nor overlooked imho

No way is this better than back to the future or jaws! Sorry not my favorite then.

I mean it lacks a shark for christ's sake!

not my favorite scorcese film and hence not my favorite film of all time (I don't know what is, but it isn't this)

sorry goodfellas is not my favorite movie of all time :(

And certainly there's a lot to be said against the shocking violence --> cue up beloved pop song M.O. of the movie. (honestly I have no idea how often that actually happens but it seems to be my enduring impression of the movie.)

It does float along painlessly but it's never burrowed its way into my imagination because I hate the people it's about, it resembles my life in no respect, it has nothing (like a giant maneating shark) that seems to bubble up from my subconscious. And I'm kinda tired of that breezy editing style.

i can see how you might tire of really skilled and artful editing

never got it. preferred casino. find it hard to empathise/get into most scorsese flicks or de niro leads.

Well I agree it's artful and skillful and that the the movie is a masterpiece of it's type. It's slick and entertaining as hell. But eventually I feel like it's neither a nihilistic sensationalistic gangsta movie nor does it really seem to say anything about these people that strikes me as insightful. The interest of the movie, its reason for being, seems to be the vicarious thrill we get observing these people on the margin. Thats more thrilling for some than others. It makes me a bit queasy.

you really don't think goodfellas doesn't offer a perspective on gangsters & organized crime that is insightful to say the least? esp at the time it came out. i mean who else showed the details, teh working joe element of that lifestyle, the attraction, the petty politics like that, with that sense of realism?

Yes you have a valid point there.

i mean, i dig it if it's not your thing, esp as subject matter goes, but to dismiss it as un-insightful and merely 'breezily' edited is to miss out on a lot imo

xp

Henry Hill: All they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. That's what it's all about. That's what the FBI could never understand - that what Paulie and the organization offer is protection for the kinds of guys who can't go to the cops. They're like the police department for wiseguys.

I think I preferred the sopranos because you could often detect an almost shocking amount of contempt and venom towards the characters. Maybe I'm being puritanical tho.

ya think?

It's an excellent film for sure, but I like a whole load of other movies better than it.

just a little tho! Look, I suppose relative to the world the movie inhabits these are interesting and rich characters with a fascinating and complex set of internal ethics. But you've got to want to enter that world to enjoy the movie. I recognize it's genre too and as such uses genre to explore America, comraderie, business, etc...

Xpost

i've been meaning to rewatch After Hours (it's prob been 10 years), partially based on Alex in NYC's lavish praise for it on ILX, but it really bugged the shit out of me when I saw it the first 1 (or 2?) times. And not in a good or interesting way.

It's not very good; most of the movie is like being trapped with five or six "SNL" skits that run on. John Heard and Linda Fiorentiono are the only ones who registered.

I don't know I don't think Goodfellas has any brave robots so it probably isn't my favorite movie.

Actually in the director's cut Morrie the wig salesman guy is a robot. But he isn't very brave.

yes OTM Alfred

Well I agree it's artful and skillful and that the the movie is a masterpiece of it's type. It's slick and entertaining as hell. But eventually I feel like it's neither a nihilistic sensationalistic gangsta movie nor does it really seem to say anything about these people that strikes me as insightful. The interest of the movie, its reason for being, seems to be the vicarious thrill we get observing these people on the margin. Thats more thrilling for some than others. It makes me a bit queasy.

Actually, if any film counts as a "shallow masterpiece," to quote Pauline Kael on Citizen Kane, it's Goodfellas. I'm willing to acknowledge how much fun this is, without noting the faint stirrings of conscience in Henry Hill. The Departed clearly shows the limits of shallow casting and writing, though.

im trying to avoid running any moralistic arguments against the movie to rationalize why i dont think it's all that....and mostly failing. but it does remind me why i preferred Godfather 2 to 1: because you can read against 2's pretensions to grand tragedy and decide that it's really about michael being a lonely petty little shit.

If the young Ray Liotta, fresh off Something Wild, had been cast in The Departed instead of Leo, the conflicts would have been more interesting...but that's another thread.

....and another movie.

goodfellas is just scarface for honkys

OK, I'll say it:

Tuomas, if you like "King of Comedy", you'll enjoy "Goodfellas".

I expect "some other movie" to win this poll, but I'm curious what the over/under is gonna be.

this was a great idea for a poll btw

...WHATEVER happens.

I expect "some other movie" to win this poll, but I'm curious what the over/under is gonna be.

― •--• --- --- •--• (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 17 February 2009 15:44 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'm gonna guess maybe 20, 25% go for Goodfellas.

I mean, I voted other, but it may be third behind 12 Angry Men and Heathers.

My guess is 10% or less, Goodfellas.

If they ever make a movie called 12 Angry Heathers, I may have to change my vote.

some other movie: dazed and confused

http://www.burgerworldchronicles.com/domo/goodfellas_painting.jpg

one dog goes one way the other dog goes the other way and this guys sayin whadda ya want from me

Gonna watch this tonight, btw.

Three Kings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wtf did they even watch it.

wrong thread! sorry.

nice head of white hair

i kinda love that painting.

dis Mama S actually do the painting?

i think so

i like goodfellas, but it's not weird/geeky enough to be a favorite (no outerspace monsters, no "artistic" pornography, no creepy dream sequences, no all-dwarf casting, no animation, no nine-minute static shots, no relentless zombie holocaust, no klaus kinski, no homemade WTF charm, no fourth wall in tatters, no pretentious art nonsense, etc.)

uh dude it definitely breaks 4th wall

probly my favourite 4th wall breaking in all cinema too

one dog goes one way the other dog goes the other way and this guys sayin whadda ya want from me

― ice cr?m, Tuesday, February 17, 2009 12:52 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

my last 15 minutes: think of pesci saying this, look at guy's face, lol, repeat

it breaks the fourth wall, but not in the way i like. it doesn't sabotage realism to make conceptual jokes, or completely upend the relationship between the viewer and the film (like, uh, man with a movie camera or something).

breaking != in tatters

you have stringent standards for "favorites" eh?

it's kinda weird you need a movie to do that in order to like it
xpost

contenderizer demands his rupture

It's funnier in Italian.

the 4th wall exists for a reason, hopped up writers shouldn't go breaking it all willy nilly like it was a wet napkin

not so much that i have stringent standards, just that i've noticed what i like and what i don't. and i generally don't like gangster movies. and do like metafictional bullshitology

Every time Henry Hill breaks the fourth wall at the end on the witness stand, I can't keep my eyes off of DeNiro to see if he's moving or not.

(er, "Jimmy".)

his and paulie's eyes totally follow him in that scene

does the shot on the doorstep at the end count as wall-breaking?

yes. he asked for spaghetti with tomato sauce and they gave him egg noodles with ketchup.

ball-breaking vs wall-breaking

He's not necessarily looking at the camera though. He could be disapprovingly watching his across-the-street neighbors loading up the station wagon.

yeah this is what im wondering. how do people see it.

fuckin shnook

i think he's speaking to the great gazoo

it breaks the fourth wall, but not in the way i like. it doesn't sabotage realism to make conceptual jokes, or completely upend the relationship between the viewer and the film (like, uh, man with a movie camera or something).

― contenderizer, Tuesday, February 17, 2009 8:17 PM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ugh lame and tired, next you'll be asking for alienation effects.

MWAMC doesn't up-end shit. you get exactly what you want, propaganda for a boring-looking 'ordered society' with -- omg -- some laying bare of the device, as advertised in the programme.

what is disrupted by the bourgeois-academic canon-fodder classic MWAMC?

enrq épater-ing the bourgeois once again

Is this still the GoodFellas thread?

No now it's a Man With A Movie Camera thread.

ilx's first ever thread digression.

I'll remember this day like I remember the moment I saw Lockington's come from behind 2-1 net victory over Pillsborough United at the old Castle Workingville Grounds.

ugh lame and tired, next you'll be asking for alienation effects. MWAMC doesn't up-end shit. you get exactly what you want, propaganda for a boring-looking 'ordered society' with -- omg -- some laying bare of the device, as advertised in the programme.

― special guest stars mark bronson

"alienation effects". jesus. MWAMC is funny and cool in how it moves you in and out of the POV of the camera, someone watching the act of filming, an audience member watching the filmed material, and someone watching that audience. i like that. i'm entertained by it, esp since it's executed so well, so suprisingly and so charmingly.

that said, thank you for coming on, once again, as some giant asshole with shit to prove.

i'm a sucker for games, paradoxes, mysteries and puzzles. i'm not trying to pretend it's any big artistic deal. i also like pretty much anything involving tentacled horrors.

do you know a guy named animal?

no? i do enjoy muppets

I downloaded this 2 days ago to watch (again, saw it last 10 years or so ago) just because of this thread and the fucking image turned out to be just HALF of the movie, as I discovered 1/2 way in last night.

GoodFellas was the first DVD I bought. It's one of those flippers, where after Tommy shoots Spider and says to Henry, "Yeah, I'll dig the fucking hole. Anyone got a shovel?" it stops and you have to manually flip the disc over to see Karen banging on the apartment intercom of Henry's mistress.

ya... they came out with a non-flippy one but the quality was better on the first edition.

little known fact

hmm i own the special edition : /

me too : /

i should just man up and get the blu-ray of this and ronin.. i'll watch em enough times

"He's NOT Jewish. Did you know how these people live?"

love the way deniro says "hoof"

love the way deniro pours ketchup

i'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers

GoodFellas was the first DVD I bought. It's one of those flippers, where after Tommy shoots Spider and says to Henry, "Yeah, I'll dig the fucking hole. Anyone got a shovel?" it stops and you have to manually flip the disc over to see Karen banging on the apartment intercom of Henry's mistress.

― •--• --- --- •--• (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, February 17, 2009 1:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I've seen this movie so many times in both forms that every time I see a hand pounding on buttons and IS DIS DA SUPERINTENDENT???? my reflex action causes me to jump up and change the disc, then get caught halfway between the reflex jump up and the autocorrective counter-reflex...

at which point I throw my back out and stand hunched over for the next 90 minutes and finish the movies before calling for help.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

voted some other movie: Goodfellas does not contain the following: prescient commentary on society, post-apocalyptic scenarios, giant animals attacking people, basis in historical fact, absurdist musical numbers, Udo Kier, demonic children, zombies, cannibals, Nazis, nuclear radiation, Klaus Kinski, or Christian Bale.

basis in historical fact - UH

i heard that henry hill dude on stern's show a few years ago. he was absolutely ridiculous. and i think he was wasted, too.

"hiya, Hendry" still cracks my shit up.

Seems like I heard Henry Hill on the Jim Rome show a few years ago. Guy sounded like a real weasel, actually. Not very Liottaesque.

yeah he came across really pathetic/ sad.

"YOU POPPED YOUR CHERRY!"

voted yes cuz it's up there

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

a pretty strong showing against the field

15.5% That's a pretty good lump sum.

ple plai i don't think i can seriously recall a single scene in this movie in my mind broe, :(

can you recall any movie scenes?

you stfu immediately

that's from Casino, i think

yeah, not really though

wow a lot o fpeople voted

yeah, i guess a lot of us wanted to make the point

wait til you see the tally on my Irene Dunne poll

people flew in from all over the world to vote on that

people flew in from all over the world to vote against Goodfellas.

i heard they were all financed with mormon money

mmm, hot, bicycle-riding, goodfellas-hatin mormon guys be bringing in my sheaves

Mormon Paulettes!

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/HENRY-HILL-GOODFELLA-ARTWORK__W0QQ_armrsZ1

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c163/wvferrell/GFs.jpg

i know what someone is getting for father's day!

the signed icepick?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FnAV1XbfKE

http://morrieswigshop.com/

unfortunately there is no 26 Queens Blvd. Addresses in Queens have the cross street in front of them. For instance, 80-26 Queens Blvd is the Pop Diner, a retro/googie diner that's just ok.

unfortunately for who, bald guys?

it might be my favorite and yeah i think it's better than the godfather. also it's funnier than 98% of comedies i've seen.

― memo from norv turner (omar little), Saturday, February 14, 2009 1:28 AM (9 months ago) Bookmark

Omar OTM. Just watched and kept thinking about how funny it really is in parts.

I like this painting . . .