In a hyper-saturated style that owes a lot to "City of God" (and in turn to Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas"), "Elite Squad" makes for strong medicine.Like its inspirations, this film is hyper-violent: the titular squad is an elite paramilitary unit called BOPE.
Nowadays Cosa Nostra's goodfellas are likely to wear sharp city suits.
It is a great subject for a comedy and it does have its moments, whether it's the interplay between a producer struggling in the field and a desk producer who has enough time on his hands to make Daleks out of coffee cups, or the skewed cultural grasp of the local fixer ("Goodfellas... my favourite comedy movie! That Joe Pesci!").
There was a kerfuffle last week sparked by the ridiculous suggestion that women can't appreciate "GoodFellas".
"GoodFellas" is a movie of those who do and those who watch — a theme that Scorsese would return to, even more radically, in "The Wolf of Wall Street".
In "GoodFellas," Scorsese is watching those who use the gun; in "The Wolf of Wall Street," he's doing more than watching those who use a pen — he places himself among them.
The forum's tone was inspired by Finish the Book, George, a blog begun in 2008 by two brothers using the monikers Pesci and Liotta — a reference to two actors from the gangster film "GoodFellas".
(He played Fat Andy, a bit part, in the movie "GoodFellas").
(When I ask my father if he intended the sequence as an homage to the Scorsese film, he claims not to remember having seen it. And then he does a thing I hate. He asks his wife if they've seen "Goodfellas". And when she responds in the affirmative he does something that I hate even more. He asks her if he liked it).
Some screens showed real-time traffic maps; one was empty except for its desktop background, a cast photo from "GoodFellas".
There was a moment in Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas" (1990) when Karen (Lorraine Bracco) went to find Henry Ray Liottaafterter he stood her up for dinner.
