Drive

Released: 2011
Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
Stars; Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan & Bryan Cranston

EVEN if this movie wasn't great, Ryan Gosling looks great (as always) in Drive. Good thing for us, this was a fantastic movie all around!

Ryan Gosling plays an unnamed Hollywood stunt car driver/mechanic. On the side he is a getaway driver. He tells people they have five minutes, anything on either side and he's not going to help you. There isn't a whole lot of this. He does this a few times in the movie, but the times he does he's brilliant at it. Listening to the radio frequencies, quick outmaneuvers, traffic, he's awesome.

The owner of the garage he works out is named Shannon. Shannon convinces a mombster named Bernie to buy a stock car for Gosling to drive, because of Gosling's mad skills. The mobster's boss is Nino (Ron Perlman). This is important for later.

Gosling meets the girl across the hall, Irene, who doesn't say a lot the whole movie, she just kind of stares longingly at him (who wouldn't!?). She has a little boy, Benicio, to whom he grows an attachment. Benicio's dad & Irene's husband, Standard gets out of prison and is non-to-pleased about Ryan Gosling's presence. I think it shows that Standard is a decent guy, because he doesn't out right accuse any foul play and holds his tongue. Apparently Standard owes protection money from prison to a guy named Cook. To help Benicio, Gosling agrees to help standard pay off a debt he has from prison. Told you Gosling liked the kid!

Enter Christina Hendricks (think Mad Men only she plays the complete opposite person). They go through with the heist, it ends up being a setup, Standard dies, and then 5 minutes later Christina Hendricks dies as well. Gosling, not to thrilled about this, confronts Cook. Who does the money really belong to....Nino! Apparently Nino is working with the East Coast Mafia who wants the money...we're talking about a lot of money btw.

So Nino & Bernie decide to kill off people with knowledge, because that's what you do...You kill off people in movies. Shannon is killed. Gosling, being smart & handsome & awesome, wears a mask (this is wehre his movie connections came in handy!) and follows Nino. He T-Bones Nino's car and drowns him in the ocean. Gosling calls Bernie for a meeting. Bernie says Irene & Bernicio are safe, he just wants the money. Bernie stabs Gosling & Gosling stabs Bernie and leaves the money. Gosling drives off. There's a scene where Irene knocks on his apartment, but no answers...because Gosling has left town.

All in all it was a really good movie!!! I really enjoyed it & Alex is still yapping about it!

Heat

Released: 1995
Directed by: Michael Mann
Staring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer

The next movie on our gangster/heist journey was Heat. Another really long movie! I really enjoyed this one as well. I think the movie did a fantastic job at comparing Robert Di Niro & Al Pacino. While they are on different sides of the “right/wrong” spectrum, they are very much the same.

The movie also shows that you don’t ever ever bring on someone new, that you don’t trust. EVER!

It also has EVERYONE…In addition to those three: Danny Trejo, Kevin Gage, William Fitchner, Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd, Hank Azaria, Diane Venora, Jon Voight, Dennis Haysbert (President Palmer), Jeremy Piven.

We’ll start with Al Pacino. Al Pacino is a great detective with the LAPD homicide unit. While he’s generally a step behind De Niro, he does have brilliant deductive reasoning skills – like when he figures out why they are in the shipyard. He’s on his third marriage, which is failing. His wife, Justine (Diane Venora), is frustrated, because Pacino gives all of his time to work. Then again, if this is his third marriage, he was probably a successful detective while they were dating. Story lines like this annoy me. She married a guy that didn’t have a 9-5 job. You shouldn’t expect him to be any different. Now I did like her line about “there’s sharing and then there’s leftovers.” I think she is right about that. But generally, I don’t side with the wives.

I enjoyed when she slept with another man, and Pacino kept yelling at him to sit down. I did find it interesting that while he didn’t have a great relationship with Justine, he did have a connection with his step-daughter (Natalie Portman). He noticed her on the side of the road and went to take her home. She went to his apartment, presumably to ask for help, but when he wasn’t there she cut herself. While the movie only hinted at it, it showed him giving her more attention than her mother. Remember one of the opening scenes where Natalie Portman was freaking out about her clothes, and Justine was reading a paper and ignoring her? I think his relationship with his step-daughter showed he absolutely can care about things other than work. In the end, he chose work (after saving his step-daughter’s life of course).

Then there’s his semi-foil, Robert De Niro. I love Robert De Niro, I actually love both him & Pacino. De Niro is cold. He wishes he had a family, like in the scene where he & his crew are out to dinner with their families. He’s alone. He starts having a relationship with Violet Eady (Amy Brenneman). Ultimately, he is able to walk away. He is a man of discipline, which is actually why he dies.

I like the scene when he & Eady are driving to the airport, you can see him thinking/debating/twitching. He knows he needs to ignore the ability to go get Waingro. He knows he has to let it go, but he can’t. That ultimately leads to his downfall. He walks away from Eady (which reminds you of his conversation with Pacino at the diner, you have to be able to walk away from everything with a 30 second decision). He walks away from the precious metals heist, he walks away from the woman he loves.

Val Kilmer’s character wasn’t my favorite. He was beyond technically proficient. He has a gambling problem, cheating problem, and an anger problem. In spite of all of that, he & Ashley Judd love each other. In spite of her saying she may leave him, and her starting to have an affair, she saves him. She warns him in the end and he’s able to get away. It’s kinda sweet in the end.

In the end in the airfield, De Niro & Pacino holds hand. I was kind of sad that De Niro died, but I guess that’s the work of a good script/director/actor. You make the bad guy sympathetic, so you feel for him and root for him! There were only a few parts where I thought the movie was slow.

Goodfellas

Released: 1990
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci

"We were good fellas, wiseguys."

I really enjoyed this movie, and I hate that it took me so long to see this. If you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend viewing it.

The general plot is the rise & fall of Henry Hill in the gangster world. At a young age he starts working for Paulie Cicero, Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci). He marries a jewish girl, Karen. Tommy kills this guy Batts without Paulie's approval. Batts was a "made man," you had to be full Italian to be a "made man" meaning Jimmy & Henry weren't ever going to be made. This also means your untouchable, without the consent of the bosses, i.e. Paulie!

Tommy is a bit of a hot head & Batts was harassing Tommy for being a shoe shiner, in front of a girl. Driving Batts's body to upstate New York to dump it is the opening scene of the movie, then it cuts to a flashback of how Henry got started. We get more details on the June 11, 1970. I feel like this is the start to the end, even though there's still another hour or so of the movie! It's about this time that Henry starts seeing a mistress, Janice, who he puts up in a very expensive tacky apartment. Karen finds out, takes the kids to Janice's apartment, and starts screaming. It's a pretty awesome scene. She wakes up Henry with a gun to his head, he gets a hold of the gun and hits her. Henry decides Karen's crazy (gee? really?) and goes to live with Janice.

Paulie steps in and says go back with Karen. (I'm reminded of Don Corleone: "A man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man."). On the next job in Florida, most of the crew is arrested, because one of guy's sister works for the FBI. Henry starts to sell drugs to support his family (you know the one he loves so very much). Karen sees Janice's name on the list...she's obviously upset...again...The prison is a joke.

Paulie tells Henry to get out of the drug trade its bad (similar to Don Corleone...didn't want to be in the drug trade). The drugs continue. Tommy becomes a "made man" or at least is told that he's going to be, but then he's killed...you know for that murder that he wasn't supposed to do. De Niro shows his wonderful acting ability when he finds out in the pay phone. I found this to be a tell of how close they were to Tommy. Tommy always seemed like that jerk off friend you have that causes problems everywhere he goes. But in all the years they spent together, De Niro really did care for Tommy. It was touching.

Henry (and Karen...poor Karen), do quite a bit of cocaine and are organizing a deal. The FBI raids the house and Karen flushes the cocaine...you know so they don't find they have $60K worth of cocaine! Henry is pissed!!! Henry crawls back to Paulie needing help, Paulie's response was...hey remember those MULTIPLE TIMES I warned you that this was bad? Here's $3,200 and get out of my life. Jimmy is going to have Henry killed, so Henry joins the Witness Protection Program. He's later arrested on drug charges.

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Ray Liotta looks a lot like my boss, which is a little weird. But anyway, I thought he was really good. His laugh annoyed me. It was too loud & he opened his mouth really loud. I wanted to like him, but the whole cheating on his wife thing...I couldn't root for him. If it was just sex, I could probably rationalize it, but nope. You have kids dude...grow up. Then again, he grew up really fast and had a jerk of a father who happened to be a weeeee bit (read a whole lot) abusive.

Robert De Niro nailed it out of the park. He was fabulous, then again he's fabulous in everything he does. I appreciate the work/time/effort he spent with the real Jimmy Conway to observe gestures, mannerisms, etc.

Joe Pesci - good god I love Joe Pesci. My Cousin Vinny is one of my favorite movies. I honestly wasn't too bothered by the excessive use of the f word. He really is that pain-in-the-ass friend who you deep down love, but he causes problems wherever he goes. I mean shooting the kid? Someone is seriously suffering from some little man former shoe-shiner syndrome. Take a chill pill dude! His mom was great.

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Scorsese uses the steadiness of the camera & how fast paced the scenes move to chronicle Henry's life. In the beginning it's more stable, but as Henry becomes a paranoid coke head the camera becomes more jumpy (we're not talking Blair Witch shaky, but enough to notice).

The soundtrack is awesome. Scorsese's use of the soundtrack (and playing the soundtrack while filming like the "Layla Montage" so the shots line up exactly) is great. He also kept the music to the time period (then again the movie spans from 1955 - 1980, so he had a wide variety to choose from!

The "You think I'm funny" scene, according to IMDB, was apparently improvised between Pesci & Liotta.

The "f" word is used almost 300 times in the movie, averaging just over 2 per minute. Can you guess which actor said about half of them?

I like the differences between "old" and "new" gangsters and the downfall caused by drugs. It's a really interesting. The "old" gangsters just had an economic system, so to speak. They knew about appearances and the importance of a sharp mind (not necessarily educated, just street smarts and staying aware & alert of those around you & their intentions).

The Godfather

Released: 1972

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola

Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan

Alex is on a gangster film kick, and since I took him to see Les Miserables, I was going to watch The Godfather. I really really enjoyed this movie.

There are a lot of story lines moving, but they are all attached to the main story line. This makes the movie much easier to follow! The first 30 minutes of the movie takes place at Vito Corleone's, Marlon Brando) daughter's wedding. The movie is slow, but doesn't drag. 

First you have Vito Corleone, the Godfather, the Don. At his daughter's wedding he's asked for favors and waht not, including Johnny Fontane, a singer who begs for a movie part. Vito tells him to man up, think about life for a month and you'll get that part. (He does, but we'll get to how later). At the wedding, you meet all of Vito's kids:

Connie (Talia Shire) - The only girl, and clearly the bride in the opening wedding. You may recognize her as Adrian! (that was said in my best Sylvester Stallone voice). I'll go off on her a bit later. 

Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo) - Connie's husband. Vito decides to keep Carlo out of the family business. He's pretty much a piece of crap.

Sonny (James Caan)  - The eldest son and thus heir to the throne

Fredo - Vito's second son. He's the one who goes off to Vegas

Michael (Al Pacino) - Michael is the younger son, who was in WWII. At the wedding he shows up with Kay (Diane Keaton). He's explaining things & people to her and wasn't a groomsmen, so you assume he wants no part of this life.

Around Christmas time, Virgil Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) is a drug barron who asks for Vito's protection & investment. Sollozzo says he's backed by another family, the Tattaglia family. Vito says get lost, he doesn't deal with drug dealers. They send Luca Brasi to spy on Sollozo. Sollozzo attempts to assassignate Vito. Apparently multiple gunshot wounds to the back are no match for Vito, who recocovers. Sollozzo eventually kills Brasi as well sending them a dead fish wrapped in Brasi's vest - this is the "sleeps with the fishes" part.

While Vito is recovering, Sonny takes the helm. Sonny is super hot tempered. He's a shoot first, ask questions later kind of man. He has a couple of kids and was cheating on his wife with a bridesmaid at his sister's wedding. He's a classy individual. As vengeance for his father, he has his father's driver Paulie killed (apparently Paulie was a spy...who knew)

Sollozzo kidnaps the family's attorney, Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), better known as the consigliere.  Oh a little about Tom...he got Johnny the part in the movie, because he severed the head of the studio head's force, Jack Woltz, and put it in his bed...Wotlz woke up to being covered in horse blood and a dead horse's head at the foot of the bed. 

So Michael sees a newspaper clipping (actually it 's Kay who first sees it) seeing that his dad has been shot. He comes home and that's where it starts rolling! He goes to see his dad in the hospital & stops another assassination attempt (the lack of guards, etc. threw him off so he was able to save his dad. He did get a broken jaw out of it...stupid corrupt police). 

Sonny decides to kill the Tattagalia family's son, again asserting his "act first think later" personality. Michael agrees to meet with the Sollozzo and the corrupt police officer who broke his jaw. The restaurant they meet at has a place where Michael can hide a gun in advance - thwarting the pat downs. I think they were going to thwart another setup when Michael asks if they are going to Jersey, but doesn't seem worried at all. They do a quick 180 and go to the actual restaurant. This allows Micheal to get the gun & kill both of the men. Michael has to leave for a year (he knew this in advance...didn't tell Kay, but Sonny said he'd get a message to her when it was safe). Michael goes to Sicily to hide for a while. He meets Apollonia Vitelli, smooth talks her father, and they get married (I can't image Kay is going to be happy).

When they tell Vito what happened, he's so less than thrilled that Michael is in the business, because he wanted better for Michael (slap in the face to Sonny huh!). Michael is living all hunkydory with the new wife, teaching her to drive, when a car bomb goes off killing Apollonia. This, understandably, pisses Michael off so he goes back. 

In between all of this there are several montages of both families killing each other or their peons. This is where Sonny redeems himself. So we find out that Carlo has been abusing Connie. It's hinted at, then Sonny sees her with a fat lip & black eye. She says she deserved it. Sonny beat up Carlo in the street & warned him to stay away from his sister (almost makes up for his other issues). Then later Connie finds out that Carlo is cheating on her. Apparently abuse is okay, but cheating is not. Connie starts throwing plates and screaming. Carlo calls her a spoiled brat. Then he beats the crap out of her with a belt...I mean REALLY...they don't even show it on screen...it's bad. She calls her parents, and Sonny drove out to go kill Carlo (good for him). Carlo apparently tipped off a highway toll man, because Sonny is gunned down with a machine gun.

Vito, health still not in great shape & upset about the loss of his son meets with the heads of the Five Families. He says the Tattaglia's and he has lost a son, he won't seek revenge, he's not into the whole Heroin thing still, but withdrew his opposition. Michael is able to then return home. Kay isn't too pleased with him up & leaving, but they make up & she gets married to him. He promises that the business will be legitimate in 5 years. 

Oh so I forgot, but they sent Fredo to Vegas. Michael decides to move to Vegas. Michael lets Tom Hagan go, which puts Vito in a  not so good place to calm him down. Michael tried to buy out stake in casinos that were owned by the Greene's. Greene says Nope, and Michael is pretty pissed off that Fredo has loyalties with the Greene's and not the Corleones. 

Vito accepts his son's leadership and tells him how people will try and murder him. This proves to be incredibly helpful. 10 years after the wedding (maybe 11?), Vito collapses and dies. He's in a garden while Anthony, Micheal's son, is spraying fertilizer or pesticide on plants...I can't help but imagine that had something to do with it. At Vito's funeral, Michael is approached about a meeting with Don Barzini. Vito's foreshadowing helped Michael with the heads up.

Connie & Carlo are christening their son, of whom they asked Michael to be his godfather. Michael set up a meeting with Don Barzini on the same day. During the christening, Michael orders his assassigns to murder the New York family heads and Greene. Michael confronts Carlo afterwards if he set up Sonny to be murdered. So Michael has Carlo killed...again...pretty just...Carlo killed Michael's brother & cheated & beat the crap out of his sister. 

At the very end, Connie comes running in screaming at Michael for murdering her abusive, cheating husband on the day that he agreed to be his son's godfather. He said he didn't kill him. Kay stays and asks, a defining moment that their relationship has changed, for the truth. Michael gets pretty upset & slams his hand on the desk saying don't ask him about family business. He says this once she can ask, so she asks if it is true. Michael lies and says no. Kay accepts it. Michael becomes the powerful new Don Corleone. 

Other Thoughts:

As I said, a lot going on. It's really kind of a coming of age story about Michael. In the beginning he's very open with Kay about things. They have a very open relationship and he wants really nothing to do with his family business. His father is more than okay with that, as he thinks Michael should have better. As the movie progresses, he becomes more and more ingrained and more and more stoic. The opening & closing scenes are perfectly juxtaposed showing Micheal's transformation. 

I get the battered housewife mentality, or I should say, I understand wehre it comes from. However, Adrian Connie...let it go. He did you a favor. Carlo was a jerk. Don't ask about the family business, Carlo. 

Marlon Brando's voice is awesome.

I loved Enzo the Baker! Mainly because, of Enzo or "The Meow Meow" on Big Brother a few seasons ago! 

It was a mob movie without all of the blood/gore. I attribute that to the time period. The character development is just fantastic. Micheal's transformation, Vito's decay, it's powerful. The family dynamic and keeping family within the family is almost comforting. As long as I don't betray the family, the family won't betray me. 

The music almost sounded Russian, reminded me of Dr. Zhivago. Although, I'm not really sure what traditional Sicilian music sounds like.

Was it Paulie that was making meatballs? I'm going to try his recipe for cooking for 14 people. 

Oh the Oranges. Alex pointed this out, so I won't claim to be extremely astute. When Vito was shot, he was picking up oranges. When he died at the end, he was eating an orange. 

Upon looking at sites like these, there are several other oranges. While I like oranges, I'm a Georgia girl so I'm okay hating orange!

Al Pacino looks like Matthew Broderick in many of these scenes.

Quotes I enjoyed

Don Corleone: I have a sentimental weakness for my children and I spoil them, as you can see.

Don Corleone: Never tell anyone outside the Family what you are thinking again.

Michael: You're not a wartime Consigliari, Tom

Clemenza: Mikey, why don't you tell that nice girl you love her? I love you with all-a my heart, if I don't see-a you again soon, I'm-a gonna die. 

Michael: My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator. 

Jack Woltz: Now you listen to me, you smooth-talking son-of-a-bitch, let me lay it on the line for you and your boss, whoever he is! Johnny Fontane will never get that movie! I don't care how many dago guinea wop greaseball goombahs come out of the woodwork! 

Tom Hagen: I'm German-Irish

Michael: My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse. 

Kay: What was that?

Michael: Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract.

Michael: Where does it say that you can't kill a cop?

Sonny: What the hell is this?

Clemenza: It's a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes

Michael: Only don't tell me you're innocent. Because it insults my intelligence and makes me very angry. 

Johnny Fontane: A month ago he bought the rights to this book, a best seller. The main character is a guy just like me. I wouldn't even have to act, just be myself. Oh, Godfather, I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do... 

Don Corleone: You can act like a man! What's the matter with you? Is this what you've become, a Hollywood finocchio who cries like a woman? "Oh, what do I do? What do I do?" What is that nonsense? Ridiculous!  Tell me, do you spend time with your family?

Johnny Fontane: Sure I do.

Don Corleone: Good. Because a man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be
a real man.

Michael: Some people will pay a lot of money for that information; but then your daughter would lose a father, instead of gaining a husband. 

Connie: Papa never talked about business in front of the kids.

Carlo: Shut up, Connie.

Sonny: Hey, don't EVER tell her to shut up, you got that?

Mama Corleone: Santino, don't interfere.

Carlo: Sonny, Tom, I'd like to talk to you after dinner. I think I can do a lot more for this family... 

Sonny: We don't discuss business at the table