Heat (1995)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. In the DVD extras we learn that Michael Mann and Al Pacino decided that Pacino's character, Vincent Hanna, should dabble in cocaine once in a while. This would result in him being a little over the top on occasion. But by not putting any evidence of this in the …

Two Bits (1995)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. Pacino was 55 when he made this, and I'm guessing the character was supposed to be around 80. If only that were the worst thing about it. These may well be events that genuinely happened to the writer when he was growing up, but presenting everything as a gentle …

Carlito’s Way (1993)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. Watching this for the first time in many, many years, and it suddenly dawned on me how much of a Brian De Palma film this is. For me, not such a good thing. As an example, the female characters don't even merit second names. I like the voice-over a …

My favourite films of 2019

2019 has been a funny old year as far as my film ratings have gone. There have been a whole bunch of solidly good films, but there’s been nothing which has really taken my breath away or stopped me in my tracks in the manner that, say, Moonlight did a couple of years ago. But …

Scent of a Woman (1992)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. This is film for which Al Pacino famously won his Academy Award, one which he actually should have won at least twice previously, and which this time around was practically the apologetic life-time achievement win. That's not to say he isn't good in this - it's a fine performance …

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. This is a film full of angry men. It may be David Mamet, who is apparently to be admired as a writer, but it drove me mad. I can appreciate the performances but this heavy-handed sales environment left me screaming for release. The only woman I saw was the …

Frankie and Johnny (1991)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. On rewatch, not as good as I remembered. Pacino and Pfeiffer are good together, but his character is either too needy or creepy (I can't decide which) in the way that he pursues Frankie. The loneliness parts are too realistic to be a fairy tale, and so the fairy …

The Godfather Part III (1990)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. Oh. I knew this wasn't in the same league as the previous two, but I had remembered it as a bit better than I found it this time. Clearly Ms Coppola (as Michael's daughter Mary) is a massive weak link, and her relationship with Andy Garcia's Vincent is absolutely …

Dick Tracy (1990)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. Well hello Shouty Al! I probably should have realised, but I hadn't expected my quest to find the 'shouty caricature of later years' to bear its first fruit here - with Al playing a shouty caricature. Big Boy Caprice is a pantomime villain who allows Pacino's  inner scenery-chewer to …

The Local Stigmatic (1990)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. Although this is less than an hour long, nevertheless I kept tuning out because the characters were so awful, and the attempts at English accents were even worse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO5rEeH5JQs