GoodFellas | Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta | My personal favorite of Scorsese's work, one of the...

GoodFellas | Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta | Goodfellas

DVDs:

GoodFellas

	GoodFellas Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta Warner Home Video, 1997 average customer review:based on 634 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

My personal favorite of Scorsese's work, one of the most amazing mob movies ever made....

I saw this film on "Sweetest" Day (a completely useless holiday) with a love interest, and dammit, it was worth pissing her off because I saw a great film. This is my favorite Scorsese picture, one of the best gangster movies ever made, and the film that Marty should have won an Oscar for. It may not have the autumnal darkness of The Godfather films (at least one and two), but it has an exhiliartion and love of the medium that the Godfather films lack. This is Scorsese's most cinematic film, where the camera work (by Michael Ballhus) is quite amazing to behold. The unbroken shot when Ray Liotta and Lorraine Braco walk into the restaurant is as classic as they come. It is one of many classic moments in a film that's filled with them. The 2 1/2 hours fly by, and the film doesn't really sugarcoat the gangster life in any way. No moralizing, no preaching, Marty just shows you how it is. The V.O. narration works brilliantly here, and every performance is perfect. Pesci (who won an Oscar), De Niro, Bracco, and Liotta (whatever happened to him, eh) should be commended for their work here. Forget The Departed, this is Marty's masterpiece, the won he should have won the Oscar for.

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Goodfellas

This is one of my all time favorite movies, I owned the VHS, and the dvd, I was excited to buy the blu-ray when it came out, I've seen this blu-ray version about 3 times now, It gets better with each viewing.

I'm not going to talk about the movie in this review, suffice it to say, it is one of the best movies of all time, one of the best gangster movies, and an all around fun movie to watch.

This review is more for those deciding on buying this when they already have the dvd.

This blu-ray has one of the best transfers I have seen, the movie is quite old, but looks much better than the dvd does upconverted. The colors are dark and rich, great contrast and you can see lots of detail. The movie has never looked so good. The movie does have some scenes that show its age, where you can see flecks of dust and marks on the film, but it doesn't detract from the picture, it just adds character.

I have seen some other "classics" put out on HD-DVD and Blu-ray, even some new movies shot within the last 2-3 years. Many of these are very soft, and inconsistent as a transfer. This movie, is perfect, all the way through, the transfer does not disappoint. It is deep, dark, well saturated, and nothing looks soft, light, or bad.

Where this disc shines, is the commentary, you get to hear commentary from Henry Hill (the guy the movie is based on, and FBI agent Edward McDonald) he discusses how the movie really compares to his real life, and he is quite entertaining. The disc also has a few other bonus features, and the movie trailer, which is nice.

All in all, this is an amazing movie, with a fantastic transfer loaded with features. You cant go wrong with this one, It's great, and for Amazon's low price, it's a steal.

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1.78 to 1?

Hard to understand why Warner would not release Goodfellas in the full 1.85 to 1 aspect ratio that was originally shown in theaters, instead opting to crop it to 1.78 to 1. No excuses for messing with the original aspect ratio of any movie, let alone a classic one like Goodfellas.

All time Classic

This is a classic movie, when I saw AMZN offering this for free along w/ my HD dvd player. I had to get it. You can own and watch it whenever.

O.K - Quality Blu-Ray transfer

The movie is excellent, so lets get that out of the way. Im only writing about the HD quality of the Blu-Ray transfer itself. I guess I was not blown away by this transfer.

Visually, the opening scene was not cleaned up and still has some film noise and white speckles. Color transfer appears fine, although not as vibrant as I would have thought. Audio again is just ok and nothing to get too excited about. I have not viewed the extra content, but it appears to be interesting and most of it may not be available on Special Edition DVD's.

When you spend more money than what you would on a regular DVD, you certainly expect the quality to be much higher. I have a 50inch Samsung FPT-5084 capable of 1080p and I use my PS3's Blu-Ray player, so I dont believe my setup is an issue.

After seeing 2001 on Blu-Ray, I know what kind of a mind blowing transfer is capable when the right people are on the task of doing it. Overall, I recommend sticking to the standard DVD version until a better transfer is available.

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