Enter the Dragon Revisited (Part 2) "Bullshit, Mr Han, man!"

OK I know this is getting to be overkill but I figured I would do yet another revisitation of a previous post and the post in question has already had a revisitation makeover! So, the post in question is Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee's classic martial arts movie that saw the end of his short life at the age of 32.  So, for the post I will expand on a few bits here and there as I usually do such as the performances and flaws sections. 

So, after 45 years, how does Enter the Dragon still fair up??? Well, let's grab those nunchucks and take yet another look....

And yep the usual warning will apply here.

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY 

So, the film begins with martial artist, Lee (Bruce Lee) being approached by Mr Braithwaite (Geoffrey Weeks) a member of British intelligence while Lee is at a Shaolin temple in Hong Kong.  Braithwaite tells Lee about a tournament that is coming up that is run by a man named Han (Shih Kien) and that Han is rumoured to be involved in drug trafficking and prostitution, Han himself was a former Shaolin student.  Braithwaite asks that Lee attend the tournament undercover in order to try and gain evidence of Han's illegal activities, which Lee agrees to.

However before Lee goes, he learns that Han's bodyguard O'Hara (Bob Wall) was involved in the death of his sister Su Lin (Angela Mao) who O'Hara and his men harrassed as she tried to fight them off, she took her own life rather than be raped at their hands.  Lee decides to go to the island with the intent of exacting a measure of revenge over Han for his sister's death.

At the island Lee meets up with other martial artists who have been invited which includes Roper (John Saxon) a playboy gambler, who is in heavy debt with bad people and Williams (Jim Kelly) an African American who is on the run after assaulting two white racist policemen.  Both Roper and Williams are good friends (as they served together in the Vietnam war) and get a scam going on taking bets on their fights.

Lee at the island finds a Chinese girl Mei Ling (Betty Chung) who is an undercover agent sent by Braithwaite, although Mei tells Lee that she has been unable to leave the island due to Han's tight security.  Later that night Lee starts to investigate around the island and finds a passage that takes him to an underground base where drugs are being manufactured and tested on prisoners.  Lee however runs into some guards but he takes them down with ease.

The next day however Han has the guards that Lee incapacitated, killed by his sadistic chief bodyguard, Bolo (Bolo Yeung).  Lee takes on O'Hara in his first tournament match, who Lee totally outclasses, and O'Hara out of anger tries to attack Lee with some smashed wine bottles, but Lee kills O'Hara by jumping on him, snapping his neck.

After the matches have been played, Han asks to see Williams (as Williams was seen outside at night as well, although he was out just for some fresh air) and asks him who else was outside with him.  Williams angrily refuses to tell him and say he wishes to leave the island, at that point Han's henchmen arrive, who Williams takes down with ease, but then Han and Williams engage in hand to hand combat. Han ends up gaining the upper hand and proves too good as he mercilessly beats Williams to death with his iron prosthetic hand.

Later that night Lee makes a second attempt to go down to the underground base where he investigates and finds further evidence of Han's activities and he sends a message to Braithwaite, but an alarm is set off, where Lee fights off many of Han's guards, after this he is lured into a trap and captured.  After this Lee has to face the consequences of his actions as he must try and find a way to take Han down and escape the island.....

THOUGHTS 

There is no doubt that Enter the dragon was not only Bruce Lee's last film, but it was also his best, and it was a great pity that his untimely death, at the age of 32 (having suffered a cerebral edema on 20 July 1973), occurred just shortly before the film was released on 26 July, which would have propelled him into super stardom.

The film also features some terrific fight sequences and Lee's fitness and flexibility are just incredible (although Lee did use a stunt double for some of the sequences, such as the backflip he uses on O'Hara) and it was often said that Lee's moves were so fast the camera couldn't capture them at full speed.

Lee also partially directed a sequence of the film, namely the opening sequence at the Shaolin temple and took a big hand in the writing of the story and the script.  The film also featured several real life martial artists such as Bob Wall, who played O'Hara, Jim Kelly who played the cocky Williams, and Bolo Yeung who was the sadistic muscle bound Bolo.  Enter the dragon also features an early onscreen appearance from Jackie Chan who also performed various stunts in the film, and is one of Lee's victims as he has his neck snapped by Lee in the fight scene with the guards in the underground base.  In fact during the filming of that scene Lee apparently accidentally hit Chan in the face with a stick! 

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES

Performance wise Enter the dragon isn't really about top notch acting, its more about the action, and you could say that the acting takes a bit of a back seat to that.  But despite that there is no question that this is Bruce Lee's film, and while he wasn't a great actor, he was a great film star, and his presence and charisma are to be found throughout the film.

And just to highlight the actors names for a change, Bruce Lee has various highlights in the film especially in his action sequences where he fights off Han's guards in the underground base, probably being the main one.

Lee also get's some good scenes, such as when Lee teaches a lesson to one of his young students, Lao, at the start of the film, and Lao demonstrates a kick, which doesn't impress Lee, who asks Lao "What was that? An exhibition?!  We need emotional content! Try again".  So, Lao performs the kick again with a look of anger and Lee walks up to him after and says "I said emotional contact, not anger!  Now try again with me!".

So Lao performs the kick with all that Lee asked of him and Bruce smiles satisfied and asks Lao "Yes! How did that feel to you?" and Lao replies "Let me think..." and Lee smacks him on the head and says "Don't think think! Feel!  It is like a finger pointing away to the moon!" and Lao looks at Lee's finger, who smacks him on the head again "Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory!".  And as Lao bows his head without looking at Lee, Lee smacks Lao on the head again and says "Never take your eye off your opponent!  Even when you bow!" and Lao bows again, keeping eye contact with Lee, who says "That's it" before he walks off and Lee turns back to Braithwaite, who looks impressed at Lee's methodical nature.   

Then there is the scene where Lee travels on the ship towards Han's island and he is confronted by an arrogant Australian martial artist, Parsons (Peter Archer).  And in the scene Parsons asks Lee "What's your style?" and Lee responds "My style?  I suppose you could call it the art of fighting without fighting" and Parsons says "Show me some" and Lee says "Later" and he steps away but Parsons stop him.  And Lee says "Alright but don't you think we need more room?" and Parsons says "Well where else?" and Lee points to a far off island "That island on a beach.  We can take this boat!" but as Parsons boards a small boat off the side of the ship, Lee pushes out the boat to sea a little holding onto the rope to tease an annoyed Parsons and he gives the rope to some of the Chinese passengers.

Another classic scene comes when Lee is about to fight against O'Hara who takes a wooden board and chops it in half with his fist, to which Lee says "Boards don't hit back!". The scene itself is remarkable for showing off Lee's fighting skills and sheer speed as he anticipates O'Hara's every move.  Watchmojo also claimed that Lee that during Lee's fight with Bob Wall (or O'Hara) that he strikes O'Hara twice in the face and not just once as you would perceive it to be when you see Lee perform the moves at normal speed.  Now whether or not this is case, I'm not too sure myself as I looked at that footage in the Watchmojo video slowed down and it still only looks like one hit to me. 

There is of course also the classic fight scene where Lee takes on Han's guards and beats them all (killing a few in the process by snapping their necks, one of which is played by a young Jackie Chan) and he also shows off his nun-chuka skills before he is captured by Han.

And lastly there is Lee's fight scene with Han in the hall of mirrors where they square off each other and at the start of the scene Lee says to Han "You have offended me family and you have offended a Shaolin temple!" before they get down to their fight.  However Lee is in charge of the fight for most of it despite taking a few slashes and it all ends badly for Han!     

Next up is John Saxon who is also pretty good as the American playboy, Roper, and he has quite a few amusing moments in the film.

And to start off there is the scene where at Han's palace, Roper speaks to Lee and he says to him "Say I hope you haven't spent all that money you won from me yesterday. I plan to win it back" and Lee asks Roper "How?" and Roper says "You'll find out after you've lost it".  Lee then says to Roper "You seem very much at home here, Mr Roper" and Roper says "This guy Han's got a great sense of hospitality. And a fantastic sense of style. Yeah, it's great!".  Lee however looks at Roper and asks him "Then why are you so apprehensive?" and Roper nervously says "Apprehensive? No, I was just wondering whether it was ok to drink the water".  Lee then gives Roper a look and says "Mr Roper, don't con me!" and Roper says "You wanna bet?" and he walks off, leaving Lee smiling.

Another good scene is when Tania (Anha Capri) arrives in Roper's room on Han's island with some lovely Chinese girls and Saxon says "Well, well.  One lovelier than the next!" and Tania says to him "Pick one" and he looks right at her and says "I already have!" leaving Tania impressed saying "Wise choice". 

Roper also has a good scene with Han just before he shows him around his underground base, he asks him to place his head on a guillotine as an act of faith, but he refuses, and instead Han places his cat on it.  So, Roper takes the cat off the guillotine and says to it "Now you've got eight more!" and Han pulls a chain which reveals the guillotine to be a lift that takes them down, and Roper groans and says "Faked out, again!".

Then there is the scene where Han shows Roper around his underground operation and finally comes to showing him Williams's dead body hanging from a rope much to Roper's horror.  And Roper says to Han "And you want me to join THIS?!" and Han says "I want there to be no misunderstanding between us".  And Roper shocked looks at Han and takes a moment to consider his words and says "No. There is no misunderstanding between us".

And later there is the scene where Han has captured Lee and he wants Roper to fight him but Roper turns to Han and says "Like you said, there's a point I won't go beyond" which leads into Roper fighting Bolo.  

Jim Kelly is also pretty good in his role as Williams, the cocky American martial artist, and he has a few good scenes, such as the one where Tania brings some beautiful Asian girls to his room for him to pick one but he ends up picking them all!  So, in the scene Williams points each girl out and says "I'll take you, dear...and you...and you...and you...and you..." and he looks at Tania and says "Please understand if I have missed anyone!  Its been a big day. I'm a little tired!". 

Another good scene from Kelly comes when Williams watches Bolo brutally kill the incompetent guards that Lee knocked out the night before.  So, Han looks to Williams, who is alarmed by what he sees and asks him "Are you shocked, Mr Williams?" and Williams plays it down and says "Only at how sloppy your man works!" which leaves Han grinning.     

And lastly there is the scene where Williams confronts Han in his office as Han questions him over being outside his room the other night.  So, Han asks Williams "What were you looking for the other night when you attacked my guards?" and Williams shakes his head and says "It wasn't me".  Han then says "You were the only one seen outside last night!" and Williams nods and says "I was outside but I wasn't the only one".  Han then demands "You will tell me who else?!" and Williams says "Mr Han, suddenly I would like to leave your island!" and Han replies "That is not possible" and Williams then angrily says "Bullshit Mr Han, man!!".  And when Han's security guards walk into the room and surround Williams, Williams says "Man, you come right out of a comic book!".

Shih Kien is excellent in his role as the villainous Han, although it is not his own voice that appears on the soundtrack, but it was in fact the voice of Keye Luke, who played Kato in the original Green Hornet films and later on played Mr Wing in the two Gremlins films among many other roles.

Luke also delivers some good lines in the film on Kien's behalf such as the scene where he addresses all the contestants and his guards on the island after Lee sneaked around and knocked a few of them the other night.  And in the scene Han says "Gentlemen, it seems last night that one of you was not content with the hospitality of the palace.  And sought diversion elsewhere.  On the island.  Who it was is not important at this time.  What is important is that my guards performed their duties incompetently.  And they must now proves themselves to remain worthy among us!".

Then there is the scene where Han talks with Roper and he places his cat on what appears to be a guillotine and he readies himself to press a chain as if to kill the cat.  And Han says "Very few people can be totally ruthless. It isn't easy; it takes more strength than you might believe!" but Roper removes the cat and says "Now you have eight more!".  And Han says "So! There is a point you will not go beyond!" and he pulls the chain which activates a lift!

And lastly there is the scene when Han brings Roper out to fight Lee who has been captured and Roper says of Lee "What are you going to do with him?".  And Han says "Not "we", Mr Roper, you!".  And as Roper says there is a point he won't go beyond Han says "I was right about you.  We will strive to be worthy of your sense of grandeur.  I will find someone with whom you can fight.  Bolo!" which leads into Roper's fight with Han's most fearsome bodyguard.

Bob Wall is not too bad in his role as O'Hara, Han's main henchman, who was responsible for the death of Lee's sister and even though he doesn't have much dialogue in the film, he still manages to maintain a threatening aura.

Wall's most notable scenes are of course when we see the flashback of Lee's sister, Su Lin (Angela Mao) fight off O'Hara's men before she is cornered by them and is forced to take her on life in order to preserve her family honour (at least I think that's it!).  In the scene we see O'Hara get his scar from the old man (Ho Lee Yan) who tells Lee the story to later on.

Then there is the scene where Wall delivers his only line of dialogue when O'Hara goes to Lee's room (on Han's island) while Lee practices.  And O'Hara tells Lee "You must attend the morning ritual in uniform" and Lee looks coldly at him and simply says "Outside!" and O'Hara leaves, as Lee takes a moment before resuming his practice.

And last of all is of course O'Hara fight scene with Lee where O'Hara is outmatched by Lee's speed, precision and power, which enrages O'Hara into an act of treachery as he attempts to attack Lee with some wine bottles.  However, Lee of course easily disables O'Hara and then finishes him off by leaping on him and breaking his neck and in doing so, gaining some level of revenge for his sister's death.

Ahna Capri is pretty good in her role as Tania, Mr Han's main female assistant, who is in charge of the girls on the island (or so it appears, her role isn't that clear to be honest!).

Ahna has some good moments also such as the scene where Tania brings some ladies to Williams room where is sitting listening to music with a large pair of headphones on, oblivious to them. So, Tania says to William "Mr Williams..." but he still doesn't notice anything and she says louder "Mr Williams?!!" and he looks up and sees Tania and the ladies and he smiles and says "For me?".  So, Williams picks all of the girls and he tells Tania its been a big day and he's tired, so Tania smiles and sarcastically says "Of course, Mr Williams! You must conserve your strength!".

And last of all is the scene where Tania brings in some more ladies to Roper's room and he looks at the ladies and says "Well, well, well...one lovelier than the next!" and Tania says to Roper "Pick one".  And Roper gives Tania a look and he says "I already have" and she smiles at Roper and says "Wise decision!".

Bolo Yeung next does pretty well in his role as the aptly named Bolo, Han's ruthless and brutal henchman, who viciously dispatches some of Han's inept guards at one point in the film and later on takes on Roper in a big fight.  Yeung has no real dialogue in the film except for saying "GO!" twice, once in two different scenes and that's the extent of his lines!  Yeung regardless of his lack of dialogue, still cuts a pretty imposing figure physically in the film and he does well at being an intimidating badass and you certainly wouldn't want to cross him!  

And last of all is Betty Chung who is quite good in her role as Mei Ling, an undercover agent sent by Braithwaite to Han's island, who later on helps out Lee.

So, I will only mention Betty's main scene where Mei Ling speaks to Lee in private in his room on Han's island.  So, Mei Ling talks in an urgent whisper to Lee "Nothing much . I'm kept in a palace, watched always, I know nothing of Han's activities away from the palace, but I can tell you this, people disappear".  Lee then asks "Who?" and Mei Ling tells him "The girls. Every one of them. They're summoned to Han's at night and the next day they're gone. I know I don't have much time".

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC 

Direction wise Robert Clouse does a fine job with the Enter the dragon, although his job is primarily a perfunctory one in which he keeps the action and the flow of the film going more than anything else.  But Clouse still manages to keep the film moving along at a brisk pace and the film could never be accused of lagging at any time.  It was also interesting to note that when the film was shot it was shot completely without sound as the sound was added in purely during post production.   

As for the music its features a memorable and very funky score by Lalo Schifrin which is excellent and it mixes both funky and traditional musical themes, that fit the films Asian and American styles nicely.  So the film's score has a good mix of orchestration as well as bass, guitar and drums, which is pretty much the staple of Schifrin's music and he uses to it fine effect here in this score and let's not forget his eerie sounding synthesizer when Lee goes into "kill" mode.  

FLAWS (Warning: this section main contain some spoilers!)

As for Enter the dragon's flaws....well OK you could really nitpick this one to an extent but I won't go too far into it, but yes ETD is not quite perfect.  For starters I think the plot of the film itself is pretty bland and offers nothing new and its yet again another tale of revenge which we've seen time and time again.  But the action in the film is so good its pretty easy to overlook its rather unexceptional plot.   

I also found it a bit incredible how Bruce Lee could carry on fighting in the film with Han after he received the slashes to his stomach from Han's sharp prosthetic knife hand, as surely that would severely weaken him, although I'm no doctor of course it just appears a bit strange how Lee could have such a level of superhuman strength withstand his injuries.  But if it was anyone else I'm sure a slash to the chest would pretty much put anyone out or even kill them!  Obviously those scars had to been pretty superficial for Lee to be still able to fight, but then again it is just a film! 

It also seems a bit daft that Roper could also survive his fight with Han's cheif bodyguard, Bolo, given his immense physical strength and his ability to snap the neck of the guards earlier on with such ease (you could call him "the snapperator").  But nope here Roper has no such problem and he simply uses his street fighting skills to kick Bolo's ass and put him out for the count with a few kicks to his happy sack!  Again its a bit like brain over brawn as Roper outmanouvers big Bolo with great ease.

In fact its actually debatable in this scene as to whether or not Roper actually kills Bolo, as you see Roper kick Bolo a couple of times in the nuts before Bolo painfully groans and falls down and goes limp.  Now in the Wikipedia article for the film, it currently states that Roper killed Bolo but I just find it difficult believe that someone as strong as Bolo would die from a few punches to the face and a few kicks to his sack! So, for me I think Roper just beat Bolo unconscious and perhaps he just passed out from the pain....well at least that's what I think!

You could also potentially argue its a bit daft how Roper managed to evade the mob as he owes them money as seen in his flashback scene and heads straight to Han's island although he is hardly concerned about the possibility of the Mafia catching up with Roper.  Although you could argue its not like the mob would find easy getting onto Han's island with guns given all the guards he has there, but again he has no guns of his own on the island.

However when you think about it, it seems daft that no one really thought of sneaking a gun onto Han's island as you never really see anyone get bodysearched when they arrive there despite Han's rule of "no guns".  And Lee himself could easily have done that too maybe sneaked in there with a gun and shot Han when he got the moment.  But then again when you are one of the greatest martial artists in the land you'd be better using your fists! ;-)

And lastly I wondered just what happened to Mei Ling??? You see her release the prisoners from Han's cells but later on she is nowhere to be seen although there does appear to be a figure in purple lie limp in the aftermath of the big fight sequences between the prisoners and the Han's fighters.  This could well be Mei Ling but again its not clear at all what really happened to her but it would have been a bit of a bummer if they decided to kill her off too just like they did with Tania, who you do see lie dead at the end of the movie.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

Soooo, to sum up, Enter the Dragon to this day is still a classic must see action film and it was easily the peak of Bruce Lee's short lived career as it is filled with great action scenes, a catchy music score and it moves along at a great pace.  It was just a great pity that Lee himself died just six days before the film's premiere in Hong Kong on July 26 1973 as it surely would have been a great pleasure for him to have gone on to other things had he survived.   

So this film remains Lee's best onscreen legacy and as such its one of the most memorable martial arts films of all time and still worth watching to this day.

Right, so that's it for now and I will return just maybe with another review before the end of the month but if not I will see you in April.

So, till the next one, its bye for now!

Justice League Review

OK, this is FINALLY a brand new post that features new content (all of it!) so this post will feature my review on the latest DC universe movie, Justice League. Now this film has recieved pretty mixed reviews from audiences and critics so far, so what do I think of it???  Well, let's take a look and find out....

And although I won't go into major detail in this review on the plot and its scenes, I will issue the usual warning...

SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!! 

STORY

So, the story begins with the supervillain, Steppenwolf, who thousands of years ago attempted to take over the Earth by combining the energies of three powerful devices known as mother boxes.  However, Steppenwolf was thwarted in his attempts by the Olympian Gods, Amazons and Atlanteans.  However in the present, as a result of the death of Superman (Henry Cavill) it triggers off the mother boxes again and Steppenwolf again sets about to try and recollect them and he successfully manages to take one from Themyscira (Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman's home).  And Diana's mother, Queen Hipolyta (Connie Nielsen) sends a warning signal to her that Steppenwolf is on his way.

Meanwhile, after recieving the warning signal, Diana (Gal Gadot) meets with Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) as the two of them plan to assemble a group of metahumans to help their cause in fighting against Steppenwolf. So, Bruce approaches Arthur Curry aka "Aquaman" (Jason Momoa) to join him but he initially turns him down but Bruce does manage to recruit Barry Allen aka "The Flash" (Ezra Miller).  Diana then tries to persuade Victor Stone aka "Cyborg" (Ray Fisher) to also join their cause but he too is also reluctant at first. 

However its not long before the crises of Steppenwolf stepping up his plans to take over the Earth with the aid of his army of parademons worsens.  And to top it all off there is still one superhero, the team need to recruit, or rather resurrect....

THOUGHTS

Well after the dreary Man of Steel and Batman vs Superman, Wonder Woman came along fixed all that as it was an excellent, fun, engaging and enjoyable movie and Justice League here continues in that vein albeit with not quite the same level of success.  However, despite any of its shortcomings (which I will get to a bit later) Justice League definitely sees the DCEU (Extended Universe) take a step in the right direction.  And the film is also nicely aided by the chemistry and banter that the superheroes all share with each other here that makes it a breath of fresh air over the previous DC dreariness we had seen. 

PERFORMANCES (Warning: although there will be no dialogue quotes here I will occassionally mention the odd scene or two!)

As for the performances, well they are mostly pretty good here.

Starting with Ben Affleck who is once again very good in his dual role as Bruce Wayne/Batman and this time around he is able to develop his character a bit more and the lighter tone allows for Affleck delivers some fun lines and good scenes.  And despite that rather weird sounding voice digitiser that Batman has in the film, this is a pretty good depiction of Batman and also of Bruce Wayne that we have seen in some time as the previous actors have tended to be stronger in one role than the other. But here Affleck shows that he is pretty good in his dual role and he also get's to wear some pretty cool bat shades later on too!

Gal Gadot next up is once excellent as Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman (again though she is never referred to as Wonder Woman once in the film!) and she looks mighty fine in that WW outfit of hers it has to be said!  Gal also again does great (or works wonders!) in her action scenes and also in her senes with Affleck where they confer, argue and of course fight together.

WARNING: IF YOU KNOW NOTHING OF THIS MOVIE THEN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IS A SPOILER OF ITS OWN!!!

Henry Cavill is also really good once again as Superman/Clark Kent as he is resurrected from the grave (but I won't go into how of course!) to come back to join the Justice League.  In fact its worth pointing out that at the time of shooting the film, Cavill had a moustache as he was filming the next Mission Impossible movie and he was required to keep it for his character, so a result of this, his moustache was CGI'd out here.  Cavill still of course has some really good moments here in the film and his initial return scene is one of the best in the film.  Cavill also benefits from being given some good humoured dialogue and it adds a welcome dimension to Superman's character this time round after his two previous dreary Superman outings.

Ezra Miller is excellent in his role as Barry Allen aka "the Flash" and he actually provides alot of the comedy in the film and he naturally has some funny moments here that I won't go into but suffice to say he has his share.  Well, OK to mention one or two, there is a scene where Barry visits his father (Billy Crudup) in prison and when he is to sign, an aggressive man stands behind him telling to hurry up, so Barry in lightning speed, draws a face on the man in felt tip pen!  And later on, Barry also uses his lightning speed powers to rescue Diana and he ends up on top of her and he quickly jumps off her, which is also pretty funny.

Jason Momoa does pretty well in his role as Arthur Curry aka "Aquaman" who is at first reluctant to join the team but he later of course does.  Momoa has some good fun moments in the film also and I will only mention one where Arthur let's the other superheroes know how he really feels about things and tells Diana that "she's gorgeous" only for Bruce to indicate that Arthur is sitting on Diana's lasso (which compels whoever comes into contact with it, to tell the truth).

Ray Fisher is also good as Victor Stone aka "Cyborg" who was cybernetically rebuilt after he suffered a near fatal car crash and who also plays a pivotal part in the Justice League's fight against Steppenwolf.  Fisher of course portrayed the character mainly through the use of motion capture as the character is pretty heavily CGI'd looking.

Jeremy Irons also returns here from Batman vs Superman as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler and chief of security.  However I always felt that Irons was miscast in the role and I still feel that he is still so here in Justice League too, as he just isn't that good a fit for the character of Alfred even if the film is in is an improvement.

Amy Adams also makes a good return as Lois Lane, the love of Clark Kent/Superman's life and for the most part, her character is in mourning for her loss of the superhero, however of course that all changes as the film goes on.  Amy however is given somewhat limited screen time here and not a whole lot to do, which is a pity in a way, as she is pretty good in the role.

And last of all are Diane Ladd, who does a nice job in reprising her role as Martha Kent, Clark's adopted mother, Connie Nielsen, who is given a rather brief role as Diana's mother, Queen Hippolyta but she does what she can give with her limited material.  And last of all JK Simmons makes a welcome appearance as Commissioner Gordon albeit a rather too brief one it has to be said.

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

As for the direction, Zack Snyder actually manages to redeem himself here after the mediocre and dull films that were Man of Steel and Batman vs Superman with Justice League as he manages to produce a film that is more engaging and enjoyable and has more fun in it than those other two films had in their whole running time! 

Sadly of course, Snyder endured a tragedy during the film's production as his daughter had taken her life, which caused him to withdraw from the film and this saw Joss Whedon take over at the directorial helm instead.  However the film doesn't feel like it has a clash in tone even with the fact that Whedon was also the directorial helm also and Snyder himself ended up with the sole directorial credit.

As for the music, Danny Elfman, throws his Superhero composing hat back into the ring here and he provides a pretty decent music score that even incorporates use of his old Batman theme, which was a great little inclusion in the film!  Elfman of course has produced better scores than this in the past but this is still a solid one by his own fine standards.

FLAWS

As for flaws, yes OK Justice League does have some although I won't really go into any major in-depth detail here either (for a change!).

And one of the film's main problems is to do with the somewhat rushed feel that it all his as in some ways it feels like an incomplete film.  There are also some scenes that had appeared in previous trailers that appear to be missing here also, which would have been nice if they have been included. So I kind of get the impression that this really was a bit of a mish-mash exercise in film making and in the end it has to be said the final result does show this.

Another problem I had was of course to do with the supervillain, Steppenwolf, who was anything but "super" and the only thing he was in this film was super weak!  Again, this is probably not helped by the fact that Steppenwolf is just a CGI villain and he is a pretty one dimensional one at that and had the role been played by an actual actor then the character could have been much better served here.

I also think the film tries to be a bit too ambitious with the amount of characters that appear in it, as we have not just the Justice League but also Amazonians, Atlantians and Parademons to juggle in there and it leaves precious little screen time for the majority of these characters.  Again this goes back to the rushed nature of the film itself as a flaw.

And lastly I think there are some minor pacing issues too as earlier on certain scenes just feel a bit sluggish and it really takes until the half way and indeed later on for Superman to show for the film to liven up that bit more.  Don't get me wrong this is still way more enjoyable that some of the stuff we've seen in the DCEU so far! ;-)

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Justice League sees the DCEU take a step in the right direction as it is for the most part an enjoyable movie with some pretty good engaging superhero characters, who are all thankfully well served here and the film's action scenes for the most part are good.  However while it is more fun this time round, its still not a very memorable film and it does suffer from having a very weak villain and having a rather overall rushed feeling to the final product.

However despite all this, I still came away from Justice League having enjoyed it and that's always a good thing.

OK, so that's it for now and I will be back soon maybe possibly with another post just before the end of the month.

So, till then its ciao fer now! 

Doctor Who - City of Death "That's a Louis Quinze!!"

OK, right I have just recently finished watching another Doctor Who story, so this post is, yes....(wait for it) another revisitation. However this time the post will again not be labelled as a revisited one since I didn't name it as the story title.

Anyway to cut to the chase, the story in question is City of Death from the Tom Baker era, which has always been seen as one of the best stories from the Graham Williams producer era (who took over from Philip Hinchcliffe as producer and was succeeded by John Nathan-Turner, who was actually the production unit manager on this story!).

So, after 40 years how does this classic fair??? And more to the point is is STILL a classic???  Well, let's take another look and find out...

And yep, the usual warning is coming up....

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

Right, so the story takes place in Paris 1979, where the Doctor (Baker) and his young Time Lady companion, Romana (Lalla Ward) are on holiday.  When they arrive at the Louvre gallery they encounter strange slips in time, and the Doctor grabs onto the arm of a woman, who was wearing a bracelet.  The Doctor soon reveals that he had stolen the bracelet as he noticed its was not of Earth technology, and that the woman in question was using it to scan the security systems round the Mona Lisa.

Meanwhile the woman in question is Countess Scarlioni (Catherine Schell) who is the wife of the Count Scarlioni (Julian Glover) as they intend to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre.  The Doctor and Romana soon also meet a detective, Duggan (Tom Chadbon) who has been following Count Scarlioni's activities, but the three of them are soon captured by the Count's men.

The Doctor, Romana and Duggan are soon taken to Scarlioni, where the Doctor acts the fool to set them off his interest in them, but instead Scarlioni has them locked in his basement.  In the basement, the Doctor soon uses his sonic screwdriver to escape and he stumbles upon time experiment equipment, which is operated by Doctor Kerenesky (David Graham), and is behind the time slips that the Doctor and Romana had encountered.

The Doctor also finds behind their room they were locked in, six exact replicas of the Mona Lisa, which turned out all to be genuine as they have Leonardo Da Vinci's signature and pigment on.  The Doctor then decides to go back in time himself in the TARDIS to have a chat with Leonardo about his work, but instead he meets Captain Tancredi, who is identical to Count Scarlioni.  Tancredi reveals to the Doctor that he is in fact an alien named Scaroth, and he is the last of his race, the Jagaroth.  Scaroth millions of years in the past on Earth was in his spaceship and was at the centre of an explosion which threw him into a time field and he ended being splintered into 12 different time periods on Earth's history.

Tancredi reveals that he also has been using his technological advances to push the human race and also using Leonardo to create six extra copies of the Mona Lisa so he can fund Kerensky's experiments with time, in an effort to travel back in time before his ship exploded.  The Doctor manages to escape Tancredi's clutches and travels back to 1979 where he goes about to try and stop Scarlioni from carrying out his plan, as the explosion itself brought about the beginning of the human race.  But can he do it?????

THOUGHTS

The City of Death is without a doubt one of the most entertaining and purely enjoyable Doctor Who stories of its era.  After Philip Hinchcliffe left the series as producer, Graham Williams took over, and while he served the show well enough, there weren't as many classics in his tenure, but this is definitely one of them.

The story itself was written under the psuedonym of David Agnew by Douglas Adams (who was the script editor at that time) and also Graham Williams and it is wonderfully funny with plenty of amusing dialogue and the story itself is quite cleverly thought out.  And the story's light comedic tone is just right here, despite some of the overt uses of comedy in some of the other stories of the Williams era.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

Onto the performances, well the cast are on excellent form here in both the regular and supporting varieties.

Tom Baker is wonderful as ever as the Doctor, as he was mostly considered the most popular of all the Doctors in the public eye, he does a great job here again.  And Tom as you would expect has his fare share of funny dialogue and good scenes throughout the story.

So, as this is a story that is rich with great scenes and dialogue it will be hard to whittle this down but I will start with Tom's scene where the Doctor and Romana are both followed by Duggan around Paris until they sit down outside a cafe.

So, in the scene Romana says to the Doctor "Doctor, do you realise we're being followed?" and the Doctor without looking up from a cafe menu says "Yes, all the way from the Louvre by that idiot with the gun!".  Romana then asks "What do you think he wants?" and the Doctor says "Look in your pocket" and Romana looks in one of her pockets but the Doctor says "Other pocket!".  Romana takes a green bracelet and she asks "What this?" and the Doctor tells her "The woman I bumped into was wearing it" and Romana on examining it says "Its a micromeson scanner!". The Doctor tells Romana "That's right. She was using it to get a complete report on all the alarm systems around the Mona Lisa".  Romana asks "You mean she's trying to steal it?" and the Doctor says "It is a very pretty painting" and Romana says of the device "Its a very sophisticated device for a level five civilisation" and the Doctor says "That's never the product of Earth's civilisation?" and Romana asks "What? Do you mean an alien is trying to steal the Mona Lisa?" and the Doctor again says "It is a very pretty painting!". 

And then after a pause, the Doctor says to Romana "Romana, you know I think something very funny is going on. You remember that man who was folllowing us?" and Romana says "Yes" and the Doctor tells her "Well he's standing behind me, poking a gun into my back!".  Then we see, Duggan standing behind the Doctor with his gun pressed against the Doctor's back and Duggan says to them both "All right, you two!  Into the cafe!".

Then there is the scene where the Doctor, Romana and Duggan are captured by Scarlioni's men and taken to his chateau.  And in the scene Scarlioni's henchman pushes the Doctor into the Count's drawing room where the Countess waits for them.  So, the Doctor falls onto the floor and quickly get's up, grinning ear to ear he says "I say, what a wonderful butler, he's so violent!".  The Doctor then on his knees introduces himself to the Countess "Hello, I'm called the Doctor. That's Romana, that's Duggan. You must be the Countess Scarlioni and this is clearly a delightful Louis Quinze chair!" and the Doctor goes to sit in one of the chairs "May I sit in it? I say, haven't they worn well? Thank you, Hermann, that'll be all!".

And after the Count instructs his henchman, Herrman, to take the Doctor, Romana and Duggan down to the cellar to lock them up, Duggan suddenly grabs a chair and is about to hit Herrman with it and the Doctor shouts out "Duggan! What on Earth are you doing, for heaven's sake?!  That's a Louise Quinze!".  And as Duggan is about to protest, the Doctor shouts "Just tried to behave like a civilised guest!" and he says to Herrman "Now, Herrman if you could show us to our cellar that would be terribly helpful!". 

Another good scene comes when the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to escape the Count's prison cell in the basement, so he can have a look around at the Count's scientific equipment.  And the Doctor says to Duggan "In the last few hours I've been thumped, threatened, abducted and imprisoned! I've found a piece of equipment which is not of Earth technology and I've been through two time slips! I think this lab might have something to do with it!".

So, as the Doctor and Duggan stand around and argue, Romana is busy moving equipment back into the prison cell as she is testing something out.  Duggan however insists he's had enough and is about to go when suddenly they hear a sound and hide as the Count's scientist, Kerenski comes down the stairs back to his work.  So, as Kerenski places a chicken egg on time-slip appartus and activates, we see the chicken emerge from its egg and grow.  The Doctor then springs up on him and says "Which came first?  The chicken or the egg?!" and Kerenski asks the Doctor "Who are you?" and the Doctor answers "Me?  I'm the Doctor!  What you are doing is terribly interesting, but you've got it wrong!".

Another good scene is when after the Doctor and Kerenski discuss the flaws in the time-slip apparatus, the Doctor suddenly sees an image of Scaroth in his true form appear from the apparatus, which distracts both of them long enough as Duggan sneaks up and knocks out Kerenski.  The Doctor then annoyed after discovering Duggan has knocked Kerenski out, says to him "That's your philosophy isn't it?!  If it moves hit it!" and then "If you do that one more time, Duggan. I'm going to take very, very severe measures!".  Duggan however becomes threatening and angrily asks "Yeah?!  Like what?!" and the Doctor takes a moment and quietly says "I'm going to ask you not to".  
 
Then there is the scene where the Doctor takes the TARDIS back to 1474 to meet with Leonardo Da Vinci after he has discovered six identical paintings of the Mona Lisa bricked up in the Count's basement.

So, after the TARDIS materialises in Leonardo's home, the Doctor looks around for him but he is nowhere to be seen. So, the Doctor calls out "Mona Lisa? That dreadful woman with no eyebrows who wouldn't sit still, eh?!" and he laughs and looking around, he spots Leonardo's designs for a helicopter "Your idea for the helicopter took a bit longer to catch on, but as I say, these things take time".

Then all of a sudden the Doctor is then met by the blade of a sword as a soldier has entered the room and asks the Doctor "Who are you?!" and the Doctor says "Ah, well. I just dropped by to see Leonardo".  Soldier then tells the Doctor "Nobody's allowed to see Leonardo. He's engaged in some important work for Captain Tancredi" and the Doctor reacts with shock at the mention of the name and the soldier asks "Do you know him?" and the Doctor flatly says "No".  The soldier then says to the Doctor "He'll want to question you" and the Doctor says "Well, I'll want to question him, so we can both have a little chat, can't we?!".  And then we see a shadowed figure stand by the door and the Doctor looks on in surprise and asks "You! What are you doing here?!" and the figure moves out of the shadows and it is a man who looks identical to the Count, who is Captain Tancredi.  So,Tancredi says to the Doctor "I think that is exactly the question I ought to be asking you...Doctor!".

Another good scene from Tom is when the Doctor heads back to the chateau to try and rescue Romana and Duggan and confront the Count over his attempt to travel back in time to save his people.  So, the Doctor first of all meets with the Countess and he asks her if she knows any Shakespeare and she replies "A little" and she goes over takes a book and presents it to the Doctor and says "Hamlet, first draft".

The Doctor looks at the book in amazement and says "Its been missing for centuries!" and the Countess says "Oh, its quite genuine. I assure you" and the Doctor says "I know. I recognise the handwriting".  And the Countess says "Shakespeare's" and the Doctor corrects her "No, mine. He sprained his wrist writing sonnets!".  So, the Doctor then reads a little and he scoffs as he reads back a line "Take sea in the arms of troubles, I told him that was a mixed metaphor and he would insist!".  The Countess then laughs and says "Oh, Doctor. I'm quite convinced that you're perfectly mad!" and the Doctor laughs and says "Oh well, nobody's perfect!" but he then turns serious and asks her "If you think I'm mad because I say I met Shakespeare, where do you think your precious Count got that?!".  The Countess tells the Doctor "He's a collector.  He has money and he has contacts" but the Doctor annoyed asks her "Contacts?!  Human contacts?!  How much do you really know about him, eh?!  I think rather less than you imagine!".

Another good scene is when the Doctor, Romana and Duggan pursue Scaroth back in time 400,000,000 years ago to when he originally tried to take off in his spaceship, which caused the explosion.  So, the Doctor looks around the bleak wasteland and says to Duggan "This will be the middle of Atlantic ocean".  The Doctor then looks around and he picks up some black sludge and he says "The amniotic fluid from which all life on Earth will spring, where the amino acids fuse to form minute cells. Cells which eventually evolve into vegetable and animal life" and he puts some of it into Duggan's palm" and he says "You, Duggan!".  Duggan looks in disbelief at it and asks "I come from that, that soup?!" and the Doctor says "Yes. Well, not that soup exactly. It's inert. There's no life in it yet. It's waiting on a massive dose of radiation. The explosion that caused Scarlioni to splinter in time also caused the birth of the human race, and that's what's about to happen. The birth of life itself".

So, as Scaroth suddenly appears and shouts at the Doctor to get out his way as he must stop himself from pressing the button to launch his ship,  the Doctor confronts him and says "No, Scaroth, no. You've pressed it once! You've thrown the dice once! You don't get a second throw!".  Scaroth then angrily says "Then I will splinter in time again and all my people will be killed!" but the Doctor shouts back "No! The explosion that you in there are about to trigger off will give birth to the human race! The moment your race kills itself, another is born. That has happened! It WILL happen!!".  Scaroth however remains defiant and shouts "What do I care of the human race?! Scum!  The tools of my salvation!".  The Doctor however shouts back "No! The product of your destruction!  History cannot be changed!  I cannot!" bu the Scaroth grows furious and raises his arms and shouts "I WILL CHANGE IT!!!" and suddenly Duggan knocks him out.  The Doctor delightedly at Duggan's violent actions for once, grins and says to Duggan "Duggan!  I think that was possibly the most important punch in history!".

Lalla Ward, who was at that time Tom Baker's wife is also really good as the Doctor's companion and fellow Time Lord, Romana and the two of them together share a nice chemistry, which obviously they shared off screen.

And for the sake of time (and space!) I will only mention a few of Lalla's scenes such as the one where the Doctor and Romana arrive outside the Louvre and the Doctor proudly tells her "There we are.  The Louvre!  One of the greatest art galleries in the whole galaxy!".  Romana however scoffs and says "Nonsense! What about the Academia Stellaris on Sirius Five?!" and the Doctor says "No, no!". Romana then asks "Or the Solariun Pinaquotheque at Strikian?!" and the Doctor scoffs back and says "Oh, no, no!" and Romana suggests "Or the Braxiatel Collection?!" and the Doctor laughs and says "No, no, no! This is the gallery.  The only gallery in the known picture like..." and we cut inside the Louvre and we see the Mona Lisa painting and the Doctor says "...the Mona Lisa!".

On inspection, Romana however seems less impressed and merely says its "Quite good" and the Doctor, taken aback asks "Quite good?! That's one of the great treasures of the universe and you say "quite good??!".  Romana suddenly feels self conscious of the Doctor's voice carrying and she says "The world, Doctor, not the universe in public!". Romana then asks "Why hasn't she got any eyebrows?" and the Doctor says "Is that all you can say? Why hasn't she got any eyebrows?!" and he looks closer and he realises Romana is right.  

Another good scene is when Romana and Duggan arrive at the Louvre just after the robbery of the Mona Lisa has been performed by the Count's men. So, they both find an unconscious guard and Duggan says "There's another alarm been immobilised!" and Romana, irritably says to him "You've got a pretty cynical attitude to life, haven't you, Duggan?!".  Duggan then says "Yeah well, when you've been around as long as I have.  How old are you anyway?" and the Romana tells him "125" and the Duggan looks on in disbelief and asks "What?!".  

Then there is the scene where Romana and Duggan meet back at the cafe and he smashes the window of the front door in and opens it. Duggan then says to Romana "I thought these places were meant to be open all night!" and Romana wearily tells Duggan "You should go into partnership with a glazier. You'd have a truly symbiotic working relationship!".  Duggan asks "What?" and Romana says "I'm just pointing out that you break alot of glass!" and Duggan says "You can't make an omlette without breaking eggs!" and he smashes open the neck of a bottle of red wine.  Romana then annoyed says to him "If you wanted an omelette, I'd expect to find a pile of broken crockery, a cooker in flames and an unconscious chef!".  And as they sit down, Duggan asks "You know what I don't understand?" and Romana says "I expect so!" and Duggan says "There are potentially seven buyers and seven Mona Lisa's. How did the Count know they were there?!  How did he know where to get them?!" and Romana says "Taxes the mind, doesn't it?".

And lastly there is the scene where the following morning at the cafe, Romana and Duggan discuss how the Count could possibly have gotten the other six Mona Lisa's and Romana suggests that the Count somehow managed to travel back in time.

So, Romana tells Duggan "Perhaps Scarlioni has discovered a way to travel in time. Yes, perhaps he went back in time, had a chat to Leonardo, got him to rustle up another six, came forward in time, stole the one in the Louvre, and now sells all seven at enormous profit. Sound reasonable?!".  Duggan however, looks completely baffled and says "I used to do divorce investigations.  It was never anything like this!". Romana continuing her theory says "There's only one flaw in that line of reasoning as far as I can see" and Duggan blankly asks "There is?" and Romana tells him "That equipment of Kerensky's wouldn't work as efficiently as a time machine" Duggan again blankly says "You couldn't?". And Romana continues "You can have two different time continuums running at different rates" and Duggan puzzled asks "You can?" and Romana says "But without a field interface stabilister, you can't cross from one to another" and Duggan completely pretends to play along and asks "You can't?". Romana however says "Well, I'm just guessing. Come on, let's get back to the chateau where at least you can thump somebody!".

As for the guest supporting cast, Julian Glover is terrific here in his trio role as Count Scarlioni/Scaroth/Captain Tancredi and he plays his part with great charm, charisma and also menace.

Glover naturally has his share of great scenes that include the one where the Count asks his henchman, Herrman to sell off another valuable collector's item.  So, the Count says to Hermann confidentially "That Gainsborough didn't fetch enough.  I think we need to sell one of the bibles" and Herrman asks "Sir?" and the Count says "Yes, the Gutenberg".  Hermann then warns the Count "I suggest we tread more carefully, sir? It would not be in our best interest to draw too much attention to ourselves. Another rash of priceless treasures on the market could..." and the Count interrupts and says "Yes, I know, Hermann, I know.  Just do it discreetly".  Hermann looks at the Count in disbelief and asks "Discreetly, sir??? Sell a Gutenberg bible discreetly?!" and the Count now irritated says "Well, as discreetly as possible, just do it will you?".

Another good scene is when the Count talks with his scientist, Kerenski and Kerenski is worn out with all the pressure that the Count is putting him under to produce results.  So, Kerenski tells the Count "You are pushing me to the limit, Count!" and the Count says "Only thus is true progress ever made. You, as a scientist, should be the first to appreciate that!".  Kerenski says "Oh, I do, Count, I do. I appreciate many things. I appreciate walks in the country, I appreciate sleep, regular meals!".  The Count turns to Hermann and then says "Would you please prepare for the Professor half a dozen escargot au beurre followed by an entrecote bordelaise with haricots vert and pommes sautees served directly here to the laboratory".  The Count then says to Hermann "Oh, and a bottle of Chambertin. My own. Better make that half a bottle.  We don't want to interfere with the work do we, Professor?!".  Kerenski however wearily says "Count.  I would really like to get some sleep!" and the Count goes off after Hermann and calls after him "Hermann, cancel the wine! Bring the vitamin pil!".

Then there is the great moment where, back in Florence in the 16th century, Captain Tancredi reveals himself to the Doctor as he looks identical to the Count.  So, the Doctor looks at him in surprise and asks "You!  What are you doing here??" and Tancredi steps out of the shadows and says to the Doctor "I think that is exactly the question I ought to be asking you...Doctor!".

Then we have the scene where Tancredi questions the Doctor, who is very evasive in his answers and the Doctor spots what appears to be the original Mona Lisa and the Doctor reveals that he knows the Count and Tancredi's scheme. So, Tancredi smiles and says "I can see that you are a dangerously clever man, Doctor. I think it's time we conducted this conversation somewhat more formally".  And Tancredi makes to leave and he says to the soldier "Hold him here while I collect the instruments of torture. If he wags his tongue, confiscate it!".  The Doctor then asks "How can I talk if you confiscate..." and Tancredi interrupts and says "You can write, can't you?!".

Another good scene from Glover is when the Count having re-captured Romana and Duggan, tries to coerce Romana into helping him with his plan. So, as Romana asks the Count if she refuses to help him what will he do and the Count says "Oh, must we go into vulgar threats? Let us just say that I shall destroy Paris, if that'll help you make up your minds!". Romana then asks "How am I supposed to believe you can do that?" and the Count says "Well, you won't know until you've seen the equipment, will you?".

So they go downstairs and Romana confirms that the Count can indeed destroy Paris with his equipment, which prompts Kerenski to ask "Why all this talk about destruction? What are you doing my with work?!".  So, the Count replies "Professor, I shall show you.  Would you care to examine the field generator?" and Kerenski shrugs and walks right into the middle of the generator.  So, the Count then says to Romana "You will now see, my dear, how I deal with fools!" and he presses a button that activates the equipment, which ages to Kerenski to death as he turns into a skeleton.

Then there is the scene later on where the Doctor confronts the Count over going back in time to stop his ship from blowing up.  So, as the Doctor says he is going to stop him, the Count says "Oh no, on the contrary, Doctor, you're going to help me" and the Doctor asks "I am?" and the Count smiles and says "You are indeed. And if you do not, it'll be so much the worse for you, for this young lady, and for thousands of other people I could mention if I happened to have the Paris telephone directory on my person!".  The Doctor then tries to reason with the Count and he asks him "Count, do you realise what will happen if you go back to the time before history began?" and the Count coldly says "Yes. Yes, I do. And I don't care one jot!".

And this is followed by the scene where the Count goes off to say his farewell to the Countess, who by this time has sussed out the Count isn't what he appears to be, so she aims a gun at him as he comes in.  So, the Countess in shock asks "What are you?!" and the Count asks "I beg your pardon?" and the Countess asks "What have I been living with all these years?! Where are you from and what do you want?".  The Count tries to bluff her and says "If I may answer those questions in reverse order, what I want is a drink. Will you have one?" and as the Count picks up a decanter, the Countess shouts at him pointing her gun at him "Stay away! PUT IT DOWN!".

So, after a pause, the Count does so and the Countess asks "Now, WHO are you?!" and the Count tells her the truth "I am Scaroth. Last of the Jagaroth. It has not been difficult keeping secrets from you, my dear. A few fur coats, a few trinkets, a little nefarious excitement".  The Countess asks "What are the Jagaroth?" and the Count looks up to the ceiling and says "The Jagaroth. An infinitely old race and an infinitely superior one. I shall show you what you want to know, my dear".  Scaroth then tears off his latex mask, revealing his true form of the one eye green scaly skinned Jagaroth and the Countess drops her gun in horror.  Scaroth in his true alien voice then shouts at her "I am Scaroth! Through me my people shall live again!".

Scaroth then says to the Countess "I'd glad to see you are still wearing the bracelet I designed for you, my dear. It is, as I said, a useful device!" and he touches his signet ring, which activates the bracelete on the Countess's wrist, which emits a loud noise that kills her and she falls to the floor, dead.  Scaroth then looks down at her and says "Goodbye, my dear. I'm sorry you had to die. But then, in a short while you will have ceased ever to have existed!".

Tom Chadbon next up is great as Duggan, the dim-witted English private detective, who is investigating the strange goings on in the Parisian artworld and he ends up helping the Doctor and Romana against the Count but at the same time is all too keen to use his fists at any given opportunity!

And Tom has his own share of good scenes that include the one where Duggan leads the Doctor and Romana into a cafe where they are soon met by two of the Count's thugs, who take the bracelet from him. So, after they leave, Duggan angrily says to the Doctor "All right, that's enough. Very cleverly staged, but you don't fool me!" and the Doctor looks puzzled and asks "What are you talking about?" and Duggan says "Your men who were just in here!".  The Doctor looks on in surprise and says "My men?  Those thugs?!" and Duggan says "YOU'RE thugs!" and the Doctor asks "Are you suggesting those men are in my employee?" and Duggan says "Yes".  The Doctor then tells Duggan if they were in his employee he would have sacked them on the spot but Duggan says "Except that I know you arranged for them to hold you up as a bluff! You're trying to put me on a false scent!".

And in the next scene, Duggan talks about the mysterious goings on in the art world that he is investigating with all the strange rare artefacts suddenly coming available. So, Duggan says "So, you can imagine the furore!" and Romana, who hasn't heard of the word before asks "The what?" and Duggan tells her "The furore! The whole art world in an uproar!".  Duggan then goes on and says "Masterpieces that have apparently been missing over the centuries are just turning up all over the place!".  The Doctor says "All fakes of course" and Duggan says "They've gotta be, haven't they?" but Romana asks "Are they?" and Duggan says "They're very, very good ones. They stand up to every scientific test!".  The Doctor then asks is the Count the only connection in all this and Duggan says "Nothing dirty can be proved, though. He's clean. Absolutely clean. So clean he stinks!".

Then we have the scene where the Doctor, Romana and Duggan are locked into the Count's cellar and Duggan complains about they could have escaped ages ago.  So, after Hermann locks them in, Duggan angrily asks the Doctor "What do you think you're playing at?!" and the Doctor shushes him and says "Light the lamp" and Duggan takes the only match they have "There's only one match" and the Doctor says seriously "Then get it right".  Duggan then protests and says "You tell ME to get it right?! We could have escaped at least twice if you hadn't...!" and the Doctor interrupts and says "Exactly! What's the point of coming all the way here just to escape immediately? What we do is, we stay here" and Duggan asks "Yes?" and the Doctor says "Make them think they've got us safe" and Duggan asks "Yes?" and the Doctor produces his sonic screwdriver and with a grin says "THEN we escape!".

This is followed by the moment where Romana has discovered there is a secret room behind the cellar, which the Doctor starts to break down the old mortar using a hammer and chisel, however it is taking too long.  So, the Doctor says "I think I'm going to need some machinery" and Duggan tells him "I've got all the machinery I need!  Stand back" and Duggan charges at the wall and bashes it in allowing them to get into the secret room.

The Doctor then checks behind a series of wooden doors of which all contain a painting of the Mona Lisa, all identical and all apparently genuine. So, the Doctor confused asks "Every one. What I don't understand is why a man who's got six Mona Lisas wants to go to all the trouble of stealing a seventh?.  And Duggan, who mentioned earlier that he had buyers in his diary who would all pay big money for the Mona Lisa, tells the Doctor "Come on, Doctor, I've just told you. There are seven people who would buy the Mona Lisa in secret, but nobody's going to buy the Mona Lisa when it's hanging in the Louvre!".  The Doctor then realises what Duggan means and he puts his hand on Duggan's arm and smiles saying "I wouldn't make a very good criminal, would I?!" and then we hear the Count say "No, good criminals don't get caught!".  The Count then questions the Doctor as to what happened to Kerenski "Can you shed any light on that?" and Duggan says "I can!" and he throws his lamp at the Count and knocks him unconscious. 

Another good scene is when Duggan and Romana arrive too late at the Lovure to find the Mona Lisa has been stolen.  So, Romana in the scene says to Duggan "I though the Louvre was supposed to be well guarded" and Duggan tells her "It is. It just looks as though every alarm in the place has been immobilised. A fantastic feat!".  Then they find an unconscious guard nearby and Duggan cynically says "There'a another alarm been immobilised!" and Romana, annoyed says "You've got a pretty cynical attitude to life, haven't you, Duggan?!".  Duggan says "Well, when you've been around as long as I have...how old are you anyway?" and Romana says "125" and Duggan, shocked asks "What?!".

And they soon see the Mona Lisa is gone and Duggan says how the laser beams that protect it should be impregnable but as he puts his hand by them, he sets off the alarm.  Duggan shouts "Hells bells!" and Romana says "That's what it sounds like!  Let's go!" and Duggan says "Split up!  We'll meet back at the cafe?!" and Romana asks "But how do you suggest we get out?!" and Duggan indicate "See that window?!" and he runs toward it and we hear a smashing noise as he jumps through it.

Then there is the scene where Romana and Duggan meet back at the cafe and he breaks into it and he says to Romana "I thought these places were meant to be open all night!" and Romana wearily tells Duggan "You should go into partnership with a glazier. You'd have a truly symbiotic working relationship!".  Duggan asks "What?" and Romana says "I'm just pointing out that you break alot of glass!" and Duggan says "You can't make an omlette without breaking eggs!" and he smashes open the neck of a bottle of red wine to pour some.  

Then we get to the scene where the Doctor, Romana and Duggan follow Scaroth in the TARDIS back to prehistoric times where Scaroth intends to stop himself from taking off in the Jagaroth spaceship and Duggan in mild surprise points out Scaroth's ship and says "That's a spaceship!".  So, in the scene the Doctor shows Duggan some black sludge, which would eventually form the cells that would generate human life. So, the Doctor says to Duggan of the sludge "You, Duggan" and Duggan, incredulously says "I come from that, that soup?!".

And last of all if the final scene of the story where the Doctor tells Duggan about how the Count's mansion was destroyed in a fire, which in reality happened when Scaroth was returned to the chateau via his lab appartus but a startled Hermann threw something at him, which shorted out the machine and caused a big fire.

So, Duggan asks "The one nearest the wall?!" and the Doctor tells Duggan "It was the only one that wasn't damaged in the fire" and Duggan annoyed says "But its a fake!  You can't hang a fake Mona Lisa in the Louvre!".  Romana however asks Duggan "How can it be a fake if Leonardo painted it?" and Duggan says "With the words "This is a fake" written under the paintwork in felt tip?!" and Romana says "It doesn't affect what it looks like" and Duggan says "It doesn't matter what it looks like!".  The Doctor however says "Well, some people would say that's the whole point of painting" but Duggan annoyed, says "But they'll find out!  They'll X-Ray it!" and the Doctor says if they have to, to find out if its good, they might aswell have painting by computer.  So, Duggan asks the Doctor "Yes, where do you two come from?" and the Doctor answers the question in an awkward fashion and says the best way is to work out where you're going and work backwards and Duggan, puzzled asks "Where are you going?" and the Doctor says "I don't know" and Romana says "Nor do I!". 

Catherine Schell is also excellent in her role as the Countess and she plays part very well, as a wealthy woman who is blinded by the fact she is married to an alien.

And for the sake of time, I will mention only three of her scenes (this review is long enough!!) starting with the one where the Count and Countess have successfully stolen the Mona Lisa and the Countess expresses her delight.  So, the Countess says to the Count "Why do you still worry, my dear? We've done it! We have the Mona Lisa. Think of the wealth that will be ours!" and the Count, who is staring upward in a daze says "The wealth is not everything".  The Countess then says "Of course. The achievement.  Yes, the achievement!" and the Count laughs and says "Achievement?!" and he scornfully asks her how it would feel to have built the pyramids, invent the first wheel and show the true use of fire.  The Countess, puzzled asks "What are you talking about?!  No one can achieve everything?!".  

Then there is the scene where the Doctor confronts the Countess over her relationship with the Count and how she is blind to who he really is.  So, the Doctor asks her "How long have you been married to the Count?" and the Countess replies "Long enough" and the Doctor says "Long enough. I like that. Discretion and charm. So civilised. So terribly unhelpful!".  The Countess smiles and says "Discretion and charm. I couldn't live without it, especially in matters concerning the Count" and the Doctor tells her "There is such a thing as discretion. There's also such a thing as wilful blindness".

The Countess however is taken aback by this and says "Blind?! I help him to steal the Mona Lisa, the greatest crime in the century, and you call me blind?!".  The Doctor shouts back "YES! You see the Count as a master criminal, an art dealer, an insanely wealthy man, and you'd like to see yourself as his consort. But what's he doing in the cellar?!".  The Countess replies "Tinkering.  Every man has his hobby" and the Doctor asks her seriously "Man?!  Are you sure of that?!  A man with one eye and green skin, eh?! Ransacking the art treasures of history to help him make a machine to reunite him with his people, the Jagaroth, and you didn't notice anything? How discreet, how charming!" but the Countess just laughs at this.  Hermann however interrupts them and tells the Doctor he is to go down to the cellar but before he goes, the Doctor says to the Countess "Think about it, Countess. Think about it!".

The Countess laughs it off for a moment however she then remembers seeing a book in her library containing a parchment, which she unfold one that has a picture of an Egyptian wall painting featuring various Gods, a Pharaoh and the figure of a being with a green head and one eye, leaving Countess looking shocked.

David Graham next up is also very good as Kerenski, the Count's hapless scientist, who works with him on the machine, which the Count keeps his true intentions of its use from Kerenski.

And I will mention two of Graham's scenes, firstly the one where the Doctor having escaped from the cellar looks at the Count's lab equipment but he is interrupted by Kerenski coming down the stairs.  So the Doctor waits long enough for Kerenski to start his chicken egg experiement with the machine and then he says to Kerenski "Which came first?  The chicken or the egg?" and Kerenski, startled asks "Who are you?  What are you doing here?!" and the Doctor tells him "Me? I'm the Doctor.  What you're doing is terribly interesting! But you've got it wrong!".

So, the Doctor starts to discuss the flaws of the machine with Kerensky "Well, you're tinkering with time. That's always a bad idea unless you know what you're doing".  Kerenski however insists "I know what I'm doing. I am the foremost authority on temporal theory in the whole world!" and the Doctor asks him "The whole world?" and Kerenski says "Yes!" and the Doctor muses "Well, that's a very small place when you consider the size of the universe!".  Kerensky however insists " But you saw it work. The greatest achievement of the human race. A cellular accelerator. You saw it! An egg developed into a chicken in thirty seconds. With a large one, I can turn a calf into a cow in even less time. It will be the end of famine in the world!".  

The Doctor then explains there are still problems with the machine and he suggests something else as he reverses a control on the wall, causing the chicken skeleton to reverse back through its life cycle to being an egg again, leaving Kerensky astonished.  The Doctor then says "There you are. Did you realise it could do that?" and Kerensky, astounded says "No! What did you?!" and the Doctor "I just reversed the polarity.  This is very expensive equipment".  And Kerenski says "Oh, very expensive. The Count is very generous. A true philanthropist. I do not ask too many questions!" and the Doctor taken aback says "Well you...what's your name?!" and Kerensky says "Theodore Nikolai Kerensky...." and the Doctor tells him "Theodore Nikolai Kerensky...a scientist's job IS to ask questions!".

And lastly there is the scene where the Count shows some papers on a workbench for Kerensky to look at and he says to him "You will now see the true end product of your labours. This is what you will now produce for me. Look at it!".  Kerensky then takes a look at the papers but reacts in horror and says "But Count, this machine is precisely the reverse of what we, of what I have been working on!". Kerensky then says to Count "But the scale of this is fantastic. Count, what you are trying to do, this is monstrous beyond imagining!" and the Count asks him "But you will do it?" and Keresnky refuses "No!  A thousands times no!".  The Count then asks "Oh, why not?" and Kerensky urgently says "Equipment on this scale, power on this scale, it would cost millions and millions. Even you, Count, could not afford such things!".

However they are then interrupted by a delighted Hermann, who reveals they have managed to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre and Hermann reveals triumphantly that they stand to make $100,000,000 from all seven sales of the Mona Lisa paintings.  So, the Count laughs triumphantly and he turns to Kerensky and says to him menacingly "Continue with your work, Professor. Enjoy it, or you will die!" leaving Kerensky, just a little terrified.

Kevin Flood is pretty good in his role as the Count's ruthless henchman, Hermann, who takes pleasure in his job of being...well a henchman!

So, I will only mention one of Flood's scenes and its the one where Hermann leads the Doctor, Romana and Duggan down into the cellar.  So, the Doctor asks Hermann "How long has the chateau been here, Hermann?" and Hermann, impatiently replies "Long enough!" and the Doctor says "Really that long!  Restored maybe four or five hundred years ago?" and Hermann offers "May have been".  And the Doctor then asks "Very stimulating, very stimulating. And this would be the cellar, would it?" and Hermann finally says "Doctor, you're boring conversation does not interest me!".

Hermann then leads them into the cellar and he throws a box of matches to the Doctor and says "You may light it if you wish".  Romana asks of the lamp that lies in the cellar "How long's that thing going to last us?" and Hermann says "Two hours, maybe three" and the Doctor then gravely asks "What happens after that?" and Hermann threateningly says "After that, you won't NEED any light!" and he shuts and locks the cellar door.

Peter Halliday is also pretty good in his small role as the soldier that holds the Doctor captive back in Florence when the Doctor visits Leonard Da Vinci but is met by a sword instead held by the soldier.

And Halliday has two moments I will quickly mention, such as the one where having met Captain Tancredi, who leaves to get instruments to torture the Doctor with, the Doctor says to the solider of Tancredi "He's mad, isn't he? It must be a tough job humouring him!" but the soldier says nothing.  The Doctor then asks the solider "You don't believe all that, do you?" and the soldier asks "What?" and the Doctor says "Well, Jagaroth spaceships! Isn't it.  Isn't it?" and the soldier, not really interested says "I'm paid simply to fight".  The Doctor then says "Yes, well, I mean, quite honestly, when you think about all that Jagaroth spaceship!" and he scoffs but the soldier tells him "When you work for the Borgias, you believe anything" and the Doctor looks on fearfully and says "The borgias?! Yes, yes. I see your point".  And the soldier says "As I said, I'm paid to fight" and the Doctor looking down the sharp end of the soldier's sword says "Yes, and as I said, I can see your point!".  

And last of all is the moment where the Count is troubled by a psychic call from his other selves and this distracts the Count enough for the Doctor to ask "Are you alright?" and the Count in a daze, says "Continue. The interface of the time continuums is unstable!".  So, the Doctor asks the soldier "Is he often like this?" and the soldier says to the Doctor "I'm not paid to notice!". 

And last of all there are two very notable cameo performances from  John Cleese and Eleanor Bron who are very funny as two art lovers that stand and critique as well as appreciate the TARDIS, which is parked inside another gallery.

And as the two of them stand at the TARDIS, the man says "To me, one of the most curious things about this piece is its wonderful afunctionalism!" and the woman says "Yes, I see what you mean. Divorced from its function and seen purely as a piece of art, its structure of line and colour is curiously counterpointed by the redundant vestiges of its function".  So, the man then says "And since it has no call to be here, the art lies in the fact that it IS here!" and suddenly the Doctor, Romana and Duggan enter the gallery and board the TARDIS and it dematerialises, leaving both the man and woman astounded and the woman says "Exquisite!  Absolutely exquisite!". 

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

Finally moving onto the director and music paragraphs, starting with the director, Michael Hayes, does a very fine job here with the story and he keeps the pace of the story moving along very nicely and at four episodes, it never lags and is just the right length.  Hayes himself directed two other serials during the Tom Baker era, which I believe would have been during the Graham Williams producer era, so this is certainly the strongest of the three no doubt.

As for the music, well...its good old Dudley Simpson once again and he produces another charming score here, which is perfectly well suited to the tone of the story itself as it features some playful moments as well as sinister and dramatic ones.  Basically, Dudley was the show's best composer overall as he churned out so many good scores for the show over the years and this is certainly another one.

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

As for flaws....yep as good as City of Death is, it still does have some worth mentioning.

For starters, I think that while the Count and Captain Tancredi both make for effective villains, it has to be said that Scaroth's mask, is pretty silly looking with its green spaghetti head and one eye, even though Glover plays a very entertaining and memorable villain, that mask is still the only weakness behind it all.  Its also especially notable in its naffness when we see the Count tear off the mask at the end of the first episode and you can actually see the actor's real face peep through underneath!

There are also one or two plot points that don't quite make sense, for starters, Duggan in the scene where he breaks into the cafe durng the night with Romana, takes a bottle of wine and breaks off the neck of it to pour wine for himself and Romana (or at least that's the way it appears!).  However he didn't even have to do that, as there was already just a cork stuck in the bottle and he could have easily taken it out rather than smash the bottle open!  Also, what if Duggan was planning to drink straight from the bottle?!  If he had, after smashing it, he would bound to have cut his mouth up to hell!  But that's me just supposing here of course.

And then there is what I see as the biggest flaw in the story, which is when the Doctor, Romana and Duggan follow Scaroth back in time via the TARDIS to pre-historic Earth where the Scaroth intends to stop himself from taking off in his spaceship.  Now, in the story, Romana reveals that the device she built that will allow Scaroth to travel back in time to his ship will only last for two minutes, which the Doctor said would still be sufficient time to make the change.  OK.  However...in the time it took for Scaroth to activate the machine and transfer back in time to pre-historic Earth, he would got to his ship alot sooner than the Doctor ever could have got back to the TARDIS!  This is clearly the case, as the Doctor, Romana and Duggan are seen running frantically around the streets during Paris traffic, which would have taken them easily MORE than two minutes to get back to the TARDIS in time!

So, basically there would have been no way in hell that the Doctor and his companions could have realistically made it back to the TARDIS in time before Scaroth was able to reach his spaceship and press the button.  And if that being said, you'd actually think the way it would go is that the world would have been wiped out while the Doctor, Romana and Duggan were in their mad dash to get back to the TARDIS!  So, for me this remains the story's biggest drawback.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, City of Death remains one of the highlights of Tom Baker's era as the 4th Doctor, as it is a highly entertaining story, which is wonderfully written (by Douglas Adams and Graham Williams) and nicely directed by Michael Hayes and features another pleasant score by Dudley Simpsons.  The story also features wonderful performances from its cast and Julian Glover as Count Scarliano/Captain Tancredi/Scaroth, steals the show here for the most part as his performance is terrific and he makes for one of the show's most memorable villains.

And if you are a fan (or even a casual fan) of the show and haven't seen this story yet, then you should definitely check it out as it is easily one of the most enjoyable Doctor Who stories from any era.

Right, so that's it for this post and I will be back sometime soon with yet another before the end of the month.

So, till the next un, its bye fer now!  

Scarface review "Say hello to my little friend!!!"

OK, revistation time again! 

Actually the posts I have been revisiting are in fact films that I have recently been re-watching again and they will serve as an inspiration to update the previous posts I had done for them, so that's why you will have been seeing more of these post revisitations of late. 

But I am not billing this post as a revisitation as such, simply because I didn't titled as Scarface in the first place as I just quoted the famous line from the film "Say hello to my little friend!".  However I will of course expand on my original review of the film as usual in this post.

Anyway with that said let's take a look at this film again....

And yep as you can imagine...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

So, film is set in 1980, and the film's main character, Tony Montana (Al Pacino) is a Cuban refugee who arrives in America during the Mariel boatlift (which was a real life mass emigration of Cubans into the US).  Tony along with his best friend Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer) are sent to "Freedom camp" which is refugee camp.  After a while Manny tells Tony the news that they can recieve green cards if in return that Tony does a hit on a Cuban government official, on behalf of a drug kingpin Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia), which Tony does.

On the outside, Tony and Manny are offered a deal from Frank's henchman, Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham) to buy cocaine from Colombian drug dealers.  However the deal itself goes sour, as Tonny and one of his crew, Angel, are captured by the Colombians, and Angel is killed by a chainsaw, but before Tony suffers the same fate, Manny bursts in and rescues him.  Tony then kills the Colombian who nearly chainsawed him, and takes the money from the deal, and then contacts Suarez and defiantly tells him that he will take the money to Frank himself.  Frank on meeting Tony is impressed by him and he decides to hire him and Manny to work for him.  Tony also meets Frank's girlfriend, Elvira (Michelle Pfieffer) who is stuck up and cold in manner, but Tony falls for her instantly.

Months later Tony reunites with his family, his mother Georgina (Miriam Colon) and his beautiful younger sister, Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) who Tony is very protective off.  Tony's mother however is far from pleased to see him and refuses to take his money, after which Tony leaves angrily, and Gina goes out after him, and Tony gives her the money anyway.  Manny clearly smitten by Gina, is warned by Tony to stay away from her.

Some time after this Frank sends Tony along with Suarez to meet with cocaine kingpin Aljeandro Sosa (Paul Shenar) where Tony does a deal with Sosa without Frank's consent, which angers Suarez, but Sosa allows Suarez to call Frank before they move on.  However Sosa soon reveals to Tony that Suarez is a police informant, and he shows Tony that his men have Suarez up in a helicopter, beaten up with a rope around his neck, they hang him from the helicopter.  Sosa despite his dislike for Frank, admires Tony's honesty and fortright nature and decides to the deal with Tony.

Tony returns to Frank with the news of the deal, who is outraged and tells Tony that to stall the deal for now, but soon after their partnership falls apart.  Tony later on at a nightclub is shaken down by a corrupt cop Mel Bernstein (Harris Yulin) who proposes to tax him in return for inside police information and protection.  Tony also tries to come onto Elvira, while Frank is present, who angrily tells him to leave, but Tony instead says "the only thing that gives orders in this world is balls!" and Frank leaves.  Not longer after thought an attempt is made on Tony's life in the club, who barely escapes alive after killing the hitmen.

Tony then get's Manny and his men together, and they soon confront Frank at his office, who confesses to have ordered the hit on him, and pleads with him to spare his life, but Tony has Manny shoot Frank dead, and Tony kills Bernstein who is also present.  With nothing in his way, Tony takes over Frank's business and also takes Elvira with him, and he soon rises in power and partners with Sosa on his drug deals, turning his business in a multi-million dollar empire.  But from here Tony's life becomes increasingly complicated and its not long before events in his career and personal life spiral wildly out of control....

THOUGHTS (Warning: this section may refers to some spoilers!)

While it can be said to be a remake of the 1932 film of the same name, there is not a great deal of similarity between the two films, and for De Palma's Scarface is the more memorable and relevant of the two films, as it mirrored the real life events of the time as a result of the Cuban mass immigration, and the political and social repercussions as a result in America.

Character wise the film is also brilliantly written and Tony Montana is a memorable antagonist with a complex background, as it is suggested that he was an assassin back in Cuba, but also his family have made it over with his mother and sister.  But more interestingly in the film despite his sociopathic behaviour he is to a lesser extent show to be a moral character aswell, as he clearly is very protective of his younger sister Gina, and he wants to keep her away from that part of his life.

Also later in the film when Tony is given the task by Sosa to do a hit on a political activist who is threat to Sosa's business partners, by planting a bomb underneath his car.  But when the day comes and Tony is set on killing the activist, he sees that the activist has picked up his wife and daughter, and he refuses to kill the activist and his family, as he says "this is so fucking bad!" realising of course he too has a family to think of.  And its bizarre in a way that Tony Montana has become such an iconic character, as he's hardly a role model, with so many films and TV shows referencing him, and to this day there are plenty of T-shirts and memoribilia to be seen with Tony Montana on them with infamous lines from the film. 

PERFORMANCES (Warning: this section contains spoilers and strong language!)

In terms of the performances the cast are all top notch here.

Starting with Al Pacino who gives one of his best performances as Tony Montana, as he plays him as a sociopathic egomaniac, who has ruthless ambition as well as a potty mouth!  Pacino has many highlights in the film and plenty of great dialouge, of which there are too many mention all at once but I will mention a fair few.

And for starters there is the scene where Tony after just meeting Frank's girlfriend, Elvira and they all go out for drinks, Elvira asks Tony to dance with her, so they go and dance and Tony tries to chat to her but she is cold toward him.  So, Tony rather offended tells Elvira "Hey, baby, what is your problem? Huh, you got a problem? You're good looking, you got a beautiful body, beautiful legs, beautiful face, all these guys in love with you. Only you got a look in your eye like you haven't been fucked in a year!". Elvira angrily then says "Hey, Joe. How, when and how I fuck is none of your business!" and Tony turned on by her attitude says "Now your talking, baby!  Keep it coming!".  Elvira however is annoyed by Tony's advances and says "Don't call me "baby".  I'm NOT your baby!" and Tony grins and says "Not yet, you gotta give me some time!".  Elvira then stops dancing and looks at Tony with disgust and tells him "Even if I were blind, desparate, stuck on a desert island and begging for it, you'd be the last thing I'd ever fuck!!".

Then there is the scene when Tony witnesses one of Frank's closest associates, Suarez, being executed as he his hung from a helicopter by Sosa's men. Sosa tells Tony that Suarez was an informant for the police and asks him how does he know Tony isn't one too.  So, Tony firmly says to Sosa "Hey, Sosa, let's get this straight right now.  I never fucked over anybody in my life, who didn't have it coming. All I have in this world is my world and my balls and I don't break em for nobody!". 

Then we have the scene where Tony confronts Frank over the attempt on his life, which Frank arranged but was bungled as Tony managed to kill the hitmen. So, Tony says to Frank "You know what a chazzer is, Frank? Its a pig that doesn't fly straight, and neither do you, Frank!" and as Frank pleads with Tony to spare him, Franks begs and says "Come on, please, Tony. I never did nothing to nobody!".  So, Tony bitterly says "No, you did nothing to nobody. You let someone else do it for you!" and Frank continues to beg for his life at Tony's feet and Tony appears to relent and says "I ain't gonna kill you" and Frank immediately says "Oh Christ! Thank you!".  However, Tony then turns to Manny and says "Manolo, shoot that piece of shit!" so Manny then shoots Frank dead.

Tony then turns his attentions to Mel, the corrupt cop, who is in cahoots with Frank and he says to him "Every dog has his day, huh Mel?".  Mel then says to Tony that Frank messed up but Tony says to him "You too, Mel.  You fucked up" and Mel warns him "Don't go too far, Tony" and Tony says "I ain't, Mel. YOU are!" and he shoots Mel in the stomach, who gasps desparately and says "Can't shoot a cop!" and Tony says "Whoever said you was one!".  Mel then pleads with Tony to let him go and straighten things out but Tony mocks him and says "Sure, Mel. Maybe you can hand out yourself one of them first class tickets to the Resurrection!".  Mel with his last words angrily says to Tony "Fucking punk!  Son of a bitch!" and Tony aims his gun at Mel and says "So long, Mel.  Have a nice trip" and Mel shouts his last words "FUCK YOU!!" and Tony shoots him dead.

Also the scene where he sits in his obscenely large bath tub in his mansion, and he watches current affairs programmes on his TV, swearing away, Elvira chastises him for it and calls him boring for talking about money all the time, so he changes channel instead where we see a pelican on screen and he says "OK! Look at that, a pelican!  Lovely pelican, fly fly!".   Later in the scene he tells Manny to back out of his money laundering deal who calls him an asshole and he says "Hey fuck you, Manny, who put this together??? ME!  Who do I trust??? ME!".

Then there is the scene where Tony and Sosa's assassin, Alberto the shadow (Mark Margolis, who would later appear in Breaking Bad) tail the journalist they are supposed to kill with a car bomb.  However when they observe the journalist pick up his wife and two children, Tony changes his mind as he refuses to do the job but Alberto insists they go ahead.

So, as Tony reluctantly drives off and tails the journalist, he expresses his disgust over the siutation "This is so fucking bad!".  So, he angrily says to Alberto "Bet you feel good, huh? Bet you feel good to kill a mother and her kids, huh, bet you feel big... ". Alberto in Spanish tells Tony to shut up but Tony continues " ...Like, you big man. Well, fuck you. What do you think I am?! You think I'd kill two kids and a woman?! Fuck that! I don't need that shit in my life!".  So, as Alberto is about to press the detonator switch, Tony suddenly turns to Alberto and shouts "YOU DIE, MOTHERFUCKER!!" and shoots in the head.  Tony then rants loudly at the dead Alberto "What'd you think of that, huh? What you think, I'm a fucking worm like you? I told you, man, I told you! Don't fuck with me!!! I told you, no fucking kids!!! No, but you wouldn't listen, why, you stupid fuck, look at you now!!".

Another great scene is when Tony heads back to his mansion where Sosa has been repeatedly trying to call him, so Tony finally speaks to Sosa, who is furious that the hit didn't go as planned.  So, Sosa asks Tony "What happened, Tony?" and Tony tells him "Your guy Alberto... you know he's a piece of shit. I told him to do something he didn't listen to me, so I had to cancel his fucking contract!".  Sosa, however is not happy and says "My partners and I are pissed off, Tony!" but Tony tries to placate and says "That's okay. No big deal, we can do it next month".  However, Sosa tells Tony that they found the bomb underneath the journalist's and they have tightened security around him, so now Sosa and his partners will take alot of heat for this.

So, Sosa furiously says to Tony "There's not going to be a next time you fucking dumb cocksucker..." and Tony rather offended says "Hey!  Take it easy when you talk to me".  Sosa angrily then shouts at Tony "I told you a long time ago, you fucking little monkey, not to fuck with me!!".  Tony then suddenly explodes and shouts at Sosa "HEY!!  WHO THE FUCK YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING TO??!! YOU WANNA FUCK..." Sosa then hangs up in disgust.  However Tony, oblivious to Sosa hanging up, continues to rant at him "Who the fuck you think I am?!! Your fucking bell boy?!! Come on! Bring it! You wanna go to war? We take you to war! Okay?!!!". 

WARNING: THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH REFERS TO THE END OF THE FILM!

And near the end when he is overrun by Sosa's men who storm his mansion, he grabs his M16 assault rifle with a grenade launcher attachment, he shouts out the infamous line "Say hello to my little friend!!".  And later after Tony mows down some more of Sosa's men, he yells at them "GO AHEAD!!! YOU FUCKIN MARICON!! I'M TONY MONTANA!!! YOU FUCK WITH ME, YOU'RE FUCKIN WITH THE BEST!!  YOU THINK YOU CAN TAKE ME!! YOU NEED A FUCKIN ARMY TO TAKE ME!!".  And as Sosa's men continue to open fire on Tony, who even manage to him hit with several bullet, he is still standing and furiously shouts "I'LL TAKE YOUR FUCKIN BULLETS!!  GO AHEAD!!! GO AHEAD!!" only for one of Sosa's assassins to quietly sneak up and shoot him in the back and he falls down into a fountain below.

As for the other cast members, Steve Bauer is excellent as Manny, who has the daunting job of playing off Pacino at his very best, but he does a great here, and he plays Manny as the more cautious and level headed of the two as well as a charmer and a bit of a womaniser.

Bauer has some great moments in the film as well, such as when Manny decides to try and pick up a girl at a beach after Tony's failed attempt to ask a pretty girl if she wants to have ice cream with him.  So, Manny tells Tony "Come on, that won't work. You can't do it that way.  You know how you pick up chicks in this country?" and he leans forward and sticks his tongue quickly much to Tony's disgust.  And as another pretty girl in a bikini walks by, Manny decides to try it on with her, so he confidently walks up to her and starts to chat to her and while this happens, Tony goes up a young boy and says "You want to see something funny? My friends over there, he's gonna stick his tongue out at that girl!".  So, Manny suddenly sticks his tongue but the girl is not impressed at all and slaps him in the face and shouts "You're sick!" and Manny walks away and shouts to her "Bitch! Lesbian!".

Another good scene for Bauer is when Manny drives Tony's young sister, Gina home after Tony catches her in the nightclub with some guy, who tried to make out with her in a toilet.  So, Manny explains to Gina "Come on, Gina. Put yourself in his place, okay? Right now, you happen to be the best thing in his life. The only thing that's any good, that's pure. Of course he doesn't want you mixing with those people...growing up to be like him. He has this father thing for you. Feels like he has to protect you".  Gina asks "Protect me against what?" and Manny says "Against guys like that asshole you were dancing with tonight!".  Gina protests and says that the guy was nice and knows how to treat a woman and Manny scoffs and says "He knows how to treat a woman?!  By taking her to the toilet to make out?!".

Then after we see a dispondent looking Tony in the club watching an act about to take to the stage, we cut back to Manny and Gina.  And Manny says "You should go out with someone who is on the ball and is going somewhere in life" and Gina asks "Like who?" and Manny says "For instance someone, who's got a real job like a banker, or a doctor, or a lawyer".  Gina however then asks Manny "Why don't you take me out?" and this is met with an awkward silence from Manny "Are you crazy?" and Gina says "I see the way you look at me, Manolo!  You think I'm blind?  I see".  Manny however tries to make her see it would be a bad idea "Look, Gina...Tony and I are like brothers. You're his kid sister.  That's where it ends and that's where it stays".  Gina then teasingly asks Manny "Are you afraid of Tony?" which angers Manny who shouts "I'm not afraid of anybody!  That's not the point here!!" and this leave Gina with a wry smile.   

Robert Loggia also does a great job here as Frank Lopez, the drug dealer, who in the end hasn't got the gumption to stand up to Tony and instead tries to have him killed.

Loggia has some great moments in the film as well, and some great dialogue, such as the one where we first see Frank when Tony brings him the Colombian's coke and the money from their bungled deal.  So, Frank warmly greets Tony and tells him "You're gonna find, you stay loyal in this business...you're gonna move up. You're gonna move up fast. And you'll find out your biggest problem...is not bringing in the stuff... but what to do with all the fucking cash!" and he laughs loudly.  Frank then asks where his girlfriend, Elvira is and she jokes "Jesus!  That broad, she spends half her life dressing and the other half undressing!!" and he laughs again.

Then there is the scene where after only Tony returns from the meeting with Sosa (as Suarez was killed by Sosa's men) having a made an unauthorised deal, Frank is furious with Tony.  So, Frank shouts at Tony "You what?! You made a deal for FUCKING $18 million... without even checking with me?!! Are you crazy, Montana?!!". Tony however insists that it was a good deal and he then really starts to impose himself on Frank as he says he bury all their opposition, which clearly unsettles Frank.

Frank however still tries to maintain his composure as the boss and he warns Tony of Sosa "Let me tell you something about that greaseball cocksucker. He is a snake, that's what he is. You turn your back on him, he'll stick it in. You don't trust a guy like that. You want me to believe... Omar was a stoolie because Sosa said so? You bought that line? Maybe I made a mistake sending you down there. Maybe you and Sosa know something I don't know!".  Tony feeling a little threatened asks "Like what?" and Frank clearly more nervous, tries to turn it back on Tony and asks "You tell ME like what?!" and Tony asks Frank "Are you calling me a liar, Frank? Is that what you're calling me?".  Frank however again sees that Tony is stronger than him and backs off a little and he says "Let's just say I want things to stay the way they are for now.  You STALL you're deal with Sosa".

And just before Tony goes, Frank warns him "Tony.  Remember I told you when you started...the guys who last in this business are the guys that fly straight, quiet, low key...but the guys that want it all, chica, champagne, flash...they don't last!".

Then there is the scene where Frank sees Tony trying to chat up Elvira at the club after their earlier chat where Tony said he wants her to marry him but she brushes him off and Frank walks up and angrily confronts him.  So, Frank says to Tony "Why don't you find your own girl?!" and Tony says "That's what I am doing" but Frank tells him "Go do it somewhere else!" and Tony teases him "Maybe I don't hear so good sometimes" and Frank warns him "You won't hear anything if you go on like this!". Tony then asks Frank "You going to do something?!" and Frank shouts back "You're FUCKING right I am going to do something!!! I'm giving you orders!  Blow!". Tony however finally has had it with Frank and shows himself to be the stronger man and he boldly says to him "Amigo, the only thing in this world that gives orders is balls! Balls!" and Frank backs off and says to Elvira "Let's go" and they leave.  

WARNING: AGAIN THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH FEATURES A BIG SPOILER!!

And last of all is Loggia's final scene where Frank meets his end when Tony confronts him at his office, having survived the attempt on his life.  So, as Frank confesses he was behind the attempted hit he pleads for his life and get's down on his knees "Please, Tony? Elvira? You want Elvira? You can have her. I'll go away. I'm gonna disappear. You'll never see me again. Please, Tony, I don't want to die. I never did nothing to nobody!". Frank then begs "Oh, please don't kill me!" and Tony says "I ain't gonna kill you" and Frank gasps with relief and says "Oh, Christ!  Thank yoU!" but Tony then turns to Manny and says "Manolo, shoot that piece of shit!" and Frank shouts with horror "NO! NO!!" and Manny shoots Frank dead.

Michelle Pfieffer is also excellent as the beautiful yet cold and drug addled Elvira, who resists Tony as long as she can until he takes over Frank's business empire, and they soon enter a loveless marriage.

Michelle's best scenes includes the scene where Elvira dances with Tony in a nightclub and he comes onto her but Elvira is repelled by his advances.  So as the two of them dance together, Tony tries to put her at ease and tells her "I'm just trying to be friendly" and Elvira says "I already got friends, I don't need another one!  Especially one that just got off a banana boat!".  Tony takes offence and says "You got the wrong guy.  I didn't just get off a banana boat.  I am a political refugee from Cuba!".  Elvira then grins and says "Sorry.  I didn't realise you were so sensitive about your diplomatic status".

Tony again, feeling offended, asks Elvira what her problem is and she has a look in her eye like she hasn't had sex in a year, so Elvira angrily tells Tony "Hey, Jose! Who, why, when and how I fuck is none of your business!".  Tony suddenly turned on says to her "Now you're talking to me, baby! Keep it coming!  That I like!" and Elvira, annoyed says "Don't call me "baby". I'm not your baby!" and Tony grins and says "Not yet, you gotta give me some time!". Elvira then stops dancing and looks at Tony in disgust and says "Even if I were blind, desperate... starved and begging for it on a desert island... you'd be the last thing I'd ever fuck!".

And lastly there is the scene where Elvira decides to leave Tony during a dinner, where he drunkenly berates her for being a drug addict and infertile. So, as Tony says to her "I can't even have a little baby with her!  Her woman is so fucking polluted!" Elvira is livid and she says through gritted teeth "You son of a bitch!  You fuck!" and she throws her drink in Tony's face and she yells "How dare you talk to me like that!!". 

Elvira then angrily says to Tony "What makes you so much better than me?! What do you do?!  You deal drugs and you kill people!  Oh, that's wonderful!  A real contribution to human history!". Elvira then says to Tony "You wanna kid?  What kind of father would you make?!" and Tony furiously tries to grab her but Manny holds him back.  Elvira continues "And you don't even know how to be a husband...!" and again Tony furiously goes for her but he is held back and Elvira shouts "Do we ever go anywhere without having 600 thugs hanging around us all the time?!!".  After Manny restrains Tony again, Elvira calms down a little and tearfully says to Tony "Can't you see...what we're becoming, Tony.  We're losers. We're not winners".  Elvira then grabs her things and she says to Tony "I'm going home. Alone!  I'm leaving you!  I don't need this shit anymore!" and she walks out.

Next up is Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Tony's young sister Gina, who Tony is very protective of, and Mary does a fine job with her sympathetic and ultimately tragic role.  It was suggested in the film that Tony actually harbors incestuous feelings for her, but looking at it again, it is more that Tony is just overly protective of her. 

And I will mention two of Mary's scenes the first being the one where Gina at Frank's club goes into a toilet to make out with a guy and Tony notices them going into the toilet, he furiously follows them and confronts Gina. So, after Manny throws out the guy, Frank grabs Gina's face and tells her "If I catch you here again, I'm gonna wipe you all over the place!".  Gina angrily challenges Tony and says "Do it now.  I wanna see it!  I wanna see it now, big shot!" but Tony angrily pushes her away and shouts "Get outta here!".  So, Gina angrily tells Tony "You got some nerve, Tony! You can't tell me what to do, Tony. No more. I am not a baby anymore. I'll do what I wanna do. I'll see whoever I wanna see. And if I wanna fuck 'em, Tony, then I'll fuck 'em!" and Tony slaps her and storms out, leaving Manny to pick her up and comfort her.
 
WARNING: ANOTHER BIG SPOILER COMING UP!!

And lastly there is the scene where after Tony has killed Manny out of rage when he learns that Manny and Gina are a couple, Tony takes a hysterical Gina back to his mansion where she is sedated.  However a little later, while Tony is coked out of his mind in his office, Gina enters wearing just a robe and she carries a gun and she says to Tony suggestively "Is this what you want, Tony? You can't stand for another man to be touching me. So you want me, Tony? Here I am, Tony. I am all yours now, Tony, you see? I'm all yours now".  Gina however raises the gun and starts firing it at Tony randomly, who ducks out the way but he ends up taking a bullet in his thigh. Gina continues firing the gun and shouts "Come and get me. Come and get me. You do it now before it's too late. Come on, Tony. Fuck me! Fuck me! Come on and just fuck me!".  But....then I will say no more!

F. Murray Abraham is also excellent as Omar Suarez, Frank's devious henchman who clearly despises Tony from the start.

And for time I will only mention his first scene where Suarez meets with Tony and Manny and gives them a small paying job, which annoys Tony, so Suarez suggests an alternative to Tony, to attend a drug deal with Colombians.  So, Suarez says to Tony "Okay, all right, big man! You want to make some big bucks? Let's see how tough you are! There's a bunch of Colombians coming in Friday. New guys. They say they got two keys for us, for openers. Pure coke. Hotel in Miami Beach. I want you to go over there. If it's what they say, pay 'em and bring it back. Do that, you get $5,000!".  And before Suarez goes, he warns Tony "Be at Hector's Bodega at noon Friday. You get the buy money then. If anything happens to that buy money... my boss will stick your heads up your asses... faster than a rabbit gets fucked!" and drives off. 
 Paul Shenar does a great job as Sosa, Tony's business partner, who work well together at first but their relationship takes a nasty turn later on.

Shenar also has some good scenes that include the scene where he Sosa meets with Tony and Suarez at his mansion and they have lunch together. However, as Tony takes the lead in the business meeting, this annoys Suarez, so Sosa suggests that Suarez talk to Frank about the deal before they go ahead with it. So, as Suarez is lead out by Sosa's men toward a helicopter, Sosa stops Tony from going with him and they chat and it soon becomes apparent that Sosa has discovered info on Suarez.

So, in the scene Sosa says to Tony as they walk togther on the grounds of Sosa's mansion "I like you, Tony. There is no lying in you. Unfortunately, I don't feel the same about the rest of your organization".  Tony asks "What do you mean by that, Mr Sosa?" and Sosa explains "I'm talking about Omar Suarez" and Sosa points upward to a helicopter in the sky and Suarez gives Tony some binoculars and we see a bloody Suarez with a rope hung around his neck being goaded by Sosa's men.  Suarez tells Tony "This garbage was recognized by my associate at lunch... from several years ago in New York. He was an informer for the police. He put Vito Duval and Nello and Gino Ramos away for life". 

Tony then witnesses Sosa's men then push Suarez out of the helicopter and hang him from it, so Tony looks to Sosa who theateningly asks him "So how do I know you're not a chivato, too, Tony?".  Tony then tells Sosa that he never liked Suarez and all he has is his word and his balls and he "doesn't break em for nobody!".  So, Sosa takes a moment and says "I think you speak from the heart, Montana" and after some more discussion, Sosa finishes by saying to Tony "I think you and me, we can work this thing out... we do business together for a long time" but he warns him "Just remember... I'll only tell you one time... don't fuck me, Tony. Don't you ever try to fuck me". 

And last of all is the scene where after Tony bungles the hit he is supposed to carry out on a journalist, who is badmouthing Sosa in the press aswell as his business partners, which will now have dire repurcussions for Sosa and the others.  So, Sosa talks to Tony over the phone and asks him "What happened?" and Tony says "We had a little problem" and Sosa says "I heard" and Tony asks "How you hear that?" and Sosa, trying to calm himself says "Our friend gave a speech at the UN. He was not supposed to give that speech, Tony!". 

Tony then explains that Alberto didn't do what he asked him to, so he killed him, however Sosa is in no mood to listen and he angrily tells Tony "My partners and I are pissed off, Tony!".  Tony then says "That's okay.  We can do it next month" but Sosa tells Tony "No, Tony. You can't do that. They found what was under the car, Tony! Now, our friend has got security up the ass! And the heat is gonna come down hard on my partners and me... There's not gonna be a next time, you fucking dumb cocksucker! You blew it!"  Tony then says "Hey! Take it easy when you talk to me, okay?!".  Sosa however is furious at this point and he yells "I told you a long time ago, you fucking little monkey, not to fuck me!!!".  Tony then yells back "WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING TO????!!" and Sosa immediately hangs up. 

And last of all is Harris Yulin who is great as the corrupt cop, Mel Burnstein, who tries to shake down Tony and he has an excellent scene with Pacino where Tony has Frank killed and Mel is present at Frank's office, as he is working with Mel.

So, after Frank has been killed, Tony turns to Mel and says to him "Every dog has its day huh, Mel?" and Mel says "I told him. It didn't make any sense, clipping you when we had you working for us. He wouldn't listen. He got hot tonight, about the broad, you know? He fucked up". Tony however says to Mel "You too, Mel!  You fucked up" and Mel warns Tony "Don't go too far, Tony" and Tony says "I'm not, Mel. YOU are!" and he shoots him in the stomach.  Mel falls forward, clutching his stomach he gasps and says "You can't shoot a cop!" and Tony says "Whoever says you was one?" but Mel shouts "WAIT A MINUTE!!".  Mel then tries to catch his breath and he says "If you let me go, I'll fix this up" and Tony taunts Mel and says "Sure, Mel. Maybe you can hand out one of those first class tickets to the ressurection".  Mel, in disgust says "Fucking punk!  Son of a bitch!" and Tony stands up and aims his gun at Mel and says "So long, Mel. Have a good trip!" and Mel shouts his last words "FUCK YOU!!" and Tony shoots him dead. 

DIRECTOR, SCRIPT AND MUSIC

Moving onto the director, Brian De Palma does a terrific job here as well, as he provides a great mixture of drama, suspense and humour.  The action scenes in the film are superbly staged, and they are also quite tense, especially the scene where Tony is captured by the Colombians who are about to chainsaw him to death in a bathtub.  The scene where Tony also avoids getting assassinated in the nightclub is another tense well staged moment, as two hitman sit a table with uzis hidden under napkins, and a cocaine fuelled Tony barely notices until the last second.  And the final scene where Tony confronts Sosa's entire army as they storm his mansion is superb even if it is a bit over the top. 

Also, Oliver Stone, who at the time was as a screenwriter and this was prior to his directorial debut in Platoon, provides a richly well written screenplay with plenty of great dialogue.  Stone himself however at the time was struggling with his own addiction to cocaine, so this in some way is echoed in Tony's character.  And as I previously mentioned, it was at the time the most profane film ever made with over 200 uses of the word "fuck" (with probably over half of them delivered by Pacino!).

And before I finish I thought I would mention the memorable music score written by Giorgio Moroder, which is a mixture of sythensizer based music, and also reflects the new wave scene at the time in the 80s.  It also features several memorable songs which Moroder produced, such as "Push it to the limit" used in the montage scene where we see Tony rise in power, and songs used in the nightclub scenes such as "She's on fire" and "Shake it up". 

At times however, Mororder's score is a bit cheesy and melodramatic, especially in the tense close-up moments when we see Tony react to Gina flirting with a guy on the dancefloor in the club, and the synthesizer reaches fever pitch to reflect his rage.  Despite this though, this is still a pretty good score from Moroder overall even if it does sound a bit dated.   

FLAWS (Warning: this section may also contain spoilers!)

As for flaws....yeah well OK Scarface might have the odd one or two but nothing major.

And I'd have to say one of the very few issues I have with Scarface, is to do with the film's lengthy running time of almost three hours, as it just feels a bit too long and there undoubtedly some scenes that do feel a bit sluggish.  This is especially notable in the scenes where Tony picks up a new car for Elvira and also the scene where Tony goes to visit his mother and his sister, Gina as both these scenes feel pretty padded out, although second scene is more necessary as it sets up Gina meeting Manny later on and Tony's jealously and protectiveness of Gina.   

I also thought it was a bit bizzare that Tony didn't even realise in the climactic action sequence that Gina was actually dead, after we clearly see her gunned down by one of Sosa's men. Yet, Tony in the next scene sees Gina's dead body and he goes over to comfort her, talking to her but he clearly doesn't have a clue to the fact that she is dead!  Yet, Tony still carries on talking to her saying "I love you and Manny too" etc.  I mean the guy is pretty strung out on coke but even at that, you'd still think he realised that his sister is a goner! 

The final action sequence while it is a great over the top finish to the movie, it also is a bit silly in itself how Tony is taking multiple gunfire from about half a dozen of Sosa's men, yet he is still standing at this point!  Its like these guys have deliberately poor aim or rather they are just intentionally trying to aim at all of Tony's non-vital organs, just to stall for time so that Sosa's assassin can deliver the final fatal shot to Tony's back, which leads into the unintentionally hilarious moment where Tony falls face first into fountain below and a wave of blood splashes out of both sides of the fountain as he impacts it!  However, all that said, I find it still remarkable how Tony would be even able to have survived that hail of bullets in the first place!

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Scarface is to this day a great modern crime thriller and it far outstrips the original Scarface film from which it was loosely based, directed by Howard Hawks back in 1932.  And the script written by Oliver Stone has far more meaning to it as it reflects the Cuban mass immigration of the time into the United States. 

The film is also a perfect vehicle for Al Pacino's talents as he delivers an incredible performance as Tony Montana and he shows a man who is both psychotic but also charming at the same time.  Pacino is also ably supported by an excellent cast particularly Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfieffer and Robert Loggia, who all deliver strong performances.  And Brian De Palma's direction is terrific and he fills the film with his usual visual touches and it also features a memorable if at times, cheesy and dated sounding score by Giorgio Moroder.   

And after 35 years (yep its been that long!) this is still one of the great modern crime films and remains a must see and a film you can come back to time and time again.

Right, so that's it for now and I'll be back sometime soon with another post.

Till then, its bye for now!