HillysLastWalk said:In 2001, for a lot of people, maybe not, unless you were really into Poker before Moneymaker blew things up in 2003. Is that what you mean? Because it definitely is a classic (now). Love that movie. Of course, I have an extreme and maybe unhealthy love of playing NL Texas Hold Em' on a daily basis.
drleather2001 said:No it's not.
Not in 2001, not now.
Goodfellas is a good but overrated gangster movie
John Marzano Olympic Hero said:What is "overrated" about "Goodfellas"?
It's all subjective, yadda yadda yadda, but I think there's a gap between the perception of how great Goodfellas is among many movie goers (a top five movie all time according to main North American dudes aged 30-50) and where it is on a (rather pretentious) critic's list like the Sight & Sound poll, where it doesn't make the top 50.John Marzano Olympic Hero said:What is "overrated" about "Goodfellas"?
drleather2001 said:I mean, Rotten Tomatoes, for all its faults, has it at a 65% Fresh rating. It performed poorly at the box office ($22 Million) despite the star power of Damon and Norton. The Director never did anything notable again, which suggests to me that others in the industry question the film's quality (but there might be other issues there, admittedly).
"Casablanca", "The Godfather", "Jaws", ...."Rounders"?
Going from directing a movie with a $10 Million dollar budget (fifteen years ago), starring up and coming stars Matt Damon and Ed Norton, to directing individual episodes of tv shows, even very good TV shows, is a major step down in career progression. Jon Hamm and John Slattery direct episodes of Mad Men, for God's sake. If "Rounders" was this misunderstood-at-the-time tour de force that people are claiming it is, then he'd be directing movies right now.Zedia said:
I completely agree with you about everything else, but after looking up that guy's imdb, I have to say there's no shame in directing episodes of Breaking Bad, Homeland, Justified, The Americans, etc. I'd certainly rather watch any of them than Rounders.
John Marzano Olympic Hero said:What is "overrated" about "Goodfellas"?
HillysLastWalk said:I imagine you in real life as someone that looks exactly like your avatar. You smoke a pipe too, don't you?
Let us "every men" use our loosely defined "classic", while you rage in the coffee shops and book clubs!
HillysLastWalk said:I imagine you in real life as someone that looks exactly like your avatar. You smoke a pipe too, don't you?
It is viewed as some kind of pantheon movie based in large part on a few scenes and quotability, but as a film it isn't consistently better than say Casino, and to me is inferior to a movie like Raging Bull or Taxi Driver, and that is just within the same director's works. There is not a ton of great character development. That isn't to say Goodfellas isn't a very good movie, but it is often held up as a "great" or "all-time great" movie, it lacks both the depth and/or innovation to be that.John Marzano Olympic Hero said:What is "overrated" about "Goodfellas"?
epraz said:I still imagine him as Wesley Willis. Or am I making that up?
Van Everyman said:Casino is Scorsese rather consciously trying to rekindle the magic of Goodfellas -- Nick Pileggi, DeNiro/Pesci playing largely the same characters, a wise guy "it used to be great before it all went to shit" narrative. The only thing it has on Goodfellas is the casino stuff.
Believe me -- I was dying to see Casino when it came out, so this isn't me just being a curmudgeon. It's just not very good.
Ralphwiggum said:Goodfellas is probably a bit overhyped at this point, much the same way that the Godfather is, but I don't think that means either of them are not great movies (or depending on how you define the term, classics).
PC Drunken Friar said:The guy is living his god damn fantasy right now...and it wasn't handed to him! He is a bball guy thru and thru, always has been. And now he's ESPNs go to basketball guy? While being the brainchild for 30 for 30 and Granttand? He may go down as the most successful modern day sports writer.
He's got my props and I don't care of he is only doing the columns that are easy or that he likes. He deserves it
Reverend said:Goodfellas is great, but oddly, not for the reasons that many of its fans think. It's a prank on its audience. It taunts the notion that this is the good life. Like, they are big fish in shitty bars. They live large, but in a seedy life. It's quite brilliant, really. The culmination is them living large in prison--wow, home made gravy in prison!
It's not clear how much of the audience that loves this movie realizes that Scorsese is pissing all over this.
As for Rounders, we have qualifiers as in "cult classic" and "niche classic" for a reason. That doesn't mean the movie isn't enjoyable, but if you wan't "classic" to mean that, then we're going to need a new word for what "classic" used to denote.
But you think he was buddy/buddy with them back in 2001 when he first pimped the movie?Marciano490 said:Are you calling the Copa a shitty bar? It's the Copa, bro, the Copa!
Also, I'm disappointed that drleather hasn't noted that Simmons is apparently buddy buddy with the guys behind Rounders, has interviewed them in a couple of columns, and naturally wants to be fanboi #1 of a classic movie written by some of his very best Hollywood friends.
cromulence said:Yeah if I recall wasn't the origin of his "wet blanket girlfriend" concept the girl from Rounders? In fairness to him her character is so poorly written that she fits it perfectly. She exists in that movie as a walking buzzkill.
drleather2001 said:No it's not.
Not in 2001, not now.
It's an entertaining male-fantasy film with some well-known actors. The only people who still give a shit about "Rounders" are the people who happen to read Bill Simmons. Mentioning "Rounders" in the same sentence as "Goodfellas" in regards to being a "classic" is moronic. It's like saying Kevin Millar and Manny Ramirez are two of the best hitters of all time
ifmanis5 said:Getting back to Bill, after that really good PEDs article a few months back, what happened? Seems like he basically dropped the subject and went back to his day job of talking about the NBA. What happened to his promise of saying what's REALLY on his mind more often in written form?
Is this reference to Simmons' hissy fit when he left here?Nick Kaufman said:YOU RE WRONG.