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The Untouchables, a review by Jon

The Untouchables
5 out of 5



The critics and public agree Brian De Palma's THE UNTOUCHABLES is a must see masterpiece - a glorious, fierce larger-than-life depiction of the mob warlord who ruled Prohibition-era Chicago...and the law enforcer who vowed to bring him down. This classic confrontation between good and evil stars Kevin Costner as federal agent Eliot Ness, Robert De Niro as gangland kingpin Al Capone and Sean Connery as Malone, the cop who teaches Ness how to beat the mob: shoot fast and shoot first.


If The Untouchables was released today, chances are you’d ask what comic it was based on. A serious historical story, played with an exuberant panache for audacious entertainment, it is possibly Brian De Palma’s finest work, with him channelling cinema heritage to produce a modern Gangster movie, in the way L.A. Confidential would do for Film Noir ten or so years later.

You might accuse it of naivety, which would be fair in several respects, but it’s played so smoothly and without a shred of shame that you get swept up in the enthusiasm of setting a Western in Chicago and there are moments that are truly magnificent. This is old school cinema.

De Palma is being rude, really. He has at least three iconic moments in one film, which is just greedy! Not least the baby’s pram and the train station steps, which prove the magic of unpredictability in film. That scene was supposed to be a big train crash, but running low on cash, they needed a quick replacement. One tribute to Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin later and we have an exhilarating lesson in action cinema.

Everyone is well cast, with Kevin Costner finding a perfect role for his movie star image in Elliot Ness, Andy Garcia with the world at his feet before Godfather Part III (oops) and Charles Martin Smith having great fun as Wallace. He said to De Palma that he wanted to embody the audience. As a shotgun wielding accountant, whooping as he rides horseback into a gunfight on a bridge, he definitely did that! Sean Connery rounds out Ness’ Untouchables in his most memorable non-Bond role. He is fantastic and the best of the lot, despite his wavering accent! Of course, Robert De Niro was born to play Capone. The “baseball” scene at dinner is just incredible.

It is sporadically violent throughout and I miss this sort of Brian De Palma film because he demonstrates such old fashioned skill in building these set-pieces that the violence is never gratuitous. He balances the brutality with suspense to make Hitchcock proud. The station steps, again, are a perfect example of this. The way the pram wheels squeak, pulling our attention during Costner’s slow-mo gauntlet run is very clever.

The whole production is brought together by the brilliant Morricone score. Brilliant though the film is, the music is half the winning formula. The four Untouchables, striding into a post office on a liquor raid, brandishing shotguns, while the music swells like a fifth member of the team, is an abiding memory.

(From Jon's Alphabet Marathon 2010 on July 29th, 2010)

Superhero Movie, a review by addicted2comics

well, haven't posted in a while, but I got two more reviews for you all. First up:


The Plot: This is a spoof of superhero movies from the Marvel Universe, but none more than Spider-Man, or in this case, the Dragonfly. Thia also features the Fantastic Four and the X-Men spoofs, all intertwining to defeat the Hourglass.

My Thoughts: Superhero Movie, I have to admit was pretty funny. I know a lot of the jokes could be considered tired, but there are jokes in it that you know you caught yourself wondering while watching the other movies, like "That must be a really tall building if they are still falling" or "How can he see/breathe through that mask?" Still, I'm not a fan of this type of comedies as a whole, so that's pushing me away a little. I'll give it a 3.5 out of 5.

(From Addicted2comics(:P)'s Official Review Thread!!! on February 12th, 2010)

"Battlestar Galactica" Marathon (1978-2009), a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: After many yahren, the Galactica has finally discovered Earth. But Earth isn't the save heaven they had hoped for. They are technologically inferior and wouldn't survive a Cylon attack. Adama decides to send small teams down there to speed up Earth's development while he leads the fleet away from Earth since they are still followed by the Cylons. Troy (who was called Boxey when he was a child) and Dillon are being send to a country called "United States of America" where they want to meet with a leading nuclear scientist. And the local TV reporter Jamie Hamilton becomes their "tour guide".

My Opinion: And once again Los Angeles was destroyed by aliens - even though it was only a simulation. I liked this first episode of the series, it showed promise. To bad the bridge sets seemed to be destroyed. The new bridge looked far inferior to the old one, but I liked to see Colonel Boomer again. I had forgotten that another recurring character (besides Adama) from the old show reappeared in this show. I also like the new two-seated Vipers because I like Jamie and that gives her the chance to ride along.

Synopsis:My Opinion: The whole plot doesn't make much sense. Even if he could change the past, 36 years are clearly not enough to catapult Earth's technology forward in a way that it would be of any use in 1980. And even though the Nazis were the most advanced in regards to rocket science at this point in time I think it's very unlikely that the "Master Race" would be very open-minded towards a truly superior alien race.

Synopsis: Troy and Dillon can successfully sabotage the start of the V2 and it explodes shortly after launch. Xaviar is accused of being a spy and gets arrested but can escape, returns to his Viper and travels back to his own time. Jamie, Dillon and Troy follow him but lose his trail. After they successfully returned Jamie to California a new problem arises: The cloaking field has deactivated and made the Vipers visible. They are now in the hand of the US military and they need to get them back.

My Opinion: Even if the V2 test had worked (btw: the V2 tests started in 1942, in 1944 they were already mass-produced in slave labour), one year later a nuclear bomb over Europe would have still ended the war.
Also: They won't kill german soldiers because that would change the future but they free an entire train of Jews who were about to be brought to Auschwitz. Don't get me wrong: I don't critizise the break-out but then they might as well shoot the Germans.

Synopsis: After the Cylons have attacked and destroyed the fleet's school ship, Dillon and Troy have to evacuate 12 of the children down to Earth. There they disguise themselves as boy (and girl) scouts. Due to the higher gravity and the denser atmosphere in the fleet the children are stronger and faster as normal children of Earth. But that doesn't protect them from Earth's diseases and especially not from water that is poisoned by a chemical plant.

My Opinion: C'mon, gimme a break! Kids that jump 30 foot high? How high can Troy and Dillon jump? The Empire States Building? It's always a good idea to critizise how we treat our environment, but to shift the focus in a Sci-Fi show from their main protagonists to a bunch of kids who (of course) do childish things isn't a good idea.

Synopsis: Troy and Dillon have to care for three of their children who are very ill. But that's not their only problem. The military is after them because they detected the landing of the shuttle. The police is after them because they are accused of bank robbery. And the local workers are after them because they threaten the chemical plant.

My Opinion: And now a real "flying saucer", too. This ship looks nothing like a ship from the colonies. Why would they use such a design? No, these two episodes didn't work for me at all.

(From "Battlestar Galactica" Marathon (1978-2009) on April 19th, 2009)